Calico Spanish {review}

We received a free product for the purpose of writing this review. Our family only reviews items that we actually find valuable and are able to be 100% honest about regarding our experience. We received no monetary compensation for our opinion. Links contained in this post may direct to affiliate sites. 

Foreign language instruction can be intimidating. I say this with full homeschool street cred; my husband is the one who has taken on the task of helping our first three students fulfill that credit. His French skills have been transferred to– and expanded upon– by another generation. I’ve watched as Christopher has worked to lead our teens through the exercises necessary to help them grasp a new vocabulary and grammar, and I admit that I’ve been glad it’s him and not me handling that particular course. It’s a lot of work, from what I can tell.

That lot of work is what’s kept me from diving in to language instruction with my younger set. Aside from singing a handful of kids’ songs in other tongues and the Nepali phrases that are pretty much just second nature at this point, I just don’t have it in me to put the effort into a non-essential right now. But it’s good for them. It’s fun. It expands their understanding of other cultures. And John Mark has asked.

Yes. He’s asked. My Latino boy wants to learn Spanish. So, seriously … I need to get on the stick.

 

Enter Calico Spanish, an elementary curriculum with pre-planned lessons, video stories and songs, fun characters, and games. You don’t need to know a single word in Spanish to start teaching with Calico. Want to hear the best part? Your kids will love it– and they will learn.

 

This curriculum is so easy, so approachable, that I was able to work it into our daily learning during a season when my oldest daughter had just left for college, I had a newborn, my husband was traveling, and I was recovering from surgery. Is that a vote of confidence that anyone can pull this off, or what?

As someone whose knowledge of Spanish is limited to the very, very simple (if you ever meet anyone who needs a man to take a ball off of a table en español, I’m your girl), I was able to use the clearly-outlined daily plans to gather the needed items for the lesson, cue up the video, and be ready to teach. There was no scanning the night before to make sure I knew what was coming up. Calico is truly open and go, and I appreciate that.

 

Lessons feature memorable characters in immersion-style dialogues that even 2 year-old Simon was able to grasp. Utilizing favorite stuffed animals and other on-hand props as helpers, kids recreate stories and cement vocabulary while having fun. While this was a perfect fit for my group of learners, I think it would work equally well in homeschooling a single child. The spiral immersion makes it easy to feel like a master, too. Building new sentences comes naturally once you’ve memorized the scripts and are ready to try your wings just a bit.

 

 

As a homeschooler, I loved the focus on comprehension– no repeating robots here!– and the varied methods of instruction. My kids (from wiggly 7 year-old John Mark on down to distractible 2 year-old Simon) felt like there was always a new angle to the lessons, and didn’t tire of seeing the Calico materials come out despite the reputation necessary to make a new language stick. We also enjoyed the included game ideas, and my crew was inspired to create their own, as well. This is not a video curriculum where you park your kids in front of a screen and walk away, hoping they glean something of value. This is multi-sensory learning.

 

We tested Level A, whose focus includes learning to:

• greet someone
• tell their names
• identify and describe things using colos and numbers
• tell how old they are
• identify a fish
• begin to identify the days of the week
• tell you something about themselves
• describe the size of something as large or small
• describe themselves as large, small, and/or smart
• tell you something they like to do
• identify a monkey
• describe themselves using basic adjectives
• tell you whether they like things including activities, foods, and colors

Calico offers a free lesson with access to full content for 10 days for you to see if the program is a good fit for you. Level A in digital format retails for $89.99, and the Deluxe edition (with print materials) $149.99. If you’re looking for a gentle, fun, engaging method of foreign language instruction that folds naturally into your homeschool day, look at Calico!