Why We Teach Spanish at First School
We are very fortunate to have Doris Ventolini as our teacher for our Spanish language program. She has been a teacher for 15 years and has been at First School for five of those years. Mrs. Ventolini grew up in Switzerland and Italy and speaks French, Italian, German and Spanish fluently.
When speaking about her philosophy for early childhood foreign language instruction she notes that “teaching is for me an opportunity to convey to the students and children my love for life, foreign languages and different cultures. It is also my mission to improve the students’ learning abilities which will carry on for the rest of their life. In addition, there is nothing that can compare to receiving a big smile from the kids with bright wide open eyes, grateful for that short teaching time. Languages have always been part of my life. The necessity for their knowledge and the utility that languages have in this new society based on communication, is what convinced me that schools should start foreign language teaching at the earliest age possible.
Parents may have concerns that learning a second or maybe a third language could confuse their child and delay the speech development. In my experience my children at the age of three could express themselves in three languages. In Europe it is very common for kids to be multilingual, due to the parents’ background or the region where they are growing up.
Being involved in language learning activities has a big repercussion on your children’s future learning. When the child’s brain is trained to think in another language, connect and recognize words not familiar to his/her mother tongue, there is stimulation of mental flexibility, reasoning and speech. The benefits of this stimulation could result in faster and more efficient learning.”
At First School we teach our 3 year olds Spanish on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during our Lunch Bunch hour. We teach our 4 year olds Spanish on Wednesdays during the Lunch Bunch hour and it is also an integral part of our Kindergarten Enrichment program. Spaces are still available in all classes. Please consider giving your child the gift of early language instruction.
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