Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am a former public school Spanish teacher (certified PK-12, with 9 years of experience teaching grades K,1,7, and 8, plus adult education, and some prior high school level experience in a supportive position). I am certified English Foreign Language. And, I have personal experience studying 6 different foreign languages. I assure you, you will do well to avoid this program. How this curriculum has so many awards, I cannot comprehend. All you have to do to understand my disappointment in this curriculum is to open a typical book and workbook made for grades K-3, which is the largest portion of the k-5 range for the product, (suggestion for comparison: Singapore Math or All About Reading-since this is teaching children of equivalent grade to read in the first language of the Spanish curriculum) to clearly see the disconnect. The curriculum is listed as a 4 semester course for grades k-5. The scope of material consists of some vocabulary, and the grammatical material covered in high school Spanish 1 and part of Spanish 2. The textbook is, at best, appropriate for 8th grade, but it is presented in a style that would boggle even many college students' minds. The textbook looks like the entire selection of font styles, font colors, font sizes, highlight options, and a clip art bundle were used on each page. There are more word angles and background colors on a page than I have ever seen in a published foreign language text for ANY GRADE LEVEL, let alone for elementary. The font is generally very small, far too small for k-3. There is more content on one page than high school textbooks include on one page. And, ignoring the visual presentation, the material is presented through long, truly ridiculous explanations that overcomplicate things as simple as the alphabet and color vocabulary. Halfway through the book, you are into grammar intricatces that lower elementary students have not been taught in English yet. There appear to be no activities in the textbook aside from scripted conversations to read aloud. Topping it off, there are editing errors that include partially covered words and misspelling ("Santa Clause” for example). Put simply; it is bad, really, really bad. The workbooks are tightly filled to the edge with a messy display of dark greyscale pictures, words and parts of words in a multitude of angles, and more. The amount on a single page would be nothing short of overwhelming for the average elementary student. The 4 workbooks are approximately eighty pages (front and back). Twenty of those pages are "flash cards" of varying sizes, to be cut out of the paper. Those flash cards are in addition to the multiple packets of color flashcards of varying size that included in the bundle. Flashcards in the style provided in the workbooks are not useful for young elementary. They are strictly word based or are word heavy at minimum. The activities in the workbooks essentially have you write the vocabulary repeatedly on lines that would be small for the fine motor skill of a 7th grader, two years beyond the stated range of the curriculum. A kindergartener would have to have fine motor skills of a 12 year old, in addition to the intellectual capacity of a middle schooler in order to do the activities, let alone successfully with retention. The only thing that works on grade level is at least one of the songs (judging by a Youtube video that the author sent in one of her self-aggrandizing emails of her colors song as I did not open the CD package in order to not void the return policy). It’s not the best ever, it is simply the colors sung over Frere Jacques. But, that IS developmentally appropriate for elementary and a proven method for retention! That being said, you can find countless other songs of equal value by other makers on youtube. This crammed packed, visually disturbing curriculum, is not developmentally appropriate for the stated age range. I do not recommend it. If you purchase this product directly from the author via her website like I did, and request a refund as per their instructions for the guarantee (without any critique aside from being disappointed with the material) you will subjected to one sided phone calls, multiple self-aggrandizing emails, and no refund being assured; forcing you to file a credit card dispute to stop payment for the curriculum while you mail it back. **Note: the pictures were all turned "right side up" but it appears as though the upload process turned them.