Whitzlefritz - TOS Review

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

My parents are missionaries to Nicaragua and my mom speaks pretty fluent Spanish. I've always wanted my children to learn Spanish, but since I don't know very much myself it was hard to decide where to begin. This past month we have been learning Spanish with Whitzlefritz Educator's Spanish Collection!

Whitzlefritz is a language immersion program. This means that your child will learn Spanish by hearing it spoken without any translation. In the videos and on the CDs, the important words are repeated many times. Your child will pick up on these words and begin connecting the English picture with the Spanish word. Language immersion works best if your child is an environment where two languages are spoken daily, but using this program is a great alternative. They also offer a French curriculum.

Included in the Educator's Spanish Collection that I received are:

• Spanish Lesson Plans for Kids - a paperback book with 40 lessons and 277 pages. This book includes activity-based lessons, such as making puppets, playing games, and using flashcards.
• Spanish for Kids Videos - a collection of five DVDs with Spanish and English subtitles. These videos are colorful, entertaining, and full of Spanish vocabulary.
• Spanish for Kids Music - these Spanish songs are lively and fun.
• Memory Matching Cards - 50 memory cards with Spanish words and illustrations

They have a Parent Translation Guide available on their website for parents or instructors that don't know Spanish (me!). This is just a written guide, though. I had to look up pronunciations of several of the Spanish words using Google. You can also access the Home Educator's Guide for free, which includes 56 pages of daily open and go lesson plans for homeschoolers. This Guide includes a schedule for the videos, music, everyday review, and bonus activities. We preferred using the Lesson Plans for Kids book instead.

This Collection is geared toward ages 1-7, but I used this with my nine- and eleven-year-old sons. Since they are above the recommended age range, we had to adjust some of the activities. They thought the videos were a bit "babyish", refusing to watch them without laughing and goofing off. I had to sit with them so they would pay attention! Even though they were being silly while watching, they picked up more vocabulary than they realized! Trying to "mock" the characters, they were using Spanish words and phrases. 

Just a note - the videos are well done! They're fun, quick-paced, and colorful. The English subtitles are helpful, but the lady speaks so quickly (which is normal for Spanish!) that it's hard to connect the subtitles with the dialogue. If my boys were a bit younger, these videos would have quickly become favorites around here. I do have a three-year-old, and he would watch several minutes of the DVDs when they were on. I think in a year or two, he will be interested in Fritzi and the other characters.

In the Lesson Plans for Kids, which we used for our main lessons, there are several different features. Each lesson includes a lesson description, telling you what you will be learning in this lesson, along with a goal and objective. It also tells you which vocabulary words you will be learning and any supplies or materials that are needed for the activities.

The activities have a focus - which words and phrases you need to concentrate on. There is also a dialogue for you to use with your students/children, including the English and Spanish words. I used the English words since it was easier for us to follow. Guided practice includes demonstrations of the new Spanish vocabulary by asking your child questions and using the Spanish words. Independent practice follows with your children practicing what they've learned. There are also fun extension activities to extend the learning and fun!

We didn't follow the lesson plans exactly (do I ever?), but we did loosely use them as a guide. Considering I don't speak fluent Spanish, I was learning right along with my boys. I'm pleased to say that they have successfully learning their colors and the numbers 1-10, along with Spanish greetings - how to say their name and ask for yours, and to ask how you are doing and respond in kind.

We modified a few of the games to the boy's abilities. One game had us color and cut out presents that were numbered 1-10. The boys took turns drawing a card and naming the color and number in Spanish. They really had fun with that and repeated the activity at least three times! 

We also took the "game board" templates in the book and modified that to another activity. The boys took turns counting the presents in each box in Spanish and then finding that number and placing it on the box. This really helped with learning the numbers!

For learning colors, I had the boys make flashcards by writing the Spanish color word in that color. That helped them connect the word with the color. Then I wrote the color words in gray and had them match counting bears to the cards.

We watched several of the DVDs and listened the music CDs. It was fun when the boys realized they could pick out a few words that were being said! They picked up more than I thought they would over the course of this review.

I plan to continue using this program the way I am now - by picking the activities that I know will work for my boys and modifying the ones I think will be beneficial. I have put on the DVDs as background noise while the kids were playing or doing other things. I think the exposure to the Spanish language very effective. This is a well-thought out and put-together Spanish program, especially for younger children. The suggested age range of 1-7 is probably spot on, although younger children would have difficulty with some of the activities. Click the banner below to see what the other reviewers thought of Whitzlefritz!