Discover Spanish - Review and Giveaway!

Earlier this school year, I found a program called "Discover Spanish".  My nine year old was taking Spanish classes for homeschoolers, and I was interested in an online program that would supplement her learning.    The people at Discover Spanish graciously offered me a subscription to their online program in return for a review of their product.  After a year of using the program, I'd like to report to you on what we thought, as well as offer one lucky reader a subscription to Discover Spanish!

The creators of Discover Spanish describe the program as :

"The original language learning system that makes use of a building block approach
to teach practical conversational skills. Immerse yourself in 36 interactive
lessons that are fast, fun, and easy!"

Discover Spanish can be used a stand alone curriculum, or as a supplement.   It is designed for ages 9-99 and is equal to two years of Middle School Spanish or one year of High School Spanish.   If you have a visual learner, this will be just the thing for learning Spanish!   The lessons are engaging, and you can practice skills as many times as you want, with immediate feedback.

 

Each lesson is a real-life application (The House, The Family Picnic, Pets, etc...) with different themes going with each lesson.   We liked that it was conversational, and my daughter took part in real-life conversations with Johnny Spanish.  

I encourage you to visit the Discover Spanish website to fully explore the program, and even try a demo lesson for free!    

A one year subscription is $54.95, and then you can also download their podcasts to your .mp3 player to review on the go.    Discover Spanish suggests just 15 minutes a day with the program to be on your way to learning Spanish.  

Our impressions:

• We were so happy to be able to use this program.   This program, in addition to my daughter's Spanish lessons, gave her a very good introduction to the language.   I do believe it would benefit her even more if she was just a little bit older.   
• The quick pace of the lessons and short amount of time required were great!
• The additional podcasts can reinforce learning and can be listened to to any time, anywhere.  

The creators of Discover Spanish are giving away a one year subscription to their program to one lucky reader.    This contest will be open until Thursday, June 16 at 8 p.m.  Please be sure to leave a valid email address or way for me to contact you in the comments section!  

Ways to enter:

1. Become a follower of Homegrown Learners on GFC (or tell me if you already follow) and comment.
2. Tweet this giveaway and leave the link in the comments.
3. Visit Language Treks (Discover Spanish) on FB and like them, leaving me a comment.
4. Follow Discover Spanish on Twitter, leaving me a comment.
5. Try the free online sample lesson, and leave me your impressions in a comment.  

Good luck!

Disclosure: Our family was given a free trial of this product for review purposes. We received no compensation from it and all opinions and experiences within this review are expressly ours. 

Storyvalues Interactive - Folk Tales for Your Children Giveaway!

There is a  WONDERFUL GIVEAWAY for one lucky winner today!    I have been looking forward to this day for several weeks, because I get to tell you about a program my children have been using - Storyvalues Interactive.      You know that we love all things technology in our home, so when I was approached to review this program I was very interested.  


Storyvalues is, quite simply, online telling of folktales.  

"Storyvalues is a modern expression of the ancient tradition of storytelling."

"Storyvalues allows children to interact with stories, see and hear examples of art and music from around the world and participate in creative activities that promote personal expression and problem solving."

Currently the program offers 15 folktales from all over the world, which your child can watch on the computer.  (Each year Storyvalues will be adding 10 additional stories, with 100 interactive stories in 5 years.)   Once the story is over, the child can click on the interactive story page to learn more about the story, including music, art, language, dance and culture.  The home screen looks like this... 

we went immediately to Europe, because we are studying Greece right now.   A wonderful folktale, "The Barber's Secret" popped up and my children were on their way!

The storyteller was interesting, and what I especially liked is that the stories weren't cartoon-ish!    My children had to LISTEN to the story - they were not entertained by a huge graphic display, which I appreciated, as we are developing our "twaddle-free" environment!    Storyvalues allowed my children to have some time (without me) to continue learning important things about our current history unit.  Computer time was meaningful and productive, and they looked forward to it each day.  

On Storyvalues, you can 1) play the recorded story, 2) explore the interactive web page and 3) use follow up materials (which included art slides, musical instrument sounds and much more!)  Being a music teacher, I was interested in the musical instruments, which were all authentic sounds, and can be heard during the story telling.   Very nice!  

You can best see what Storyvalues is about by watching their video.  

Storyvalues can be purchased by an indiviual homeschool family, or by several families together.    It might even be a good idea for a homeschool co-op to purchase.   Detailed pricing options can be found here.  

I see Storyvalues as being a wonderful supplement to our history program ~ for the price you get many quality stories, and with more to come it's even better.   And, did I mention that Storyvalues is fully functional on the iPad?  That is a major selling point for our house!  

One lucky Homegrown Learners' reader will win a Storyvalues License  - valued at $65.00!!

This giveaway lasts until tomorrow at 8 p.m.!    To enter: 

•  leave me a comment and tell me how you would use this in your homeschool.   
• visit Storyvalues on Facebook and like their page and leave me a comment
• watch the video I linked to above and tell me what you think is the best part about Storyvalues
• Tweet this giveaway, and leave me a comment telling me you did so.  

Good luck!!

This post is linked with the Giveaway Day at Hip Homeschool Moms.

*I have been given a license to this product by Storyvalues  Interactive.  I am not compensated to provide opinions on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owner's. If I claim or appear to be an expert on a certain topic or product or service area, I will only endorse products or services that I believe, based on my  expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

Win a Fabulous App!

If you've been reading my blog for some time, you know we love all things Mac! We own an iMac, iPad, and my husband and I each have iPhones. I have seen firsthand how this technology benefits our children. Recently, I was approached by Mobad Games to offer insight on a storybook app called The Penelope Rose.

The Penelope Rose is "a magical fairytale of how roses were saved and fairies became the artists of the winged world". It is an interactive, 3-D storybook which amazed me from the time I first played with the app!

You can view it on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iTouch. Children can choose whether they want to be read to, or if they want to read the story themselves. If they choose to be read to, they can also tap (or click) on individual words to hear them spoken alone. On each storybook page there are fun things to do with the characters and scenery. As each new page loads, a hint is given onscreen about what is to come, or another neat feature you can access in the app. The app is sold for $6.99 in the App store.

We have a lot of apps on our iPad, and this is BY FAR the best storybook app we have seen. Both of my children enjoyed it very much! The creators of this app at Mobad Games also offer Highlights apps - which I think we'll be checking out soon.

Here's a video so you can take a peek!

Mobad games will award a free download code to one lucky entrant on my blog! I will announce a winner Thursday evening at 9 p.m., so you have all day Wednesday and Thursday to enter. *Remember: this app only works on Macs, iPhones, iPads, and iTouch.

Here's how to enter:

1. Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect and leave me a comment.

2. Like Homegrown Learners on Facebook and leave me a comment.

3. Watch the video above - leave me a comment telling me why you think you would like the app, The Penelope Rose.

4. Tweet this giveaway and leave me a comment.