R.E.A.L Homeschool Spanish

Shortly before Christmas my family and I were given the opportunity to review a Spanish curriculum created specifically for homeschoolers;

R.E.A.L Homeschool Spanish.

R.E.A.L is an acronym for   
Relax
Enjoy
Aspire
Learn Spanish

Dr. Karyn Williamson-Coria is the mastermind behind R.E.A.L Homeschool Spanish. As a homeschool mother of three children she was unable to find adequate time in her daily schedule to plan and prepare a way to teach her boys French, even though she was a French professor.  “Dr. Williamson-Cora invested in various computer-based programs hoping to ease her heavy prep time. After completion of various steps in these programs, she saw that her children were not able to communicate what they had just learned, nor were they sufficiently able to self direct their own learning.  She found that she would have to do these programs herself as part of her “prep” time in order to be able to guide them in their language learning. She was back to the predicament of not having the time. 
At the same time, she was giving Spanish classes to homeschoolers and was inspired when she observed how quickly they learned the material and how conducive the home environment was to be able to really practice the language. However, most material she could find for her classes were geared to classroom learning with large groups of students. Dr. Williamson-Cora decided to develop a program that enables the parents to learn along with their child, a program that was easy to use and would enable the home educator to help his/her children us the language as well as guide them in their language learning.
Dr. Williamson-Cora wanted a product with ideas to help her incorporate language learning into her daily routine (as opposed to a “classroom”) without taking up all her weekly or daily prep time.  She also wanted a product that could develop speaking ability. Most programs work on reading, writing, listening and punctuation, but not on using the language in a conversational and creative manner.  This program is built upon a conversational Spanish foundation. New material is always presented through speaking the language and soliciting responses from the children. As language is used through human contact in the real world, this program stresses the importance of interaction with others."

 

 The program is designed for the entire family to learn TOGETHER. It is currently geared toward elementary school grades K-8, but according to the website a high school supplement will be available soon.

The Homeschool Spanish program includes an instructional book, activity book, answer book, a curriculum guide, and audio files for corresponding instructional and activity book.

There are 10 units divided into smaller lessons. We are currently working on unit one.  We are taking our time and enjoy the program.

Unit 1
Greetings
How are you?
Unit 2
Colors
Numbers
More numbers
Telling time
Unit 3
Fruits and Vegetables
Meats and proteins
Carbs and deserts
Beverages, condiments, dairy and more
Grammar Tidbit: definite and indefinite articles, plurals
Unit 4
Family
Adjectives, possessive adjective singulars, de + el
Unit 5
Face
The body
Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns
Possessive adjective – plurals
Unit 6
Clothes
Weather and seasons
Months of the year
Unit 7
Places
Days of Week
The verb “to go” / ir
Transportation/Places
“ser” and “estar” (to be)
Unit 8
Animals
Nature
Unit 9
Sports
Comparison and Superlative
Unit 10
Verbs Part 1, 2, and 3
The house
Things in the house

The activity book is full of different worksheets that correspond with a specific unit; fill-in-the-blank dialogues, word searches, crossword puzzles, scrambled tiles, and more.  The activity book was a hit with my daughters, as they enjoy worksheets.

I think the curriculum guide is awesome, because it has all the lessons divided into 48 weeks, each week provides six days of preparation.  Everything is laid out and organized for me, which helps me to stay on task.  There are also tips and activities provided to help reinforce the learning; design a board game, create photo albums, hangman, puppet show, etc.

For those of us who have a hard time pronouncing some of the words, the audio files are great, because it allows you to hear the words and phrases pronounced correctly by a native speaker.

Here are a few samples you can download of the Table of Contents, Instructional Book, Activity Book, Audio Files, Ideas Section, Curriculum Guide, and free culture links.  

We are really enjoying this program and will continue with it till completion.

R.E.A.L Homeschool Spanish offers two ordering options. You can choose the download version for $49.95 or a hardcopy for $89.95. The Daily Curriculum Planning Guide is available for an additional $9.95. The Planning Guide is optional, but I highly recommend it.

Be sure to stop by the TOS Hub and read what my crewmates had to say about R.E.A.L Homeschool Spanish.

  I received the downloadable book bundle with the daily curriculum guide from R.E.A.L Homeschool Spanish free of cost in exchange for my honest review.