Involve me and I learn

Involve me and I learn

Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s Founding Fathers, a polymath, great intellectual and thinker once said: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”.

This very thought is the underpinnings of the Kids English Club 100% English Camp philosophy. Different from the traditional day camp where English is just one of the many activities that the children participate in throughout their day. At our camp, the children participate in a variety of activities throughout the day IN ENGLISH.

Children being raised bilingually need the opportunity to take what they have been taught throughout the school year and use it in a meaningful way that will help them build their confidence in the use of what is called the “minority language”. Living in Spain, where English is their minority language, bilingual children are limited in their opportunities to use their second language skill on an ongoing basis.

Those who are “bilingual from birth” or “native bilinguals” perhaps have the opportunity to practice at home when their English speaking parent isn’t working. Children who are going through a bilingual educational program perhaps don’t even have this limited contact with English during the summer months.

Now in its 4^th year, our 100% English Camp is designed specifically with the bilingual child in mind. We aren’t a teaching camp. We don’t directly teach your children the use of the present perfect tense or how to conjugate verbs or how to count to 1000. Your children will learn these skills through the variety of exciting and creative activities we have planned for them… whether they ask to use the scissors, follow choreography instructions, or have to report the distance their catapult shot an object, they are fully immersed, involved with and producing the English language. “…Involve me and I learn…”

We are thrilled to continue this camp that is quickly becoming a favorite among the English speaking community in Madrid. Even more important, this is a personal project for me – the struggle to involve my son in my native language so that he, too, may become a competent speaker of both English and Spanish.  Like you, I celebrate and value the bilingualism in my child. I encourage you to get to know this project and join with us this summer while the children play, do sports, sing, dance, explore and create … ALL IN ENGLISH!

Rebecca Gaspar

Director

Iberenglish LP