La Clase Divertida

La Clase Divertida is Professor Raúl Yegres's three-level Spanish video curriculum, each year built around a box of tangible craft materials that arrive at the house. It is one of the few elementary Spanish programs that puts real physical objects in the child's hands.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Subject specialist / video-taught / hands-on kit
Worldview	Christian-ecumenical (light Christian framing; content is primarily language instruction)
Grades	Approximately grades 1-8 across three levels
Formats	DVD and streaming video, craft kits, workbooks, teacher guides
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	3
ESA-common	Yes, on marketplaces that include foreign-language curriculum
Accredited	No
Established	Approximately 2005 per founder biographical references on claseusa.com
Website	claseusa.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	3	Substantial vocabulary and basic grammar exposure; not equivalent to a traditional Spanish 1-3 sequence
Ease of teaching	4	Video delivers instruction; parent manages kit activities and review
Content quality	4	Production is warm, instructor is engaging, craft kits are well-curated
Flexibility	3	Sequenced by level and unit; skipping around is not practical
Value for money	3	Kit-based pricing runs higher than video-only Spanish programs
Worldview scope	4	Broad Christian framing; most content is language and culture, usable by secular families
Visual/design	4	Bright, culturally grounded, and physically distinctive
Support resources	3	Teacher guides and phone support; no active online community

Who the publisher is

La Clase Divertida is published by Professor Raúl Yegres, a Venezuelan-born Spanish educator based in the United States who created the program for homeschool families and co-ops who wanted more than a worksheet or flashcard approach to elementary Spanish. Yegres is the on-camera instructor throughout all three levels, and his teaching voice, warm, patient, consistently pitched to elementary children, is the single most distinctive thing about the curriculum. The program is distributed through claseusa.com and appears regularly on homeschool convention circuits through the Southeast and Midwest.

The company is small and family-operated. It does not publish enrollment or distribution numbers, and the absence of a corporate about-page is a mild limitation for research. What is verifiable is the catalog itself: three levels of curriculum, each sold as a bundled kit containing DVDs (or streaming access codes, in more recent editions), a student workbook, a teacher guide, and a craft kit with the materials needed to complete that level's projects. Level 1 covers colors, numbers, animals, family, and basic greetings; Level 2 extends into foods, body parts, clothing, and short conversations; Level 3 introduces more complex grammar and longer conversational exchanges. The program is typically completed over three years, one level per year, though some families compress to two years with older students.

Yegres frames the program from a general Christian perspective, with occasional prayers and references to faith, but the bulk of each lesson is language instruction. Cathy Duffy's review of La Clase Divertida places it squarely in the "fun, approachable, kit-based" Spanish category alongside products like The Learnables and Song School Spanish, distinguishing it by its instructor-on-video format and its hands-on material kits.

The core pedagogy

La Clase Divertida teaches Spanish primarily through video immersion, with Professor Yegres modeling vocabulary, pronunciation, and short dialogues in Spanish with English scaffolding. Each lesson is built around a theme (family, food, animals, clothing, the body), and within each lesson the structure is consistent: Yegres introduces new vocabulary on camera, students repeat, a brief cultural segment provides context (music from a Spanish-speaking country, a traditional food, a geographic note), and a craft activity closes the lesson using materials from the kit. The craft is pedagogically linked to the theme, a piñata for a festival lesson, a food-themed collage for a meals lesson, a flag craft for a countries lesson.

The craft kit is the differentiating pedagogical move. Most elementary Spanish programs teach through flashcards, songs, and worksheets. La Clase Divertida adds a weekly hands-on project in which the child physically makes something related to the theme. The theory is that the craft provides an anchoring memory hook, a child who painted a piñata while learning piñata vocabulary remembers the word in a way a flashcard reviewer does not. The kit contains physical materials (paint, paper, yarn, beads, wood, small musical instruments) sufficient for all the projects in that level.

Signature mechanics: (1) Video-taught by a single instructor. Professor Yegres teaches every lesson, which builds continuity and reduces the "new teacher" overhead most kids experience with scripted programs. (2) Immersive Spanish delivery, lessons are predominantly in Spanish with just enough English for beginners to follow. (3) Weekly craft, every theme ends with a hands-on project, and the materials arrive in the kit. (4) Cultural interludes, each lesson includes a short cultural segment from a Spanish-speaking country, covering music, food, geography, or customs. (5) Three-level arc. Levels 1-3 run sequentially over three years for most families.

The program is not a traditional high school Spanish 1-3 equivalent. It covers substantial vocabulary and introduces basic grammar, but families pursuing high school foreign-language credit typically transition out of La Clase Divertida around sixth or seventh grade into a more traditional program (Breaking the Barrier, Visual Link Spanish, or a formal Spanish 1 textbook).

A day in the life

A third-grader and fifth-grader using La Clase Divertida Level 1 together sit down Tuesday and Thursday after lunch for a thirty-five to forty-five-minute session. The parent starts the day's video (approximately 15-20 minutes), and both children watch Professor Yegres introduce new vocabulary and model pronunciation. The students repeat aloud during the video. After the video, the parent pulls the workbook pages for both students, the third-grader does a coloring-based vocabulary page, the fifth-grader does a short-writing and vocabulary page at a slightly more demanding level. On Friday, both children work together on the week's craft from the kit, a mask, a small musical instrument, a flag, while the parent reads the teacher guide's cultural script aloud. Total session time runs thirty-five to fifty-five minutes per day, two to three days a week. Parent time is moderate; the video handles instruction, and the parent manages review and the craft activity.

