Children like to have fun, but they also like to learn. Most adults think that learning and having fun are opposites right? Wrong! Children know that learning and playing go hand in hand. Without fun a child shuts down, closes up like a clam shell. A good example of playing at learning is how a child learns how to speak. The symbiotic interaction between a parent and a baby is a constant back and forth of sounds, giggles, tickles and laughs. And all this playing results in the baby learning the sound system of its native language, then learning words and phrases, and soon the baby has grown into a toddler that speaks English (or French or Chinese). It has played at learning how to speak.
Then why should learning a second language be any different? Why should children at a later age be expected to sit at their desk with pencil in hand, trying to memorize new words and be bored out of their minds?
Children are born with a desire to play, pretend and experiment. All you need to do is put on a play with Madeline as the main character and they will love to pretend to be French. Everybody knows that if you wear a yellow hat and a blue coat, and your name is Madeline, of course you speak French instantly. Or put on a show about Dora la Exploradora and, presto, you have changed your class full of ‘gringos’ into a bunch of ‘muchachos y muchachas’.
You cannot win children’s hearts and minds by boring them. They need to leaern through play. Through play. Then they become active participants in the learning process and there is nothing more rewarding for a teacher (or a parent) than a child who is enthusiastic about learning.
But how do children play at learning? They draw, they sing, they move about, they invent stories... All of these tools we call ‘The Creative Arts’. Yes, trough the Arts children express their feelings, ideas and fantasies.
So while your child is playing in our French and Spanish classes at fighting dragons and rescuing fair maidens, at pretending to be a ballerina or a pirate, your mind can be at rest knowing that they are actually working hard at learening a foreign language.