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Predictable readers have long been a boon to beginning readers, helping to reinforce beginning reading skills. What a natural aid for youngsters to begin study of a foreign language! Eight episodes use over 200 predictable words to help young children build competence and confidence in a new language. Each will reinforce previously learned vocabulary and phrasing, and introduce new words. We have carried this product for several years, and it has been recently improved with audio CDs instead of cassettes, and attractive new covers. The review sample we received was the first adventure, The Missing Cat. It is obvious how the predictable format of this story would quickly help children assimilate the language and get a feel for basic grammatical construction. The focus on conversational language gives children a feel for real-life speech in another language. Another plus here is the incorporation, in smaller italic print, of the English translation of the story. In this first reader children learn greeting words, foods, numbers 1-10, rooms in a house, days of the week, family names, colors and more, all in the context of a high-interest story. The accompanying audio CD, which tells the story with both male and female parts and realistic sound effects, helps children pronounce words correctly. The CD also features eight lively songs that correlate with the theme of the book. Lyrics are included in the book if you want to sing along. Available in four languages – three for English learners learning a new language, and one for Spanish-speaking students learning English. 64 pgs; hc.

Customer Review

 
Teresa D. from Round Rock, Texas wrote the following on 07/17/2009:
Although I have studied 5 languages and know 2 fluently, when I began to plan actually teaching my own children a foreign language, I was a little intimidated. However, Adventures with Nicholas by Berlitz Kids made beginning a foreign language extremely easy and fun, for my kids and myself. My kindergartener and second grader went through these books together so they could practice speaking with each other. It was really easy to use it with both of the kids, and it was really helpful that they were learning the same material. All the experts say that when learning a new language, it should be for at least “15 minutes a day” and this series gave us an easy way to accomplish that. The book begins with an encouraging note to parents. It’s easy enough to read together cuddled together on the couch, because of the translation at the bottom of each page. But this series also comes with a CD on which the story is read in engaging, yet comfortably slow voices. There is intonation and excitement in the voices of the actors, with male and female voices. There is plenty of time during the reading for the kids to inspect the color pictures and get clues about the story line. The story is repetitive but not boring. When I drew their attention to it, my kids were able to see that the “boy and girl nouns” have different sounds at the end, and that they have to match the endings of the “boy and girl adjectives.” It was like any other matching game to them! We would listen to one chapter one or two times in a row (usually while I made sandwiches), and then I would read them the translation. Then we’d listen to it another time or two. If they didn’t want to sit still that day, instead of trying to get them to pay attention to the chapter, I would let them dance around to the songs at the end of the CD. We’d try to pick out words we recognized from the story. For our homeschool, I made a bingo game that was based on the Adventures With Nicholas Spanish storybook. It was a lot easier than you may suspect, because one benefit of that series is a picture dictionary at the end, in addition to a regular, alphabetized word list. I drew a bingo chart with a Sharpie and a ruler. Then, I made black and white copies of the picture dictionary, colored them with my kids, cut them apart, and glued the pictures in the boxes. Voila! It’s your own bingo. The pictures give a visual memory from the book, and now you have a game that builds on the vocab they learned in the story. (You have to make an extra copy of the pictures to make one set of flashcards to draw from, instead of the rolling number ball) We bought all three books for Spanish. I think they are an excellent value, and I think if the time comes to resell them, my Bingo games will be a great bonus! We laminated the game for durability and just use pennies or counting chips for pieces.