A seventh-grader working through Level 3 alone sits at a laptop for forty-five minutes three times a week, watching the video, completing the workbook page, and working on the craft project at the dining table on Saturday. By the end of Level 3, the student has a foundation of approximately 500-700 Spanish vocabulary words, basic conjugation of common verbs in present tense, and usable comprehension of short conversations, roughly equivalent to an entering Spanish 2 high school student, though the productive grammar is lighter.

What they do exceptionally well

Teacher presence on video. Professor Yegres is a genuinely good on-camera teacher, patient, pitched correctly for elementary age, and consistent across all three levels. Most DVD-based elementary language programs cycle through multiple presenters or use animated characters; La Clase Divertida has one instructor, which creates a classroom-teacher relationship across the three-year arc. Children who used the program often refer to Yegres by name years later, which is rare for curriculum instructors.

Physical craft kits that actually contain what they need. The materials kit for each level contains enough of each supply (paint, paper, beads, yarn, wood pieces) to complete every project in that level. Many kit-based curricula under-include, requiring the family to source missing supplies mid-project; La Clase Divertida's kits are full enough that a family does not need to run to the craft store during the year. This logistical reliability is worth real money.

Cultural grounding. The cultural interludes draw from Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and other Spanish-speaking regions, treating the Spanish-speaking world as genuinely plural rather than as a monolith. Children finish Level 3 with a basic geographic map of where Spanish is spoken and a real sense of cultural variety, which is uncommon in elementary language curricula.

What they do poorly

Production age. The video series was filmed across several years and shows its age; earlier-level videos carry production values that feel dated alongside contemporary online learning platforms. Families whose children are accustomed to YouTube and modern streaming aesthetics sometimes find the videos visually less engaging than the instruction deserves. The teaching holds up; the production values do not match current streaming norms.

Not a grammar-first program. Families whose goal is substantial grammar mastery (for, say, high school foreign-language credit preparation, or for a student likely to continue into AP Spanish) will find La Clase Divertida's grammar coverage lighter than a traditional textbook series. The program is vocabulary-and-immersion heavy, grammar light. This is a reasonable choice for elementary and early middle school, but it means the transition to a more rigorous program matters.

Limited community. Unlike larger Spanish programs with active forums, Facebook groups, and co-op support infrastructure, La Clase Divertida has a smaller footprint. Families who get stuck or want to compare notes have fewer peer resources online. The publisher's phone support is reportedly responsive, but the community layer is thin.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick La Clase Divertida if: you want elementary or early-middle-school Spanish with a warm on-camera teacher; your children benefit from hands-on craft activities and visual memory anchors; you appreciate cultural breadth in a Spanish program; you do not need substantial grammar instruction at this age; you want a program distinguished by material kits rather than worksheet drill.

• Skip La Clase Divertida if: you need a grammar-first program preparing for high school Spanish credit (consider Breaking the Barrier Spanish or a formal Spanish 1 textbook); your student is a rigorous grammar learner who prefers structured paradigm tables; you prefer app-based immersion (Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, Mango Languages) over DVD-format instruction; your budget cannot accommodate the kit pricing and you prefer a lower-cost digital-only program.

Cost honest assessment

As of April 2026, the three La Clase Divertida level bundles retail at approximately $180-210 per level on claseusa.com, with the full three-level set running $540-630. Each bundle includes the DVDs (or streaming access), the student workbook, the teacher guide, and the craft kit. Workbooks for additional students within the same family are sold separately at approximately $25-35 each.

Compared to Visual Link Spanish (online curriculum subscription, roughly $25 per month or $200-300 annually), Breaking the Barrier Spanish (textbook and audio, roughly $40-60 per level), or Rosetta Stone (family subscription approximately $180-300 per year across multiple languages via rosettastone.com), La Clase Divertida sits at the middle-to-premium end of the elementary Spanish market. The kit and DVD package is physically substantial, families receive a real box of material, which justifies part of the price against digital-only programs. A family with two children completing all three levels over three years spends approximately $600-750 on core materials plus $150-200 on additional workbooks.

ESA eligibility notes

La Clase Divertida is approved on most state ESA marketplaces that include foreign-language curriculum. Families in Arizona (Empowerment Scholarship Account) and Florida (Step Up For Students) have historically been able to purchase the kits through approved vendor workflows. Because the product contains both instructional DVD content and physical craft materials, some states may require itemization, the DVD and workbook components typically clear curriculum eligibility, while the craft kit may fall under supplementary materials. Families should verify within their state portal. The publisher does not publish a dedicated ESA ordering page as of April 2026.

Alternatives

• Song School Spanish, a family would choose Song School over La Clase Divertida for a cheaper, song-driven elementary Spanish introduction from Classical Academic Press.
• Visual Link Spanish, a family would choose Visual Link for a more grammar-substantial online program with automated tracking and no physical components.
• Duolingo + a print vocabulary workbook, a family would choose this free-app-plus-supplement path to minimize cost while covering comparable vocabulary, sacrificing the instructor relationship and craft component.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the claseusa.com catalog, product-level pages for Levels 1, 2, and 3, the publisher's ordering and shipping information, and Cathy Duffy Reviews' directory entry. We cross-referenced against Classical Academic Press's Song School Spanish product page, Visual Link Spanish subscription pricing, and Rosetta Stone family plan pricing for market comparison. Prices and program details verified April 2026.