Good morning, friends!
After completing our 25-year journey of homeschooling, and a 20 year path of owning my own sweet little side gig that has grown into a bonafide, award-winning part of the homeschool puzzle for so many... I think it's time to re-introduce myself!
I'm the mom here, in the middle of our five blessings.
This was the week our "littlest" joined us in July 2008.
Hola, hello, and a howdy! 👋 I'm Suzanne! (aka Señora Gose.)
If it’s been a while since we’ve properly caught up, consider this my official reintroduction! I’m the face behind Flip Flop Spanish, where I help homeschool families bring Spanish (and soon other languages) into their homes without adding another complicated subject to an already full day. Around here, I’m usually juggling curriculum ideas, drinking coffee, painting with watercolors, tending to chickens, or dreaming up our next adventure in the Texas mountains. I believe learning should be fun, family life should include plenty of laughter, and there’s almost always a way to make Spanish a little less intimidating. So, whether you’re a longtime friend of Flip Flop Spanish or just joining us, I’m so glad you’re here. Now, grab your coffee, kick off your flip-flops, and let’s have some fun! ☕🩴🇪🇸
A Little Backstory: How This Whole Spanish Adventure Started!
Believe it or not, Flip Flop Spanish wasn’t born from some grand business plan. It started when I was a former public school teacher, a new stay-at-home mom, and a brand new "business owner" who was beginning to explore teaching my own private classes.
When I started teaching Spanish classes to homeschoolers, I quickly discovered something wonderful: these students were engaged, curious, and genuinely excited to learn! (This was NOT my current reality with the public school students I had in my classrooms for years.)
I wanted that same experience for my own children, too. But I also realized that families needed a way to teach Spanish at home without having to reinvent the wheel. After searching high and low, and nothing turning up to use for my lessons, I created my own lesson plans and homework packets, even printing them for families who couldn’t attend my classes. My husband encouraged me to publish them, and those little packets eventually grew into my first workbook/CD combo: Flip Flop Spanish! The name came from the original workbooks, which students could literally flip upside down to review what they’d learned. (Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best!)
As my classes grew, so did the need for more innovative lessons. I created my own sentence-building, photo based flash cards, to help students learn to SPEAK Spanish, NOT READ it! The student's absorption and speaking rate went through the ROOF!
See it and Say it Flip Flop Spanish was slowly born out of those flash card lessons. Hands-on, short lessons 100% audio driven, no reading or writing. It was not an overnight hit, which was fine. In the past 20 years, thousands of families have used it to learn together, it's won dozens of awards and recognition, and I'm just so pleased that I get to help others with my own creation!
Fast forward another few years, and the Flip Flop Families wanted to continue learning Spanish beyond the elementary and middle school years. They grew up! High school students were ready for the scholar level. They needed a way to study grammar, vocabulary, and communication skills at the middle and high school levels.
So, Spanish Geniuses was born! I took the same teaching approach I used in my live classes and turned it into online video lessons, allowing students to learn with me even if they couldn’t attend classes in person. This is more individual, self-paced, and focused on students entering or completely in a scholar level stage of their education.
Today, the two programs work together to help families learn Spanish from the very beginning through high school and beyond. See it and Say it Flip Flop Spanish offers hands-on, screen-free learning for the whole family, and the Spanish Geniuses provides more structured, independent learning for older students. We even have live sessions that are SUPER fun for real-time engagement. Every week, twice a week, I LOVE seeing all my geniuses from across the nation. Check out a clip from yesterday's PUN-TIME with cognates. The geniuses never disappoint!
The first student you hear is participating in the "What do you call a bear that is...."
¿Cómo se llama un oso que es muy grande? (They don't always get it perfectly correct, and that's how they LEARN!)
I repeat the question, and several other students jump to answer:
poderoso! (Powerful!)
Get it, poderOSO? (oso = bear) We have fun every single session! Here's more info on the Spanish Geniuses bonus sessions.
Looking back, it’s funny to think that a few printed packets turned into an entire family business! What began as a way to help a handful of homeschool families has grown into a mission to make Spanish accessible, enjoyable, and practical for learners of all ages. And we’re still at it! We've been winning awards, visiting conventions, and growing the team and company for more than 20 years. My amazing husband supported the family AND my desire to teach and create all along the way, and now he gets to work for the company he encouraged to exist 20+ years ago!
Our five homeschooled-since-birth kids are all adults now, pursuing their own dreams, and we are both so grateful for the journey. We didn't miss any of it!
So whether you’ve been with us since those early days or you’re just discovering us, welcome to our little corner of the Spanish-learning world. ¡Vámonos! Let’s keep learning together!
If you'd like the hand out from the video clip, it was FREE in the October newsletter, but you can still get it here.