Excelerate SPANISH Streaming from Excelerate SPANISH: A TOS Crew Review

Excelerate SPANISH Streaming from Excelerate SPANISH



Excelerate SPANISH Streaming from Excelerate SPANISH is as online streaming subscription that gives your family access to -

• Spanish 1 - 24 lessons 
• Spanish 2 - 24 lessons 

Designed for ages 7-17 (or even adults) each lesson is around 30-50 minutes. The subscription gives  access for a year, and you can repeat lessons anytime. Optional workbooks are available. Take a peek at this video to see how it works:

.

This video based program uses recorded classroom style lessons that incorporate fun hand gestures, complete action sequences, student skits, and stories taught by Caryn Hommel - author and homeschool mom with years of experience teaching ESL.

A student workbook is available to reinforce and expand the language learning from the videos. We were not given it as part of our review - but the program can be used without it.

Vocabulary review and practice (including flashcards, games and quizzes) are available for FREE on the Quizlet website.  The website also offers a variety of helpful links and resources you can use alongside the video lessons.

Each video lesson begins with the introduction of vocabulary.  Words are written on the white board, pronounced clearly, and the definition is given a unique gesture that is used to help the students recall the meaning.  This is part of the Total Physical Response (TPR) teaching that has shown to be a very effective tool in learning foreign languages.  Students learn advanced vocabulary from the very first lesson.  My testers have each had several years of Spanish instruction, so they were able to jump right in and keep learning.

This program teaches Spanish vocabulary in context with a story and questions.  New vocabulary is introduced in a logical sequence.  This helps students naturally learn the language and how to use it in real life situations.  My testers liked learning words that could really be used in situations that they may encounter, not just the basics of common greetings, what is your name, etc.  I feel like this is because they already had those basic skills already, it may be harder for a complete newbie.

The instructor, Caryn Hommel models the vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar usage directly to the students in a fun, lighthearted style with plenty of humor included.

Each lesson covers a LARGE amount of vocabulary at a fast pace, so it was hard to master it with just one viewing, and no written workbook to refer to.  I highly encourage having your students write it down as they watch.


Additionally, the recorded lessons use live students participating in the class to demonstrate the new Spanish words, phrases, and sentences in small, entertaining skits that they act out.  My testers enjoyed watching this, but commented that they felt like the audience, and not a participant - one of the down sides of watching a class. Getting them to stand up and do the motions along with the class felt forced, and they did not enjoy it.

I liked that all my students can use the program together.  It was nice to see them interacting, and hearing their giggles when I could get them moving.  This may be a great option for really active learners.

If you are looking for an independent learning option, this program is a good fit as well.  You do not need to know Spanish, in fact - you can learn alongside them.

Overall, Excelerate SPANISH offers solid instruction and your students will learn to hear the language spoken correctly - a big benefit over a dull textbook any day!


Find Excelerate SPANISH on Social Media:


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExcelerateSPANISH/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarynPowellHomm
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caryn3360/


Hashtags:  #hsreviews #spanish #onlinespanish #homeschoolSpanish #homeschool #foreignlanguage #worldlanguage

See what other members of the Crew thought here

IXL Learning: A TOS Crew Review

IXL Learning


We are so excited to tell you about IXL Learning!  We have been enjoying the Full Annual Membership in all subjects - Math, Language Arts, Science (grades 2-8), Social Studies (grades 2-8) and Spanish.  We have been long time fans of this online, comprehensive learning program (read our past review) and are impressed with how the program has developed!

Let me tell you how this amazing program works.  It's entirely online, with lessons for grades Prek-12 in core subjects, including Spanish learning.  IXL isn't core curriculum, but a very valuable supplement to your studies for review and mastery. This is truly unique to find a program that can work with all my children.  My three testers love it - grades 4,5 and 7.

It's very easy to use, simply set up your family profile and create a unique avatar and secret word for each student.  I love that it is one easy login for all of us!  Here is a quick peek at ours -

Here is where the program gets truly amazing.  IXL has 2 main sections - Analytics and Learning.  Inside Analytics - you can use the diagnostic tools to determine exactly where your student should start, or you can pick and choose what skills and topics you want to work on, even across the grade levels!  This is the perfect tool for pinpointing and developing the skills your student needs most.

