Speekee

Hola Speekee, Dino y Lupi.  Son marionetas hablan Español sus niños.




Hello Speekee, Dino, and Lupi.  They will be the puppets that speak Spanish to your children.
They join with Jim, and a handful of Spanish children to make learning fun!

Speekee is a Spanish Language program targeted to teach children ages 2-10.  It is produced by Lingua4 LTD in the United Kingdom.   It is available in a boxed DVD set, or (and my personal favorite) online as Speekee TV.  In either version, you receive 10 separate 18 minute videos, completely in Spanish. 

These videos are colorful, and engaging.  They are filled with music and easy to learn songs.  They are subtitled in both English and Spanish, so not only does your child hear Spanish, they can learn to read it as well.
Speekee TV offers worksheets that coincide with every lesson, that are instantly downloadable in PDF format.  It also contains lots of hints to help parents reinforce the language skills the child(ren) are learning.

It will give your child a working base of conversational Spanish. They will learn, colors, beverages,foods,  hot, cold, numbers, common location names, names of different vehicles, and much, much more.  Having spent some time this summer in Mexico, I personally could have used this video system before going... it would have helped me remember some of the Spanish I took in High School!

How we used Speekee:

In our house, Speekee was asked for most often by my 3 year old.  He has the cutest lisp, and can't say half of his consonants correctly in English.... so to hear him ask to watch this program was amusing.  He can't quite say Hola correctly...  so... he made his own word for it....  Ooo-Ah....  so he would come to me, about 6 times a day asking to watch "Ooo-Ah Spee-tee".

Hunter, who is 8, also sat in on the videos.  At first he thought them a bit babyish, but I knew he was hooked after I caught him singing the "Donde vamos" song, while he was getting ready for bed one night. 

This is usually what it looked like when we would watch......

 Then you have to pan back and see who else is sneaking in to watch..........

VERY often... I caught the big two (15 and 16 ) lingering around the computer, being a shoulder lizard to their younger siblings, while they were watching.  Yes, they sang the songs too......  they are catchy.... it is impossible not to sing them....

I would say that by far, the person in our homeschool who benefited the most from the Speekee TV language program would be Jeremiah, the three year old.  Simply because he was the most entranced.  He didn't see it as learning at all.  To him it was a show.... he just sang along and talked back to it.  If you say to him " ¿Cómo te llamas?"  He will answer you...  "Soy Jeremiah."  This week (after 3 consistent weeks of watching) he has begun to ask us how to say other words around the house in Spanish.  His repetition of the words spoken on screen, has also increased.

I personally have enough knowledge of Spanish, to get myself into some serious trouble were I left alone in a Spanish speaking country.  I can understand all of what they are saying on the video, and a bit more conversationally.  With this...  ( admittedly lousy ability...) I can ask a few questions of the kids through out the day, and conversationally reinforce the topic that they watched.  The big kids try to answer me in Spanish ( going to Mexico made them, and me, a bit braver ), the younger children comprehend my question that is asked in Spanish, but they still answer me in English.  I think if they watched and practiced with these videos, their confidence would increase over time.

How Do I get Speekee?:

The Boxed Set  of DVD's is available for  £95.00.  (Roughly $150.00)  It comes with a 70 page guide, 4 DVDs, and a 34 track CD.  I am sure there would be shipping costs also.

The easier option, for those of us that live outside the UK, would be to visit  www.speekee.co.uk/index.php  and order the Speekee TV subscription.  It is available instantly for only $7.50 a month.  There is no minimum amount of months to purchase.  Go HERE to get a free 2 week trial!  According to a Twitter update that I read on the website contact page.... you can even use your Wii to watch Speekee!

This is a great way to introduce Spanish, without needing to commit to some of the more costly programs that are on the market.  You could use this as a summer learning program, or over holiday breaks to keep the momentum of learning going. 

As always, opinions on products may vary, so...... please don't forget to check out some of the many reviews done by my fellow TOS Homeschool Crewmates, and see how they used Speekee in their homes.

and for now...I will just say....
Adiós, Adiós......Adiós mi amigos, Adiós...




**** the legal stuff****
As a member of the TOS Homeschool Review Crew, I was given access to the Speekee TV Spanish Language curricula, online for one month, for the purpose of this review.  No other compensation has been received.