My child has never taken Spanish before — is this the right starting point?

Yes. Spanish I assumes no prior Spanish. Early sessions cover the alphabet and vowel sounds, greetings, and how Spanish nouns carry gender, before moving to verbs.

How is Spanish I different from Spanish II here?

Spanish I stays in the present tense with regular verbs and the most common irregulars. Spanish II adds past tenses (preterite and imperfect), reflexive verbs, and longer paragraph-level speaking and writing.

Will speaking to an AI actually help my child's pronunciation?

Sessions are voice-based, so your child speaks Spanish aloud and Evelyn responds to what was said, flagging sounds like rr, j, and the vowels when they drift toward English. It is practice time and correction, not a substitute for a graded oral exam.

Can sessions follow our school's textbook order?

Yes — tell Evelyn the current chapter or unit topic (for example, "we're on the family unit and -er verbs") and the session will work from that vocabulary and grammar rather than a fixed sequence.

Spanish I

Middle School (6-8) · World Languages

Spanish I at the middle school level is the first year of formal Spanish study: building a working vocabulary of a few hundred words, conjugating regular verbs in the present tense, and putting together simple sentences and questions you can say out loud. Sessions are spoken conversations, so you practise pronouncing Spanish rather than only reading it, and you get corrected on endings and agreement as you speak. Work is paced to a first-year course — present tense only, with no preterite, reflexive verbs, or subjunctive.

Start a session on Spanish I

What this covers

Conjugating regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs in the present tense across all six subject pronouns, including vosotros vs. ustedes
Choosing between ser and estar for origin, description, feelings, and location, and using tener for age, hunger, and thirst
Making nouns, articles, and adjectives agree in gender and number (el libro rojo / las mesas rojas) and placing adjectives after the noun
Core first-year vocabulary sets: greetings and introductions, classroom objects, numbers to 100, days, months, telling time, family, food, and weather
Forming yes/no questions and using question words (qué, quién, dónde, cómo, cuándo, por qué), plus negation with no
Using gustar with indirect object pronouns (me gusta el fútbol / me gustan los deportes) and pronouncing vowels, rr, ñ, j, and ll clearly

Where learners get stuck

Using ser when the sentence calls for estar (saying "soy cansado" instead of "estoy cansado"): Both translate as "to be" in English, so learners map them to one idea. The permanent/temporary rule they were taught first breaks down quickly, and feelings and location are where it breaks first.
Adding a subject pronoun to every sentence — "yo hablo" instead of just "hablo": English requires a subject, so learners transfer the habit. It is not wrong, but it hides the fact that the verb ending is what carries the person, which then makes conjugation feel like memorising extra words rather than a system.
Treating gustar as "to like" and writing "yo gusto pizza": Gustar actually means something closer to "to be pleasing to," so the thing liked is the subject and the person is an indirect object. Word-for-word translation from English produces the wrong structure every time until the sentence is rebuilt from the Spanish side.

What a session looks like

You talk with Evelyn by voice in a mix of English and Spanish. A typical session might start with a short spoken warm-up in Spanish (greetings, how you feel, the date), move into drilling one grammar point such as -er verb endings or noun-adjective agreement out loud, then apply it in a guided exchange — ordering food, describing a family member, asking a classmate questions. Evelyn corrects pronunciation and endings as you go and asks you to repeat the corrected form, and can slow down or repeat any Spanish you did not catch.

Helpful to know first

No prior Spanish needed — sessions can begin from greetings and the alphabet

Questions

My child has never taken Spanish before — is this the right starting point?: Yes. Spanish I assumes no prior Spanish. Early sessions cover the alphabet and vowel sounds, greetings, and how Spanish nouns carry gender, before moving to verbs.
How is Spanish I different from Spanish II here?: Spanish I stays in the present tense with regular verbs and the most common irregulars. Spanish II adds past tenses (preterite and imperfect), reflexive verbs, and longer paragraph-level speaking and writing.
Will speaking to an AI actually help my child's pronunciation?: Sessions are voice-based, so your child speaks Spanish aloud and Evelyn responds to what was said, flagging sounds like rr, j, and the vowels when they drift toward English. It is practice time and correction, not a substitute for a graded oral exam.
Can sessions follow our school's textbook order?: Yes — tell Evelyn the current chapter or unit topic (for example, "we're on the family unit and -er verbs") and the session will work from that vocabulary and grammar rather than a fixed sequence.