You know exactly how it goes.
Your child freezes. Looks at the floor. Mumbles "…I don't know" and looks up at you.
So you do what every parent does. You point at the menu. You mime. You say "gracias" a bit too loudly and hope it lands.
And your child spends the whole trip half a step behind you. Watching. Waiting. A passenger.
You didn't spend thousands on this holiday for your child to experience Spain from behind a menu.
Here's the good news: it doesn't have to be this way. And fixing it takes less time than one bedtime story a night.
Why "just download an app" never works
It's not your fault, and it's not your child's. Every option out there hands your child the wrong thing: volume.
Thousands of words. Grammar tables. Verb endings. A cheerful owl demanding another streak. A phrasebook no eight year old will ever open on a beach.
A child doesn't need a whole language before a holiday. They need the right fifty words, the context to use them, and a reason to try. Everything else is noise that makes it feel "too hard" before they've said a single word.
That's the real reason most kids arrive with nothing. They were handed a mountain when they needed a doorway.
Introducing ¡Prepárate para España!
Your Family's Spain Ready Kit
A 27 page printable kit. Print it before the flight. Ages 8 to 11. Fifteen minutes a night, for seven nights. That's the whole commitment.
The Cultural Survival Guide
Dinner at 9pm. Two kisses hello. Shops shut at 2pm. Every "wait, what?" moment explained in advance and with a laugh, so your child arrives knowing how Spain works, not just what it says.
The 50 Words That Open Doors
Not a vocabulary list. A curated fifty with pronunciation written the way it actually sounds: GRAH-thee-as, not "gracias". Sorted by real life: at the café, making friends, at the market, just in case.
Daisy's 27 Questions
Before her own trip, a real Year 5 girl named Daisy wrote down every single thing she wanted to be able to ask, from ordering nuggets to challenging a new friend to a race. We translated them together. Now your child has them too.
Spain in 8 Stops
Let your child pick their city before you even fly, so they land already excited.
The Spain Ready Packing Checklist + Official Certificate
The official Spain Ready Certificate, personally signed by Mariana. The perfect finish line moment.
The Hidden Code on Page 16
Crack it and your child unlocks a free live class. They'll be hunting for it before dinner's even finished.
What other parents are saying
"I have really enjoyed watching Harry's Spanish develop over the last 3 months and have been amazed at the progress he has made already! His confidence is really growing, and it's so lovely to be able to have little conversations with him in Spanish at home."
"This has been my son's first ever after school club. He looks forward to it all week and has been practising his Spanish at home! Mariana has a real knack for making language learning fun, and giving parents feedback too."
"My daughters absolutely love it. They come out all smiles, and we have a flurry of colours and numbers, which they like to test me on!"
Created by Mariana, founder of Mariposa Languages: official Spanish provider for West Sussex County Council, teaching children across 30+ schools in Hampshire & Sussex since 2019.
Hi, I'm Mariana
I teach Spanish to children in more than 30 schools across Hampshire and West Sussex, and I'm an official provider for West Sussex County Council. Since 2019 I've helped kids experience Spanish as something alive: sung, cooked, played, never memorised.
After years in classrooms I noticed one thing: the children who come home from Spain begging to learn more are the ones who had a few words before they flew. They got one moment, maybe ordering their own food, making a friend or cracking a joke, and that one moment changed everything.
That's why I built this kit. Not as a teacher, but as the person who gets to watch children light up when Spanish finally becomes theirs.
The Spain Ready Kit. Here's what's included:
This is the £17 that decides which.
The "One Confident Week" Guarantee
Try it with zero risk for a full 7 days.
Print the kit, run the ritual at your dinner table, use it for a week. If your child isn't more excited and more ready for Spain, or if you simply don't love it for any reason at all, just email us within 7 days and we'll refund every penny.
Keep the kit either way. No forms. No hoops. No "but why?".
The only real risk here is landing in Spain wishing you'd done this.
Your child is seven dinners away from ordering their own ice cream in Spain.
Enter your details below for instant access.
Questions parents ask before buying
"Will my child actually use it?"
