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Kids! Spanish Buenos dias, amigo. Bien venidas a Kids Spanish. Prepare to jump in with both feet because from now on you will hear only Spanish. Not even one word of English. I was skeptical at first, but Kids Spanish is so simple even an adult can play it with ease. And it is loaded with fun graphics and sound effects kids will love. Bug-eyed monsters are everywhere. There are five levels of play, and each level has its own helpful monster. The Level one monster, which looks like a giant rose colored octopus, helps with colors, numbers from 0 to 10, shapes, fruit, farm animals, face parts, and things you'll find outdoors. Level two's green two headed monster helps with the alphabet, hot and cold, articles of clothing, vegetables, multi-colors, and things you'll find in a bedroom. In Level three you meet a monster who seems to be only face - with three eyes and big red lips. In level three you'll learn body parts, transportation, hard and soft, zoo animals, things you find in school, and table settings. (Have you noticed it's getting harder?) With the help of the level four monster, who looks kind of like a bug eyed Grover from Sesame Street, you'll learn counting from 11 to 25, seasons, sports, different occupations, animal body parts, things you find in a living room, and "what are they doing." Finally, in level 5 a big green scaly lizard will teach you days of the week, telling time, names of family members, common expressions, things found in the bathroom, nature bingo, and my favorite, jumping, where you learn how to say jumping out a window, from a tree, over water, etc.. Kids Spanish is kid friendly and easy to use. Just click on a difficulty level, then click on a picture category icon to learn the Spanish names for the items in that category. You can click on an item as many times as you want to hear it repeated over and over again. And if you have access to a microphone you can record yourself, comparing your pronunciation to that of the computer. The great thing about Kids Spanish is you don't just hear the Spanish word for red or blue or green. You hear the Spanish equivalent of "the ball is green," or "the ball is red." It's like getting two for the price of one! And each level builds on the words learned in previous levels so that by level 5 you'll be saying such things as "the mother's birthday is on Wednesday," and "The grandmother's birthday is on Saturday." Once you've got the items etched in memory it's time to play a game. In the course of play you'll put puzzles together, play bingo, tic-tac-toe, connect the dots, and lots of other fun activities. And there's loads of positive reinforcement along the way. When you guess right you'll hear "magnifico, excelente, bueno" or some other congratulatory phrase. And if you guess wrong the computer will say (in Spanish, of course) something like "No, that is the green ball. Show me the red ball," and you'll be given an opportunity to try again. But Kid's Spanish knows that kids need more than that to keep them entertained so when you pick the right answer not only are you congratulated, but depending on the category, animal's eyes bug out, apples fall off a tree, people scream, hair stands on end, a monster brushes his teeth, birds squawk, elephants trumpet, bears growl, and lots of other fun things happen. Kids Spanish makes learning a new language fun. In no time at all your child will be speaking like a native. It's a keeper. |