Monday, January 28, 2008

Boca Beth Rocks in our House!

It's been a little over a month since we've gotten and used the Boca Beth program. It took me about 3 months to decide whether to purchase this program or not. It wasn't so much that I had doubts about the program. It was all ME. Oftentimes, I have to catch myself or else I'll buy up every Spanish learning book, cd, dvd, software or curriculum I come across.

I'm a Spanish learning product junkie!
LOL!

I had to decide if I should just try the program and buy one cd or dvd. Or, just go all out and buy the full backpack program. I decided to buy the full program because I had a plan in mind. I knew that I wanted to make my family's "Spanish Times" a little more interactive, productive, and cohesive. I knew that I wanted to create multimedia-type Spanish lessons for my girls--where we sing songs, we watch a show, we read a book, and do an activity all around the same topics.

So, Boca Beth's program fit the bill perfectly because her songs are about so many different topics. I wouldn't have to go on a scavenger hunt trying to find Spanish songs for colors, the opposites, the senses, time, days of the week, months of the year, animals (y mucho, mucho mas.)

Boca, your cd's and dvd's covered them all!

The first thing I played was the bonus music videos dvd. My girls loved it. They played with Boca the puppet and the maracas. In the video, "Movin' and Groovin'" Boca plays a little keyboard. We happen to have one too, and the girls love bringing it out for Boca to play. Our only disappointment was that the dvd was too short. Make more videos, Boca!!


The girls weren't as responsive to the "Animals" dvd, but they liked Boca Beth's class demonstration at the end. I appreciated that part too because it gave me an idea of what to do with my girls.

I must admit that at first I was a little critical. I told my husband that I hear more English than Spanish. He smiled at me, patted me on the back and said, "It's in there." He said that I needed to curb my expectations of total Spanish immersion where any English is a no-no.

He was right because the bottom line is--Are the girls learning Spanish from Boca Beth's program?--Yes, they are!

The other night I heard Jessie singing "¿Qué pasa? What's Happenin? No mucho. Not much. No mucho conmigo." And today, I casually asked my girls, "¿Qué pasa?" (without any singing or cues). Both girls paused for a bit and then Janai said, "No mucho." She went on to say, "No mucho means not much."

I'm very happy with my Boca Beth purchase. The program makes my lesson planning easier and more fun.

Check back often to see the Spanish lesson plans I post integrating the songs from Boca Beth and the many other Spanish resources we have, around topics and concepts commonly taught in early childhood.

¡Hasta luego!







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