Dear Readers,

This week was my birthday! I share this joyful time with some of my students who had the class on Friday. I promised I would share the vocabulary here! If your child had another class, please look on archive for other topics.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

We looked at birthday vocabulary using a bingo sheet:

Los globos – balloons

Las velas – candles

El regalo – gift

El juguete – the toy/game

We did Ispy looking for those objects in the room. We also colored a cake ( Torta) and placed candles for each child’s next birthday. Older children received some candles and had to add the amount to make the total for the amount of candles on his next birthday. We broke a piñata, ate cupcakes ( pastelitos) and reviewed tableware.

We also sang Happy Birthday in Spanish:

Feliz Cumpleaños a ti, Feliz Cumpleaños a ti,Feliz Cumpleaños a ti,Feliz Cumpleaños a ti!

We showed a Sesame Place video  about Fiesta in Spanish and read a book on the same topic which taught children how they celebrate birthdays in Mexico.

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch CEO

Dear Readers,

This summer I am fortunate to have two Rowan students completing an internship with us and I asked them as their first assignment to research how children learn and work on an entry to my blog, I proudly present the first one:

 How Children Learn

Your child is constantly learning. As you eat dinner with them, they are learning the names of new foods. As they play on the playground, they are learning how to interact with other children their age. Even as you speak to them, they are learning how to communicate. Your child may ask a lot of questions and be very curious, like an information sponge. It is an amazing thing to watch your child grow as you teach them lessons everyday—even if you don’t realize it.

Every day brings new experiences and lessons learned. Since early childhood is the age at which a child’s brain develops, they are able to absorb a lot of information. Every child learns at their own rate, and they learn by “doing” and getting involved in the activity. It is the same idea when you are introducing your child to a foreign language. You may be worried that presenting them with a completely new language will overwhelm them and cause them to be confused. But learning can always become fun for your child, even when they are learning a foreign language. Instead of asking your child to fill out worksheets and overwhelming them with subject-verb agreement, you can include language lessons in the activities they already enjoy!

                We use language in every part of our lives; so introducing your child to a new language would not be too overwhelming, as long as you do it in a fun and interesting way. You can sing a song in Spanish and dance and get the whole family involved. You can go to a pet store and count the puppies in Spanish. If your child loves to play dress-up, you can pick out outfits and say the names of clothing in Spanish. You can even play games and run around in your backyard while pointing out objects in Spanish. All of these activities will be enjoyable for your child; you child might not even realize they are learning! That is how learning can be made fun and “easy!” – by Rachel Mancini

If you are interested on how your child learn and acquire languages, we will be posting more on that topic soon!

Claudia Krusch

Director

Dear Readers,

I have been working for children for more than 10 years now and they never cease to amaze me! Anything can happen when you are working with little ones! I could write a book on my great experiences with them! Some stayed on my mind like the little 3 year old Spanish student who looked at a paper tree, which I called the magic tree, I told him she would talk…….., el arbol magico, and he said, Ms. Claudia, this is a paper tree…..why do you think it’s magic? or the other little four year old Spanish student in NJ, who looked at me and started talking about moon craters, when I asked what do you see in the sky???Or the 14 m old girl who did not speak English, but started speaking Spanish during the classes and then English afterwards!

Working with children and those experiences gave me inspiration to use their daily magic “tools” to create brand new programs. We will be offering two new programs: Spanish and Legos ©, building a foundation to a great foreign language experience! and Joy to the world© – learning a foreign language with music. Both classes will offer a four week program filled with hands on experience, teaching children to make association between new vocabulary and legos and the second will teach children holiday songs and games, using music only……

If you are a parent or teacher and wish to use some of the concepts used to create the classes, I will be happy to share with you and bring the joy of a creative foreign language experience to many other little ones!

Abraços,

Claudia Krusch

Director of CK Translations and EasyLearn Programs for adults and children