Spanish for Kids

Inspiration

We both had a interest in education and grew up learning several languages. We looked into voice experiences and thought it provided a great opportunity for making fun and interactive lessons, especially for kids. Over Winter Break, we spent time with our toddler cousins who were learning Spanish by watching Dora the Explorer. We realized the show would be 10X better if it was interactive and so we decided to build something ourselves! (We'll get back to you on what our little cousins think).

What it does

Teaches kids Spanish through interactive stories, songs, and games. We currently have one lesson out. The first lesson tells a story about a smelly cat who has no friends until he is kind and shares his food. We teach three Spanish words: gato (cat), amigo (friend), and comida (food). The lesson includes a game and a song to help kids learn the new vocabulary words.

How we built it

On the technical end, Ruben built the skill using the Alexa Python SDK hosted on a Flask server on the Heroku platform.

For the story, Alexandra worked with voice actors, audio editing, sketch and video animation.

Challenges we ran into

Learning how to use APL was hard at first, but we appreciate the flexibility that it brings. In terms of content creation, it was surprisingly challenging to sync our audio levels to Alexa's.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Seeing our idea come to life! Had a lot of small parts and we're excited at how it came together.

What I learned

This was our first Alexa skill ever! We learned how to use the APL framework.

What's next for Kids Spanish

We are planning to show our first lesson to kids 7 and under and get feedback. Once we do, we'll use it to improve our first lesson and plan future ones!