When this DVD set was offered to me by the lovely ladies over at The Parent Bloggers, I was excited. My older kids take Spanish in their schools, starting in preschool. In fact, come to think of it, my three year old is the only one this year who doesn't receive instruction in Spanish. So, right away, my kids know way more Spanish than I know. But, I really thought that they'd like the DVDs, maybe as a bit of reinforcement.
We received a set of seven discs - Basic words, Basic Phrases, Animals, Colors and Shapes, Food, Family and Alphabet and Numbers. Directed and produced by two moms who just happen to be sisters AND best friends, Kids Love Spanish falls a bit short of it's lofty goals. To begin with, it looks as if my fifteen year old son did the video work. The little song and dance routine - set to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star - was grating and annoying, and the dancing that went along with it embarrassed me. It didn't seem to bother my younger kids, but my older ones laughed their heads off. I ended up fast forwarding through the beginning and end of each subsequent showing. One other thing that struck us all as odd was that all of the songs were in English. My seven year old asked "Why not sing in Spanish?" Why not, indeed - I can't believe the songs that my preschooler comes home with, all in Spanish. It's definitely an easy way to learn for most of us.
My older kids were not big fans of this set. No matter which episode I tried, they were ready to turn it off by half way through. I finally clued in that what they didn't like was the repetition. I know that repetition is the best way to learn a language, but for my kids, it was boring. Maybe it was because they've learned most of the subjects covered in this set. One plus for this set was the multitude of different voices, repeating the words - it is neat to hear how different people pronounce the same word. My youngest child - she loved the videos and asked to watch them again and again. She doesn't speak much, so I don't know how much she's learned, but I'll bet it is more than I think.
If your child watches all seven DVDS in this set, and takes no Spanish in school, he will have a good foundation to continue later in life. The basic vocabulary covered is very similar to first year Spanish and the basic punctuation concepts are shown in the sentences, which gave my younger kids an opportunity to ask why the question mark or exclamation mark was inverted - something my older kids were delighted to explain to their uninformed mother. Hmmm, maybe I should be watching these DVDS?
For basic language acclimation and knowledge for children not exposed to daily Spanish lessons, I think that these DVDS would be exactly what you are looking for in a language teaching set. The concepts are clear and the pronunciation varied, which helps adjust the ear to nuances in daily speaking. The subjects are varied and the kids shown in the video appear to be enjoying themselves and make Spainsh seem like fun. Really, what more could you want?
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