Learning a language the non-overwhelming way

The Oxford Take Off in Latin American Spanish kit rocks! It's a kindly, patient and encouraging teacher. Each group of lessons is focused on a theme (eg shopping) and the vocabulary keeps repeating. You listen to an easy dialogue, answer comprehension questions, repeat some phrases, read over a little bit of relevant grammar, then participate in a 'conversation' yourself. It's like being a little baby and having people speak simply to you about concrete things. Maybe it came from this method which I'm told is excellent.