Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids ~ Starter Set 1 ~ Review

Foreign Languages for Kids by Kids has introductory Spanish lessons for young children to teens. We were excited to try the Starter Set 1. We have another Spanish program and were interested in looking at another alternative.

This set is geared for preschool to teen. FL4K program does create an immersion approach by using videos and workbooks. The content can be comprehensible for most of those who have minimal exposure to Spanish. Children are featured and appear in a series of skits.  The children vary in ages up into the teens. Hannah learned many new words but she stated that it was not as interactive as some other Spanish programs. She didn’t like that she couldn’t speak it and know instantly if she was saying it correctly. She thought it was a little too childish for her age. In my opinion, videos were funny. The children said they didn’t know everything that was going on, but if they had watched them more times, I believe it would come to them.

For our review, we received three workbooks which they called it a FLK Airlines On Board Activity Books: “Basketballs aren’t for Breakfast,” “Little Magic House Part 1 and Part 2.”

The kit also included Guides for Teachers and Parents which gives you tips and instructions. These guides are a comprehensive curriculum guide with all the planning done for you. Flash cards and instructions for the game and Stickers of Spanish words. 

All dialog from children is completely in Spanish on the DVD. Most vocabulary is rather simple.  Skits have excessively emphasized particularly words and phrases which are repeated and corresponds with accompanied booklets.  

The DVD’s are about 45 minutes. My child watched the video straight throughout each segment and then reviewed the workbooks.  She watched segments over again after working with the workbooks and I reviewed her answers by using the key in the back of each booklet.  She played the Go Squish Card Game which helps them speak the words and learn about Latin American Geography. The game has two levels. In Level 1, players ask using only the Spanish words for their pair. In Level 2, players will add more Spanish words.  Player 1 using a word or picture card that is in their hand, states what word he has weather it is the picture or the word and then asks another player for the matching card. If Player 2 has the card either the word or the picture, she/he must answer and give Player 1 the card then they alternate.

Each segment concludes with a rapid visual review of the vocabulary words that have been introduced in that segment. The workbooks are brightly colored and engaging.  

We received the highly acclaimed stickers which the children enjoyed and made it fun! They are about 1.5 X 3, so easy to see, and we had fun seeing them around the house. 

This DVD/ Workbook set is colorful and professional. The approach is effective and the only thing that is missing is the interactive instant feedback. I like that the answers in the back of the workbook so that I could correct them as we went along.  If the company where to move the workbooks to digital format an automatic grading would be a nice addition. Then the children could watch the videos and say words along with the actors and the voice recognition could grade their pronunciation. 

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