Title: Speekee TV
Vendor: Speekee
Target Ages: ages 2-10
Format: online
Price: $7.50 per month, with the first 2 weeks free
Speekee TV is the online version of Speekee's language immersion program. This program is a spiral learning program in which each episode builds on the previous one. This program is Castilian Spanish. It is the Spanish language that is spoken in Spain. The video episodes are filmed in Spain with real Spanish people ... and a few puppets. The program includes worksheets that accompany each episode and also gives ideas for parents to use to extend the learning.
The Queen's Overall Assessment:
These videos received a mixed reaction at our house. At first, everyone was excited to receive a Spanish language program for review. The videos were engaging and the tunes were quite catchy. I would often catch the prince and princess singing them as they played. I would catch the tunes running through my head as well.
After we got to watching them, I'm not sure that they were such a great fit for us. Each video comes with subtitles of what the Spanish words are and what the English words are. It was difficult to hear the words and read them at the same time. Some words were not on the screen long enough for me to read them. I know that part of immersion language is that you learn by experiencing it. I'm not sure that it worked for us. Anytime that the princess heard the Spanish words for "and you?", she would reply "My name is (the princess)" -- whether that was the proper response or not. She was, however, the child who would spend the most time watching the videos. I think her attachment was to the very cute puppets and catchy tunes.
The prince would watch the videos and participate, but didn't seem as drawn to them as the princess was.
I haven't decided if this is a product that we will continue to use. It is Castilian Spanish and that isn't a language that is used much around here. While some will argue about dialects and nuances of language, I think that learning the Spanish spoken in Latin American would be more helpful for our purposes.
Speekee also offers a DVD version of this program. Should you choose to buy these videos, keep in mind that Speekee is a European company. You will need to make sure that your DVD player is PAL-compatible to play these DVDs.
Other Homeschool Crew Members reviewed this product. Be sure to find out what they thought at The Homeschool Crew Blog.
Price: $7.50 per month, with the first 2 weeks free
Speekee TV is the online version of Speekee's language immersion program. This program is a spiral learning program in which each episode builds on the previous one. This program is Castilian Spanish. It is the Spanish language that is spoken in Spain. The video episodes are filmed in Spain with real Spanish people ... and a few puppets. The program includes worksheets that accompany each episode and also gives ideas for parents to use to extend the learning.
The Queen's Overall Assessment:
These videos received a mixed reaction at our house. At first, everyone was excited to receive a Spanish language program for review. The videos were engaging and the tunes were quite catchy. I would often catch the prince and princess singing them as they played. I would catch the tunes running through my head as well.
After we got to watching them, I'm not sure that they were such a great fit for us. Each video comes with subtitles of what the Spanish words are and what the English words are. It was difficult to hear the words and read them at the same time. Some words were not on the screen long enough for me to read them. I know that part of immersion language is that you learn by experiencing it. I'm not sure that it worked for us. Anytime that the princess heard the Spanish words for "and you?", she would reply "My name is (the princess)" -- whether that was the proper response or not. She was, however, the child who would spend the most time watching the videos. I think her attachment was to the very cute puppets and catchy tunes.
The prince would watch the videos and participate, but didn't seem as drawn to them as the princess was.
I haven't decided if this is a product that we will continue to use. It is Castilian Spanish and that isn't a language that is used much around here. While some will argue about dialects and nuances of language, I think that learning the Spanish spoken in Latin American would be more helpful for our purposes.
Speekee also offers a DVD version of this program. Should you choose to buy these videos, keep in mind that Speekee is a European company. You will need to make sure that your DVD player is PAL-compatible to play these DVDs.
Other Homeschool Crew Members reviewed this product. Be sure to find out what they thought at The Homeschool Crew Blog.
Disclaimer: This was a review of my experience with the product described. I tried to give a complete and honest assessment. In order to review the product, I received a free trial of the program with no additional compensation. This in no way influenced my review of the product. The opinions expressed are my own and were not affected or edited by anyone prior to publishing.
The grass is green. It’s good to be
Friday, January 21, 2011
January 21, 2011 at 12:14 PM
You can turn the subtitles off by clicking the black CC-Closed Caption box in the upper right of the video screen. ;) I had to turn it off so my 9yo would pay attention to the spoken spanish instead of the english...LOL.