Inside the Analytics section,  you can see your student's usage at a glance.

Monitor their progress and improvement.

Even get detailed information on the types of questions your student needs help with.

As a parent, the Analytic section is my favorite.  I can keep up with what each of them is learning, and I'm just a geek for graphs ;-)  In addition, I get weekly progress emails delivered in my inbox.

The main section of IXL is the Learning. When your student logs into their account, they immediately see program recommendations, base on their past use.  But, your student can also choose what skills they want to work on.

For my testers, we set up a weekly schedule with Math and Language arts practice each day, and Social Studies, Science and Spanish three days a week.  My testers were so excited -they did all this with ZERO complaining!  They even asked to do more than I had scheduled...win for mom!

Here is a quick peek at what the lessons are included.  Your child can work in any grade level or by topic.  The program allows you to sort the skills either way, so you can jump around to skills they need most.  The amount of lessons included is mind-boggling. 

I like to give my testers the opportunity to select the skills they want to practice.  Of course, they go right away to things they have mastered...shhh, don't tell them we call it "review".  But, frequently, I will assign a particular lesson that needs more attention.

So let's look at a lesson.  Each lesson pinpoints a particular skill.  Your students answers the questions, and the program keeps track of progress. The adaptive technology adjusts questions to your student's progress.  Meaning, when they get a question wrong, it will be reintroduced until they master it.  Immediate feedback is given for correct and incorrect answers.  Incorrect answers include an explanation for the student.

All the lessons are aligned to your state standards too.

As each skill is mastered, your student earns rewards.  This is hands-down the favorite part of the program for my testers!  Who knew online stickers, and collections could be such positive rewards?

Math rewards look like this -

A checkerboard with stickers that are uncovered as your student masters skills.  So simple, but so effective. My testers will work extra time just to see them.  Rewards are given for mastery, number of questions answered, and time spent.  I like that all my testers can earn rewards, even if they are struggling for mastery.

Language Arts rewards are collections.  What child doesn't like collecting?  Here's ours -

You can also print out certificates for you student, either as a record of what they have accomplished, or as a reward.

We are huge fans of IX.  It is so easy to use, and my testers give it a hearty six thumbs up!





Find IXL Learning on Social Media:

Facebook: facebook.com/IXL
Twitter: twitter.com/IXLLearning
Pinterest: pinterest.com/IXL
YouTube: youtube.com/IXL

Hashtags: #hsreviews #ixl #iloveixl

See what other members of the Crew thought here

High School Spanish I from : A Homeschool Crew Review

High School Spanish I  from Middlebury Interactive Languages

High school means learning foreign languages (at least 2 years for most college admissions...).  We have been enjoying a new approach this year - High School Spanish I  from Middlebury Interactive Languages.
This is an online program for grades 9-12 that targets four key language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students are introduced via an immersion approach to vocabulary themes, grammar concepts, sentence structure and even culture through detailed online instruction, guided learning and progressing at their own pace. 

There are 36 units in Spanish I.  Each unit is further divided into 5 lessons.  This is an easy-to-use program, it even keeps track of progress and begins where your student left off.  They can access lessons via the Table of Contents or a Calendar screen.  The program also automatically grades all their exercises/quizzes and creates a printable record for you.  So easy!
The program is designed for your student to work completely independently,  a very good thing for our high school students.  Best of all, there is NO PREP for mom!  Your student does NOT need any previous Spanish to jump right in and begin learning.  Online access is available 24/7 to learn at their own pace.
My tester is in 10th grade.  He was a bit skeptical at first... but, after just a few lessons, he was hooked.  One of his favorite parts of this program is the variety and repetition. 
Lessons involve all areas of learning a new language.  Lessons that require listening, reading, writing and even speaking  (you do need a microphone for this) include: 

• matching exercises
• fill-in-the blanks
• listening to an audio and answering the questions
• typing sentences
• reading passages, and more.

