Welcome The Old Schoolhouse Readers!
Stories program
We help kids learn to speak real Spanish. For life.
Join millions of kids learning For life with Calico Spanish.
Start learning Spanish in 3 easy steps...
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Join in the stories, music, and play.
We’ve created a step-by-step program for you to follow on your own schedule.
Listen to your learners speaking Spanish
Children will learn and retain Spanish for life in a safe, low-stress environment.
Learning Spanish is a lifelong journey.
If only there was a map. And a tour guide would be nice too!
Enter Calico Spanish!
- We provide the step-by-step pathway so kids truly learn to speak real Spanish.
- We prepare kids to talk to real people … in real life … in Spanish.
- With our acquisition-friendly Stories, kids will remember and be ready to use what they learn.
Try a free lesson and hear kids speaking Spanish. Immediately. For life.
Homeschool families learn for less than
28 cents per day!
Make learning fun
The Calico Spanish characters engage children in the ways they learn best; stories, songs, and play.
Bite-sized chunks
Lesson vocabularly is introduced in small chunks throughout the lessons, so it’s easy to remember.
Encourage conversation
Our videos show the characters speaking Spanish, encouraging young learners to try the phrases out, too!
Goal-based learning
An easy to follow curriculum with daily goals that allow you to track progress.
Put it into practice
We encourage children to use real Spanish with activities and games!
They'll love to sing it...
...and love to speak it! Our Music Videos work alongside the lessons to help aid comprehension.
Cultural insights
Our Culture Capsules introduce children to the Spanish-speaking cultures.
Simplified teaching
Work through the daily lesson plans with all the material at the click of a mouse, whenever you need it.
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Start learning immediately with Calico Spanish
and have Spanish skills for life.
Or use a product that teaches vocabulary words instead of real language skills and never speak Spanish.
Which path will you choose?
What’s included?
24 full-length Video Stories to accompany lessons
More than 30 Music Videos to get your students singing
Teachers' guides with step-by-step lesson plans
Reproducible Student activity sheets to aid comprehension
Digital and printable flash card sets for each level
Full size, printable classroom posters of words and phrases
11 original storybooks, plus read-alouds in video format
Members-only store to buy full color printed resources
Instant 24/7 online access, anytime, anywhere!
Full Access to teach Levels A, B, C and D to unlimited students
View, explore and download ALL lesson resources
Try a free lesson and hear your kids speaking Spanish.
Immediately. For Life.
Step-by-step structure provides easy continuation of language learning
The full Stories program is divided into four levels, beginning with Level A and continuing through Level D. Each level is appropriate for use with children ages 4+, so you can begin your children's language learning journey to speak Spanish at any time.
- Stories program Level A: Children begin their journey by learning the basics of self-introduction. They learn to ask and answer basic questions about name and age and say something about themselves, including what they are like and what they like to do. They learn to talk about the days of the week, identify things that are blue or yellow, and count items up to three.
- Stories program Level B: Children continue adding building blocks of language as they learn to describe themselves and their family and pets. They begin to talk about other people, including what they are like and what they like to do. They count items up to six; describe things as brown, black, or white; and learn to tell the date.
- Stories program Level C: Children develop more language skills focused on activities around their home. They begin to talk about food, games, routines, and describing where something is. They learn to tell time, describe things as red or green, and count items up to twelve.
- Stories program Level D: Children develop further conversational skills to talk about weather, seasons, and clothing in the context of activities on a farm in Mexico. They can describe things that are orange or pink, identify the number of items up to one hundred, sequence events in a story, and more.
Want to know how Calico Spanish compares to other Homeschool Spanish programs? We’ve done that!
What will they learn?
By the end of Level A, children will be able to complete the following tasks in Spanish:
- I can describe something as blue or yellow.
- I can identify a monkey or a fish.
- I can identify the number of objects in a group up to three.
- I can begin to identify the days of the week.
- I can describe the size of something as big or small.
- I can greet someone, answer basic questions, and give information about myself, including:
- my name
- my age
- how I am doing
- what I am like and
- what I like to do
By the end of Level B, in addition to everything they learned in Level A, children will be able to complete the following tasks in Spanish:
- I can begin to talk about the months of the year.
- I can describe the color of something as brown, black, or white.
- I can talk about the number of objects in a group, up to six.
- I can identify a dog, cat, or rabbit.
- I can tell someone, “I love you.”
- I can ask and answer the question “How many?”
- I can ask simple questions to discover what people like.
- I can talk about my pets.
- I can react to something I think is cool.
- I can answer basic questions and give information about my family, including:
- family words
- names
- pets
- what people are like
- what others like to do
By the end of Level C, in addition to everything they learned in Level A and Level B, children will be able to complete the following tasks in Spanish:
- I can welcome someone to my house.
- I can describe the color of something green, gray, or red.
- I can identify a frog or a mouse.
- I can politely ask for something to eat or drink.
- I can talk about whether I want or need something.
- I can say that I’m hungry or thirsty.
- I can mention some foods and drinks I like or don’t like.
- I can talk about how I feel.
- I can mention something someone has to do.
- I can say whether I want or don’t want to do something.
- I can mention some things that people do during the day.
- I can categorize something as a person, place, or thing.
- I can answer questions and give information about my home and routine, including:
- making references to time (what time of day it is, what time it is, at what time I do something, that it is time to do something)
- describing what my house is like
- talking about some foods and drinks I like or don’t like
- telling how I feel
- expressing that I need, want, or have to do something related to my daily activities
- talking about my daily activities
- describing where an object is located
By the end of Level D, in addition to everything they learned in Levels A-C, children will be able to complete the following tasks in Spanish:
- I can count objects up to one hundred.
- I can use debes to suggest to someone what they should do.
- I can map the monarch butterfly migration.
- I can say whether something is close or far, north or south, left or right.
- I can say that I go, stay at, and return to a place.
- I can talk about farm animals and the sounds they make.
- I can use phrases including vocabulary for parts of the body to tell someone how I feel and if something hurts.
- I can use some frequency words and phrases to tell someone how often something happens.
- I can talk about what I eat for different meals.
- I can use connecting words to put a story in order.
- I can answer questions and give information about activities outside in various types of weather:
- describing the weather
- talking about the seasons
- talking about what someone is going to do
- talking about what clothes I need for particular weather
About Calico Spanish
Want fun, effective homeschool Spanish curriculum developed by curriculum specialists? That's the power of Calico Spanish Stories.
Calico Spanish was founded in 2007, from a need to find a quality language learning program for use in the classroom and homeschool environments. Our curriculum was developed by a nationally recognized world languages specialist with over 20 years' experience working with language learners.
Children are natural language learners, but they need appropriate lessons designed specifically to engage young learners, hold their interest, and truly teach them Spanish. At Calico Spanish, we design everything for children to learn Spanish starting immediately and retain their Spanish skills for life.
Stories and music have been a means of learning for millennia. So we thought, why not use those same amazingly effective tools in the modern day? Have fun with our stories and music and learn Spanish at the same time. Easy lessons. Daily, bite-sized Spanish learning. So fun. So effective. And most of all, so very exciting when you hear your children speaking Spanish.
