No Work Spanish!

I’ve included Spanish instruction off and on in our homeschool for years. Unfortunately, Spanish is one subject that is easy to push aside. We have a variety of Spanish curriculums, games, videos, cd’s, etc. My goal for Emily (and for my other children at her age) is to expose her to the language and have her pick up some of it.  I’m not necessarily trying to earn credits or require her to master a curriculum at this point. I really prefer more natural learning. My older children all took Spanish in high school and found it easy because of their prior exposure. Because Emily is from Guatemala, I think it is even more important for her to learn Spanish because of the cultural connection.

I was excited to have the opportunity through Mama Buzz to review “No-Work Spanish audiobooks.” The concept fits right in with my desire for “natural” learning and, of course, “no-work” sounds great, too! Emily loves to listen to books on tape, so she was excited to try them out.

Two books are currently available at No Work Spanish, with a third title out soon. We received both Yaks March on Washington and Poster Girl. Each of these engaging stories is read in both English and Spanish. A sentence is first read in English, then repeated in Spanish. Then the chapter is repeated in Spanish only.

We listened to Yaks March on Washington  twice.  I found myself able to understand much of the Spanish if I concentrated and Emily could pick out a few words. She really laughed at the voices and sound effects made by the narrator. Then we listened to Poster Girl. Emily enjoyed this particular story more and told me that she could understand most of the Spanish! Poster Girl is a fun story for kids that reminds me of the Beverly Cleary books that we have always loved. I appreciated that Poster Girl began each chapter with a list of vocabulary words to listen for.

I just pop the cd in the player whenever we’re in the car. Emily asks to hear them and I have high hopes that this program will help to improve both our Spanish abilities. We will probably purchase the next cd (The Case of the Missing Poodle) when it comes out.

You can buy No-Work Spanish as a  CD or MP3 download at noworkspanish.com ($14.95-$17.96), Amazon ($8.99-$17.96) and CDBaby ($9.99).

You may also connect with No-Work Spanish on Facebook.

This was a Mama Buzz review. I received free review copies of these CD’s from No-Work Spanish.