 The exercises help with correct pronunciation, and my tester is getting a chance to practice his accent by speaking into the microphone.  (He claims the program advances, no matter what he says...)
The culture sections are very informative, and interesting.  This area uses multimedia, and video presentations.  He has been learning about Mexico - food, landmarks, and even the quincenera (15th birthday celebration).  One of our issues was with accents and tildes (Spanish punctuation) our keyboard didn't have the correct options, so he would get those incorrect.  
By accessing the "Gradebook" I can see his progress and grades on all his exercises and quizzes. This has been our most user friendly approach to high school foreign languages.  
Middlebury offers K-12 language courses in 4 languages.  Be sure to check out the 

• Spanish Courses
•  French Courses
• German Courses
•  Chinese Courses

Find Middlebury Interactive Languages on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Middlebury-Interactive-Languages-141015515949753/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiddInteractive   @middinteractive

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/middinteractive/

Hashtags: #hsreviews #foreignlanguage #bilingualism #languagestudy

Read what other members of the Crew thought here

Spanish Starter Set 1 from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids: A TOS Crew Review

  Spanish Starter Set 1 from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids
Learning Spanish is a goal for the Bentz Test Academy.  We have been loving the Spanish Starter Set 1 from Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids!  This is a very easy to use, immersion-style program that will have your kids speaking and understanding conversational Spanish in no time.  We were fortunate to get the Starter Set 1, which includes:

• DVD with videos for Levels 1-3
• Three Parent-Teacher Guides which sets out a detailed lesson plan, with a suggested viewing schedule and a variety of fun, supplemental and hands on activities to choose from to reinforce the material taught in the videos.
• Flashcards and Card Games for Levels 1 to 3
• Workbooks for Levels 1-3
• Stickers for Levels 1-3

My testers were rather reluctant to watch a video...but, that did NOT last long.  The videos are extremely engaging.  They are only kids (no adults allowed...you never see mama!)  The videos follow a family through their day.  No English is spoken, only Spanish.

 The vocabulary words appear on screen, sometimes as a label, other times on a t-shirt. The words are taught by repetition and the kids showing what the Spanish words mean.  Even my youngest tester was able to pick up unfamiliar words this way.  Each video includes a "Rapid Review" at the end, where the vocabulary is reinforced.  We used this to shout it out and see who could get it right first.  My testers were all elementary ages, but the program could work with all ages.

My testers loved watching the videos and I was amazed by how much they picked up, even on the first time through!  The video segments are around 15 minutes each. You can view a sample video here.

 The Set include Parent-Teacher Guides will tell you exactly how to use this program and break it down into short lessons for a 20 week curriculum.   In addition to watching the video and rapid review, the lessons include vocabulary, geography, games, workbook pages and "gust of grammar" (helpful Spanish grammar lessons).

The Student Workbook is full color and features fun activities like word searches, scrambles, secret codes and more.  I minored in Spanish during college, and I was completely impressed with the amount of Spanish that is presented in these workbooks...and - it was fun too!

The Flashcards have the vocabulary word on a card, and a picture (from the videos) on another.  You can use these in many ways.  My testers like to put them all down and play "memory match" with them.  You can use them for review too.  Games like "Go Squish" (like Go Fish) use the flashcards in games that my testers loved playing.

The set also comes with stickers that you can use to label the items around your home.

This is a super fun way to introduce Spanish, and don't be surprised when "Tengo hambre" and "No me gusta" start coming out at the dinner table!

Be sure to check out Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids on Facebook!

Hashtags: #hsreviews #foreignlanguage #homeschoolspanish

See what other members of the Crew thought here

 

Have a Fiesta of Fun!

I absolutely LOVE La Clase Divertida - the Fun Class Spanish!

We have been using this program over and over, since the beginning.  This is not a sponsored product review - I actually purchased this one way back in the early years of homeschooling... and we're still big fans! I just can't not tell you about it!

One of the best parts of this video based program, is the crafts and cooking.  Since, this wasn't our first rodeo with Level one,  we decided to save the crafts for a "Fiesta of Fun" and have a craft day...instead of messes all semester long (here's where you can see I've been homeschooling awhile...messes can make me crazy!)

My sweet little hijas had a blast creating - and I only had to clean up once :-)  Senior Gamache, the teacher - makes it all very easy for you.  Everything you need to complete the crafts comes in each student kit.

There are 3 levels available.  My children have learned a ton of spanish, and had fun too!

 When you get yours...tell Senior Gamache I sent you!  (I'm his top selling, volunteer salesperson at homeschool conventions :-)