My Spanish printables are easily the most popular here on Joy Focused Learning. So when I got the opportunity to review
Speekee, I jumped at the chance. I love reviewing products that I think will appeal to my readers. If you aren't familiar with Speekee, this online, subscription based program incorporates games and videos to help children learn Spanish.
For children under seven, Speekee offers the FastTrack program. The FastTrack program focuses on the first ten Speekee videos and suggested activities. It does not directly utilize gaming aspect. For children seven and older, they offer the Speekee Spanish Challenge. This program utilizes all forty videos as well as mission based game play. Speekee tracks your child's progress for you and sends you updates via e-mail. Since C just turned six, we focused on the FastTrack program.
Speekee FastTrack
For Kids 7 and Under
You will find the FastTrack(subscription required) at the very bottom of the screen. The FastTrack includes a week by week guide. The guide tells you which video to watch that week, it also gives you suggested activities to accompany the video. One of the first activities was to make Dino and Lupe sock puppets. Dino and Lupe are characters in the videos. C loved this! She thinks both of the characters are funny because of their voices. So, we used a couple of Daddy's socks and my craft supplies and made our very own Dino and Lupe!
The Videos
I have to admit, when I first saw the Speekee character, I didn't think I would like the videos. I thought they would be too cheesy for me. I was wrong. The songs are catchy and the kids are adorable! I ended up enjoying the videos a lot. I was especially excited to hear C singing the songs she had heard throughout the day. When trying to teach kids Spanish it is incredibly important to make the words memorable. That is exactly what Speekee has done!
Speekee Spanish Challenge
While I didn't use the Speekee Spanish Challenge, I did play around a bit with the interface. I think that 7+ year olds will find it engaging. I love that they share the top scorer of the previous day at the top of the screen. It makes doing your best very motivating.
All in all, I really enjoy what Speekee has to offer. I felt like both programs were age appropriate and effective. My one complaint is the scrolling banner at the top. It adjusts with to announce how players are interacting with the site. (ex. joyfocusedlearning has signed in) They have a similar set up when kids rate the videos. So on the video screen you have the video, the banner and the ratings all going at once. Kids probably really enjoying seeing their username on the screen. However, for those of us without super fast internet, it proved a little bit too much to have a video playing, the ever changing banner and the votes on the side all going at once. I had a few problems with videos getting stuck. If we had a faster internet it may have not been a problem but I felt it was worth mentioning.
A Speekee Giveaway!
I'm thrilled that one of my readers is going to win a 3 month subscription! This will be a great opportunity for you to give Speekee a try and decide if it is a good fit for your family. Enter using the widget below and good luck!
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using
Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
