Spanish Safari - Game for Kids

Spanish Safari combines story-based and interactive learning with gradual immersion and spaced-out repetition, comprising of over 140 lessons and over 25 interactive games. As you progress through the various levels, the use of will language gradually increases ensure children from various language backgrounds can feel comfortable and become more engaged. However, this is done is a very supportive way as vocabulary is regularly repeated and integrated with newer terms for a more immersive and effective experience with long-term vocabulary retention in mind. Spanish Safari interacts with your child in both English and Spanish. As their confidence grows and their familiarity with Spanish progresses, the app will slowly reduce the amount of English content to give a more effective immersive experience.

This immersive experience is not without its entertainment, however. Through gamification, Spanish Safari incorporates popular learning and memory games to keep your child engaged and motivated in their Spanish endeavours.

All-in-all, Spanish Safari boasts an engaging and compelling narrative supplemented with quality audio, visuals, and interactive features.

What we love about Spanish Safari

Firstly, Spanish Safari is an exceptionally well-presented app with graphics and interactions that will appeal to all children. The app is situated in a massive 3D safari world and your child gets to explore the characters and landscape thanks to the 140+ lessons and 25+ games available. The quality of the visuals and audio will be sure to captivate you, children and parents alike, and effectively draw you into the Spanish learning process in a painless and fun way, while maintaining clear purpose and structure. Children are asked to join the World Explorers and help the local animals solve the mystery of the missing water. This enthralling story line will keep children interested and ensure that they are motivated to make it through to the end of the app to solve the mystery.

At the centre of this is Explorers’ HQ – where hundreds of lessons, activities, mini-games, etc. are at your child’ fingertips. They can also see their user stats, progress, and achievements. From here, your child will be instantly inspired as they are beckoned to embark on their Spanish safari. The interactive narrative speaks directly to them and draws them into this 3D world.

Is Spanish Safari easy to use?

Yes, Spanish Safari is neatly designed and is it easy to navigate between the various features and content. The app begins by allowing parents to sign up and create a specific profile for up to 3 child users. After this, navigation is very straightforward, allowing your child to play and learn safely and with ease. There are some overlays with initial explanatory prompts, but once in-App all instructions a lead thanks to nicely designed avatars who will speak directly to your child. In my opinion, the interface is very user-friendly.

Students will love the opportunity to customise their own avatar within the app and bring another level of authenticity to their play as they will be able to better immerse themselves as a result.

For teacher and parents, Spanish Safari represents a ready-made programme where they know that their children will be engaging with quality and genuine Spanish in a comprehensive and supportive way.

How much does the app cost?

Spanish Safari is currently available for free on the iOS App Store. Unfortunately, it is not yet available on Android.

There is a 7-day free trial available; however, to unlock all content requires a monthly or annual subscription ($9.99 per month, or $89.99 annually).

Is Spanish Safari safe to use?

Yes, Spanish Safari is safe to use, with it being ad-free and all content being related to the app itself. The app is straightforward to use and is well designed. Scrolling and navigation are extremely intuitive, and the interface will ensure that you can find intended content with relative ease.

There is also a Parent Portal allowing parents and/or carers to independently monitor their child’s engagement and progress, as well as modify general and subscription settings.

What can Spanish Safari improve on

The well-structured outline of the narrative will ensure that all children will be introduced to Spanish words and phrases in an effective and supportive way, ensuring consistent progression that I will call ‘supportively challenging’. However, this structure can also be quite limiting at times as there is no scope to explore and customise learning – as a user you are tied to following the storyline. As such, this app serves well for those children who have limited or no prior knowledge of Spanish. If you have a child looking to supplement what they already know, then they may become frustrated at the need to complete initial, basic lessons before accessing content that is more suited to their level and ability. If there were an initial interface to outline level of Spanish or the opportunity to skip through certain parts of the storyline, I feel the app would appeal to a greater range of users. However, it should be noted that the narrative is designed to be progressive, using what the developers call ‘spaced repetition’ and ‘gradual immersion’ – as such, there would be the risk that skipping through parts of the narrative would be detrimental to learning as your child may miss key insights and content.

As appealing as engaging as the 3D narrative is, it can be quite slow moving forward. The elements of interaction are of real quality, but the supportive and guided monologue can frustrate at times, as there are moments of extended talking with no opportunity to interact or practise your learning. In a similar vein, the app is also quite slow on initial start-up – not unsurprisingly, when you consider the depth of storyline, characters, and the safari world itself.

The lack of Android availability is also a limitation. Hopefully, in time, the developers will consider extending to the Google Play platform.

Overall rating of the app

Spanish Safari is a neatly designed and engaging Spanish teaching app for kids that is comprehensive in its content and, through repetition of use, will be an asset for any young learner to grow in their language skills and knowledge. The app is a safe, secure, and supportive platform, which is free to download – starting with a free 7-day trial, and thereafter you will require a subscription. Using narrative-based gameplay, children will learn Spanish in a fun and intuitive way. The endearing characters, entertaining storyline, and appealing 3D world will create an experience that will engage children and make learning Spanish more of an adventure than a chore.