Homeschoolers: After FastTrack, Accelerate!
The Speekee FastTrack program is a 40-week schedule of activities to complement Speekee Series 1 and as such it covers all the Spanish language presented therein.
FastTrack, ideal for 4-7 year olds, has long been a favourite of homeschoolers. One of the homeschool community's most respected members, Carisa of www.1plus1plus1equals1.net, says of FastTrack: "There's going to be NO putting it away, the kids LOVE it! Seriously, these two beg for the daily lessons."
Homeschooler Kimberly, based in New York, has been updating us about her daughter's progress with FastTrack since week 1, and she has just got to the end of the final week. At a later date we will post all of Kimberly's observations but in the meantime here's her last entry:
Week 40 - This week, my daughter and I wrapped up our amazing journey through Speekee. It is our last week at "La Fiesta." We watched a clip of the seasons and practiced using the Spanish terms, while Emily colored a picture of the 4 seasons that we found online. We also printed out a worksheet related to the birthday party clip. Emily watched the clip, then she put the scenes from the worksheet in the proper order. Next, we practiced the questions and answers included for each picture. To wrap up our lesson, we watched the video, "La Fiesta" once more. Just like the other videos in the series, it is a very engaging and well done lesson.
Emily and I have enjoyed our journey with Speekee. I am very impressed with the full-immersion video lessons and the 40 week Fast Track option, complete with worksheets and review exercises. I asked my daughter what some of her favorite activities were from the series. She mentioned enjoying the "What's in the Bag" games and also the time that we traced her body on cardboard, so that she could practice writing the Spanish terms for different body parts. Speekee has been a wonderful introduction to the beautiful Spanish language, both for me and for my daughter. I'd like to thank Jim for the opportunity to review this great program and for always being available and helpful along the way.
We have often been asked over the years, What next after FastTrack?
Well, just as Speekee Series 2 eventually followed Series 1, so we have been putting together a new homeschool program to tie in with that second series.
We've called it Speekee Accelerate. Accelerate is not strictly a follow on from FastTrack because it caters for the next age range (8-11 year olds) and those children may not have been through the FastTrack program. But its Spanish content is suitably more complex and that's why it will work well for your child to move on in Spanish once they have completed FastTrack.
We will be announcing the publication of Accelerate very soon. Anticipated launch - end September 2015.
Until next time readers, Jim
