Spanish for you! one week in

So, I am using Spanish for you! conversaciones this year with Bee (7th grade) and Bug (3rd grade).  I have bought a couple of other Spanish programs in the past that have not worked out for us.  Bee has done very well in previous years with online Spanish lessons via Skype using Homeschool Spanish Academy, but we are taking a temporary break from that, in the interests of not having too much stuff scheduled.  I highly recommend the program though.

So, we went through Week 1 of our Spanish for You! program.  It was wonderful.  It has 4 days written for each week, which is perfect.  If I am able to do Spanish all five days in a week, I can easily add a game or enrichment activity on Friday.

Each day, I read aloud a short toddler-level book in Spanish.  I have a small library of Spanish toddler books for our homeschool.  I tried to pick ones that contained vocabulary appropriate to our unit.  We also sang "the eensy weensy spider" in Spanish each day.  Bee already knows this song well, and Bug learned it.  Dot loved watching it each day.  We'll continue singing it and add another one next week.

In the past I have always gone overboard, wanting to read multiple books a day.  I tried last year doing 3 songs a month, but learning them all at once.  I think it's much easier to learn one song a week and then review ones learned in the past.  If we learn a longer song, we might take multiple weeks to learn all verses.

I made some adaptations to the worksheets.  Bee filled one out completely, but another we did orally.  This is better practice in some ways anyway.  For Bug, we mostly did it orally.  I had him do some journal work where he illustrated Spanish sentences from his worksheet.  We also adapted the vocabulary games as needed.

Bee was capable of going through his vocabulary cards on his own.  Bug needs me to do it with him, and to do it in such a way that he doesn't feel pressured.  He can be very perfectionist.  The "te gusta" activity suggested by the program worked well.

One thing I didn't like is that the way I received the files was rather cumbersome, and I have all these folders of extracted files.  They are a bit annoying to go through.  But it works.

The 3rd and 4th grade level of our unit has 30 activities, while the 7th and 8th grade level moves a little faster, with 24 activities.  I think I will just extend Bee's program a little, so that he stays on the same chapter as his brother.  I have plenty of games, books, and activities at the house that can provide some enrichment for him.  This is not a complaint about the program, just an observation that a little adaptation may be needed when doing 2 levels at once. 

I am happy and excited about the unit we are doing "conversaciones."  I have even learned some playground words that I did not know.  Both Bee and Bug are retaining their new words, and I'm overall very impressed with the program.  I am a high-intermediate Spanish speaker, and it is working well for me.  I really like the structure and all of the ideas for fun activities.