About Estrellita
Connect with your rooth!
We honor the linguistic heritage of the Spanish Language
Estrellita en la Casa offers kits designed to help children connect with their roots and learn to read in Spanish from an early age. The accelerated, systematic curriculum honor the rich linguistic heritage of the Spanish language. Whether you’re homeschooling or a parent looking to celebrate your family’s heritage, Estrellita en la Casa lets children embrace their roots while developing a lifelong love for reading in Spanish.
Humble Beginnings
Unique and Effective
The idea for Estrellita® began in 1985 in a migrant Spanish class in California. Karen Myer, the program's author, was frustrated with the lack of materials and wanted to provide her students with a program that would help them learn to read in their native language. After 40 years of success in all districts around the country, her brother, Stephen Mayer, adapted the program for home-based learning, making it ideal for Spanish-speaking and non-Spanish-speaking parents.
Why we are different from others
- Estrellita maps "pictures to beginning sounds" to assist children in making the connection from the known (picture) to the unknown (grapheme).
- Estrellita introduces vowels before consonants. The program also provides a built-in review process to ensure that children retain previously learned sounds.
- Estrellita is based on the core structure of the Spanish language and is not a direct translation.
- Estrellita writing component is aligned with and occurs concurrently with the reading process.
- Estrellita's philosophy and methodology have always been to teach the letter sounds first and to prolong the teaching of letter names until children have "broken the code."
- Estrellita utilizes a syllabic approach to blending and segmentation which systematically builds upon itself.
