In this post: Tips for how to teach Spanish in your homeschool co-op. Plus how to pick a Llamitas Spanish curriculum level.
Do you want to introduce Spanish in your homeschool co-op?
With Llamitas Spanish you don’t have to be a Spanish teacher to teach our lessons! With open-and-go scripted lessons we make facilitating our Spanish curriculum lessons easy.
Find everything you need to know about starting Spanish in your homeschool co-op right here!
Table of Contents
Why Start a Spanish Curriculum in your Co-op?
Many homeschooling families want to add a foreign language to their child’s education. Figuring out how to do this though, can be intimidating if you aren’t a foreign language teacher.
Having one or two leaders in your homeschool co-op take the lead with introducing Spanish can make this easy! Everyone in your group can enjoy the benefits of learning a second language without the daunting task of searching for appropriate materials on their own.
Here are a few more reasons to begin a homeschool Spanish curriculum in your co-op:
1. Research shows that starting a foreign language at a young age (from birth to age 10) is best. Starting Spanish lessons early can only be an advantage.
2. After English, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the United States. It’s also one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Being able to communicate with people all over the world will give your students so many advantages in the future.
3. Spanish is also considered one of the easiest languages for native English speakers to learn. That’s because it’s closely related to English and has similar grammar and vocabulary.
Related post: Why Raise Bilingual Kids? 10 Benefits of Bilingualism
Teach Spanish in your Co-op with Ease
Now that you’ve decided to start Spanish in your co-op, what’s next?
First, you’ll need to find an appropriate homeschool Spanish curriculum that suits all of your needs. This will be key to your (and your students’) success.
And if you’re worried because you don’t speak Spanish yourself, we’ve got great news: You don’t need to speak Spanish to teach it to your homeschool students!
Our Llamitas Spanish Curriculum for the early years makes teaching Spanish so easy. Previous experience with Spanish is not a requirement. In fact, many homeschool group leaders with limited Spanish are already using our homeschool Spanish curriculum for co-ops.
For all of our lessons and materials, you’ll have the support of bilingual teacher scripts—you choose whether to read the lesson instructions in English or Spanish.
Your students will still learn and complete all of the same Spanish lessons and gain just as much from them whether you can speak Spanish or not.
Our curriculum also includes native speaker audio to support you, so your students will learn the correct pronunciation of authentic Spanish.
Related post: Dual Language Homeschool Education
Llamitas Spanish Curriculum Activities: What to Expect
With Llamitas Spanish, you’ll be provided with everything you need to teach Spanish in your homeschool co-op. There’s no need to go out searching for additional materials or activities—just open your book and go!
Llamitas Spanish uses a thematic, cross-curricular approach to teaching Spanish to kids. This means they’ll be learning Spanish in the context of subjects like:
- Literacy & phonics
- Math
- Social and cultural studies
- Science
- Music
- Art
Your students won’t just be learning grammar with our Spanish curriculum, but they’ll actually be able to apply it to different subject areas. Fun games, activities, and songs will enrich their learning experience in a very age-appropriate way that not all Spanish curricula for kids offer.
Like other homeschool Spanish programs, there will be “bookwork” involved—this will guide you and your students through each lesson and make things easier on you. However, the activities and lessons throughout our curriculum are always fun and interactive.
Expect lots of vocabulary practice through songs, movement games, crafts, and stories with this wholesome curriculum!
Related post:70+ Useful Spanish Homeschool Phrases
How to Pick a Curriculum Level
To get started with Llamitas Spanish, you’ll first need to choose from our tiered course levels currently available: Primer: Preschool Morning Binder, Level 1 Curriculum and Level 2 Curriculum.
Primer Curriculum
Our Preschool Morning Binder provides a great first step for Preschoolers, or those students not quite ready for a formal curriculum.
With short lessons lasting 15 minutes and easy-to-use printables, your child will learn first concepts in Spanish such as the alphabet, counting 1-20, shapes and colors.
In addition, there are daily printables to practice weather, calendar and feelings!
Level 1 Curriculum
If you’re just getting started teaching Spanish in your co-op, you’ll most likely start with Level 1.
Our Llamitas Spanish Level 1 Curriculum is a comprehensive beginner Spanish curriculum that’s perfect for kids. Students will gain Spanish foundations for kindergarten and up, such as:
- Phonics and spelling: Letter recognition, letter sounds, syllables, and decoding words.