That's the whole point of the ritual. Ten words a night at dinner, turned into a game, not homework they'll dodge. It's built to feel like play, which is exactly why it sticks.
"I don't speak Spanish. Can I still do this?"
Absolutely. Every word is written the way it sounds: GRAH-thee-as. If you can read it out loud, you can do this. You learn alongside them.
"Is 15 minutes really enough?"
Yes, because you're not teaching a language; you're installing fifty high impact words. Small, daily, playful. That's how children remember things.
"It's just a PDF?"
It's a 27 page kit you print once and keep forever, plus a hidden code that unlocks a free live class. Instant to get, yours to reuse every trip.
"My child is a little younger or older than 8 to 11. Will it work?"
It's designed for ages 8 to 11, but younger and older siblings usually join in at the dinner table too. The ritual works for the whole family.
I agree to the terms and conditions
🧠⚡Because the trip is the best classroom they'll ever have — but only if they have the words to use it.
Your child knows the word "hello." But in Spain, everyone says ¡Hola! when they walk into a shop, a lift, a restaurant. That one word is the difference between a tourist and a traveller. Your brain loves patterns — that's why the words feel automatic once you learn them the right way.
But it's not about vocabulary. It's about the moment.
The moment your child orders their own ice cream. The moment they ask a Spanish kid at the pool: ¿Jugamos? (Shall we play?). The moment they crack the code on page 16 of the kit and unlock a free class.
Those moments don't happen if they arrive with nothing.
They happen when they arrive prepared.
That's why this kit exists. Not to teach Spanish. To give your child one confident week in Spain.
What's inside the kit? 🚀
📩 Instant PDF download — 27 pages, designed to be printed before the flight.
La Guía de Supervivencia Cultural
Dinner at 9pm. Two kisses. La sobremesa. Shops that close at 2pm. All the cultural moments that blindside British families — explained in advance, with humour, so no one is surprised. Your child arrives knowing how Spain works, not just what it says.
Las 50 Palabras que Abren Puertas
Not a vocabulary list. A curated 50 — picked because they appear in every single holiday situation — with phonetic pronunciation written in English sounds (GRAH-thee-as, not "Gratias"). Organised by real life: at the café, making friends, at the market, just in case. Pick 10 a day at dinner.
Las 27 Preguntas de Daisy + La Checklist Spain-Ready
Before her trip to Spain, a real Year 5 girl called Daisy wrote every question she wanted to ask — from ordering nuggets to challenging a new friend to a race. We translated them together. Now your child has them too.
Plus: Spain in 8 stops (let them pick their city before the flight), the Spain-Ready packing checklist and the official Spain-Ready certificate — signed by Mariana.
About the author
I'm Mariana, founder of Mariposa Languages and Spanish teacher to children in 30+ schools across Hampshire and West Sussex. I'm an official provider for West Sussex County Council. Since 2019 I've dedicated my career to helping children experience Spanish as something alive — sung, cooked, played and celebrated — not memorised.
After years in classrooms, I noticed the same thing: children who visit Spain and come home wanting more Spanish are the ones who had at least a few words before the flight. They had one moment — ordering their own food, making a friend, cracking a joke. That one moment changes everything.
That's why I built this kit. Not as a teacher. As the person who watches children light up when Spanish becomes theirs.
— Mariana 🦋
The kit is just the beginning.
Behind this kit is Mariposa Languages — a Spanish programme for children running in 30+ schools across Hampshire and Sussex, with an official provider agreement with West Sussex County Council.
Everything we do at Mariposa is built on one principle: children learn language fastest when it feels like play, not school. The kit is that principle in your living room, in the week before the flight.
Most children come home from Spain with one question: "Can I learn more?" When that happens, we're here:
Hola Adventure Summer Camp
A full week of Spanish immersion — kayaking, cooking, campfires and real friendships, all in Spanish.
Ages 7-14 · Day & residentialOnline Spanish Classes with Mariposa
Live, small-group sessions from home. Your child already knows 50 words — let's build on it.
Live · Small groupsMariposa Spanish Clubs
Weekly after-school Spanish in 30+ schools across Hampshire & Sussex.
After-school · Weekly