An honest review of Llamitas Primaria Baja Curriculum by Mama Llama Linguist
Summertime can often mean a break from Spanish learning for dual language students like my own three kids. This summer, however, we decided to keep up our academic Spanish learning by trying out the Llamitas Spanish Curriculum! For parents like me who are raising bilingual and biliterate children, prioritizing bilingual education is essential.
Whether it’s a dual language school, supplemental learning, or homeschooling – a thorough Spanish curriculum is the best start. As parents, we want to ensure that our bilingual kids are engaging in Spanish learning opportunities. And for me, I want those learning activities to be a positive, fun, and sustainable experience for all of us!
Enter Llamitas Spanish – a curriculum for young children designed to fill a need for authentic, relevant, and interactive Spanish learning at home. With beautiful illustrations, enriching music and stories, and bilingual instructions, this open-and-go curriculum could be a huge asset to your bilingual family!
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Llamitas Spanish
The Llamitas Spanish Curriculum is a labor of love expertly crafted by Corrie Wiik of Mama Llama Linguist. I’ve known Corrie for several years now and greatly appreciate her devoted work to teach little ones to love the Spanish language. She and I have definitely bonded over our shared passions for Spanish, education, and bilingual parenting!
Corrie has led a diverse team of educators and artists from across the United States, Latin America, and Europe to design a beautiful and engaging Spanish curriculum for children. It is robust, rooted in Hispanic culture, and explores a variety of content areas.
Llamitas has three levels so far – a preschool morning binder, Level 1 for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten learners, and Level 2 for 1st through 3rd graders. My own children are 5, 8, and 11 and we are utilizing the Level 2 curriculum. Llamitas includes both English and Spanish instructions for both native and non-native Spanish speaking parents.
Related post: Why Choose Bilingual Education for Your Child?
Curriculum Features
Now let me tell you about the features we love most about Llamitas Spanish. We absolutely adore thematic learning because it connects all of our learning around one topic! Llamitas Level 2 is intentionally divided into six enticing thematic units:
- Animales nocturnos (Nocturnal Animals)
- Los pájaros (Birds)
- El clima (Weather)
- El medioambiente (The Environment)
- El cuerpo (The Body)
- La ciudad (The City)
The units start with clear, articulated learning goals that cover a variety of content areas: literacy (reading and writing) skills, math, music, art, and more! I appreciate that there are options for diverse learners – activities like creating related art projects, utilizing writing prompts, and putting stories back in order. You’ll also love the included supplemental learning support – like a related video, a story read aloud, and entertaining music tracks!
What’s more, Llamitas is incredibly well organized. It is definitely user friendly, with easy-to-read instructions in BOTH English and Spanish. You truly open and go when you’re ready for Spanish learning time! The pages of the curriculum are filled with colorful pictures, and clear fonts for both parents and children. My favorite part of the graphic organization is that there are different colors to make it easy to find the English and the Spanish scripts (blue for Spanish and purple for English).
Finally, I have to point out the very helpful repetition of songs and activities. Repeating previously learned activities helps solidify learning and build confidence with new skills. My own kids appreciated the sweet songs we played again and again!
Related post: Our Favorite Spanish Music
Antología & Music
Our favorite piece of our Llamitas curriculum is the Antología! The separate anthology book includes six folktales from Latin America and Spain – one that pairs with each curriculum unit. I appreciate the care taken in selecting and writing these culturally rich folktales. And my kids adore the absolutely gorgeous, vibrant illustrations! Our favorite is “El tlacuache y el coyote” from the first unit, Nocturnal Animals, about a cunning opposum who outsmarts a foolish coyote.
Also included in the Level 2 curriculum is a lovely set of music tracks to engage your learner! Simply open up your child’s student login and access fun songs to start and end your lessons, and to coordinate with each unit’s thematic learning. We have so many favorites, like “Diez pajaritos” by the amazing 123 Andrés and Nathalia Palis (Los pájaros unit), and “La cucaracha” by Daria (Animales nocturnos unit).
As a mama and teacher who loves having Spanish music on all day, trust me, you’ll enjoy the music selections provided for each unit! You and your child will be singing and dancing along to some new Spanish music favorites.
We also received a set of bilingual readers as a bonus with our curriculum. They’ve been such a great addition to our daily reading time – and of course connect to what we’re learning in each unit! They are short, 7 page stories for beginning readers with one sentence and watercolor illustrations on each page.
Related post: Creating a Spanish Immersion Environment at Home
Choosing Your Curriculum
Whether you’re looking to increase your child’s Spanish language input at home, homeschool with a robust curriculum, or learn Spanish alongside your child, I hope you’ll try out Llamitas Spanish. Again, Llamitas includes three levels – the Preschool Morning Binder, Level 1, and Level 2.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to try out this beautiful curriculum, and I hope this review can help you decide whether Llamitas would be the best fit for your family! Head to the Llamitas Spanish Curriculum Shop to read more, discover parent testimonials, and find out what Llamitas has to offer. If you decide to go for it, get 10% off with code BILINGUALBALANCE.
Llamitas Spanish Curriculum was gifted to our family, and I’m thrilled to be able to share my honest opinion a bilingual teacher and mama. You can trust that I only share quality resources my own family uses and recommends!
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