- Early math skills: Counting up to 100, classifying, identifying patterns, and addition and subtraction.
- Literacy skills: Listening comprehension, reading, sequencing, and reciting nursery rhymes.
- Fine motor skills: Cutting, coloring, crafts, recipes, and Hispanic art studies.
- Music and movement: Vocabulary games and songs, and nursery rhymes.
Plus, all of our lessons are thematic, allowing students to dive into subjects like space, farms, oceans, and other fascinating topics for kids!
However, if your students already know some Spanish, you might consider our Llamitas Spanish Level 2 Curriculum, designed for intermediate Spanish learners and grades 1-3.
Note: If your homeschoolers are in grades 1-3 but don’t have any Spanish experience, they will need to start at Level 1. But don’t worry—although Level 1 is a great Spanish curriculum for kindergarten, it’s flexible and perfect for older elementary age students too!
Level 2 Curriculum
In our Level 2 curriculum, students will dive even deeper into subjects including:
- Phonics and spelling: Syllables, diphthongs, CCVC patterns, and sentence structure.
- Lower elementary math: Telling time, classifying and comparing larger numbers, addition and subtraction, units of measurement, counting money, reading graphs, fractions, and shapes.
- Reading and literature: Building reading fluency and an understanding of grammar through our authentic Latin American and Spanish folklore anthology, with beautiful illustrations and audio-video stories included.
- Music, movement, and art: Traditional Spanish songs, art studies, crafts, recipes, and yoga.
- Social studies: Appreciate Hispanic culture by learning about important historical figures, architecture, history, geography, and more.
Just like Level 1, our Level 2 curriculum will provide your homeschoolers with an authentic, thematic approach to learning Spanish that they will love!
If you still aren’t sure which level is right for your co-op, you can take our placement quiz and answer for the majority of kids.
Extended Teacher Licenses
Depending on the size of your homeschool co-op and the number of teachers, you may need to purchase an extended license.
Normally, when you purchase one of our Llamitas Spanish Curriculum courses, you are agreeing to our personal use only terms. This means that legally you are only permitted to use the materials within your own household and in small classes of up to 10 students.
A standard Llamitas Spanish Curriculum order allows one teacher to have access to all of the digital lesson PDFs in our course platform, and you may make up to ten copies for your students.
However, if you’d like to grant access to the materials to more teachers or more than 10 students, you’ll need to purchase an extended license.
You can review our different license tiers for 10+ students or more than one teacher here.
How to Place a Bulk Order
If you’d like to have more than two print copies of our textbook for your co-op, feel free to contact us to request a quote for a bulk order.
While you always have the option to make copies of our lessons for your students, we understand that sometimes it’s easier to have a textbook for each student.
To do this, you just need to make a bulk order. For an accurate quote, be sure to provide us with the course level, the number of students, and the mailing address.
How to Find a Homeschool Co-op
Are you looking for a homeschool co-op in your area?
Homeschool cooperatives and homeschool groups are an invaluable resource for home educators.
Not only do they provide your kids with opportunities for socialization, enrichment activities, clubs, and field trips, but they give homeschooling parents a way to make connections, learn from each other, share resources, and more.
While you might be able to find a homeschool co-op through your church, homeschooling friends, or maybe even your local library, sometimes this can be difficult—especially if you’re new to the area or new to homeschooling altogether.
Here are some resources that can help you find a homeschool co-op near you:
Time4Learning: This homeschooling website has lists of local homeschool groups and co-ops organized by state (along with many other great resources for how to start homeschooling in your state).
The Homeschool Mom: Another awesome resource, you can easily find co-ops in your state here. I love how quick it is to find your state, and the city the co-op is located in is clearly labeled as well.
Homeschool.com: This website has a fairly comprehensive list of homeschool co-ops by state. They include links to the groups’ websites and/or Facebook page plus addresses and contact information when available.
Home School Legal Defense Action (HSLDA): Here, you can search by zip code and keyword to find a homeschool group near you, which I find super convenient. It also gives you an idea of the group size, ages, and how often they meet.
Additionally, you can look on Facebook or a homeschooling site specific to your state—these are often great resources for finding homeschool groups.
Wherever you’re at, Llamitas Spanish is here to support you on your Spanish homeschooling journey, so don’t hesitate to reach out!
Lydia is a freelance parenting and education writer. She previously taught English as a second language and enjoys sharing her love of language learning with her children.