Child's age: 2.5yrs old
Language spoken in the family: Russian/Italian/English
We are a trilingual family, speaking Russian and Italian to our 2.5 year old daughter and English amongst ourselves.
Our daughter spends most of her week with a Russian speaking nanny, and to counter balance this, we wanted to complement with some Italian exposure since my husband has a very demanding job, and does not always get to spend much time with our daughter during the week.
We consider ourselves lucky to have found Serenella to achieve this. The formula we have adopted is for our daughter to spend 2 hours twice per week with Serenella doing one-to-one sessions.
In our opinion, and based off the progress we have seen so far, this is the best way for the little ones to learn and establish proper bond with the teacher. Serenella is very creative in putting together activities that our daughter would really engage in and enjoy doing, and we always have that peace of mind when leaving our daughter with her.
Her previous experience as a nursery practitioner and a nanny also helps, but she is also very empathetic and attentive to our daughter's needs.
Indeed, our daughter has been looking forward to spending time with Serenella each time
and she has been clearly expressing this to us. Obviously, for her it's all about playing,
whereas Serenella very skilfully enriches our daughter's world by offering her
new things to do and learn, and all of this in Italian.
Last but not least, after each week Serenella forwards
very detailed report and photos showing what they've done,
and we have been sharing these with our family in Italy
(which they found very interesting and look forward to).
All in all, we are extremely happy with the arrangement
and Serenella's teaching.
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Yulia
Child's age: 5yrs old
Language spoken in the family: English/ Italian
Ho conosciuto Serenella in uno dei miei soggiorni a Londra.
A. il mio nipotino mi parlava della "My italian teacher" ed eccola,un pomeriggio, arrivare sorridente: "Mary Poppins " in versione moderna, con "valigetta magica" da dove fuoriuscivano: pupazzi, matite e stoffe colorate, zucche, schede, carte, palline, libri, tutto un mondo magico!
Attività ludiche, creatività, manualità, movimento corporeo, linguaggio per lo sviluppo del bambino nella sua interezza.
Le lezioni -gioco o l'imparare-giocando si svolgevano con professionalità,regole,divertimento,
fantasia,leggerezza,tutto spiegato con linguaggio ricco,chiaro,vario,semplice che aiuta
e aiuterà A. ad imparare l'italiano e a raccontarsi con meno difficoltà
con la sua nonna italiana.
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Da quando A. segue le lezioni di "My italian teacher"
il nostro comunicare è migliorato notevolmente e mi racconta di più.
Thank you Serenella!
Grazie mille!
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Con stima ed affetto
Mimma Marchica Pezzana
"Nonna Mimma".
Child's age: 3yrs old
Language spoken in the family: English/ Italian
"My son is 3 ½ and has now had about 15 sessions with Serenella.
Although I always talk to him in Italian, his preferred language is English, so I wanted to boost his confidence in Italian and decided to have 1-2-1 sessions with Serenella. I also wanted him to understand that apart from me, there are many other people who speak this language and he shouldn’t feel negative about it.
Serenella has always been great at helping him learn through play. She adjusted the sessions to fit his personality: she plans lots of activities so he never gets bored and can gradually increase his attention spam and ability to follow instructions.
When we now play together, he can stay focused on the same game for a longer time and has improved at following instructions in Italian. Also, the sessions have helped him expand his vocabulary.
Serenella always gives me a recap of the last session with the key topics covered so we can practise new words over the following week.
This is making him feel much more confident in Italian and he now basically
only speaks Italian to her and to my family in Italy, which is really helping them
bond even if they do not see each other very often.
He really enjoys the sessions and he’s always looking forward to seeing
Serenella. In addition, she is very reliable and has build a very strong
relationship with him.
I would thoroughly recommend the sessions to the parents
of bilingual children."
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Camilla
Child's age: 4yrs old
Language spoken in the family: English
"Our four year old daughter has been having an hours lesson every week for six months now and we can’t recommend Serenella highly enough. To us she’s like an Italian Mary Poppins who arrives with her small suitcase of language tools, toys and games and manages the tricky feat of educating /improving our child’s language skills, whilst keeping her entertained.
We’ve experienced problems keeping our daughter engaged with Italian
but Serenella is very responsive to her moods and likes and will tailor each weeks lesson
based on what engages our daughter best, be that play, dress up, stories, etc etc.
Our daughter attended nursery in Italy between the age of two and four
but unfortunately we, her parents, can barely speak Italian.
We feel that Serenella has been vital in maintaining our daughters
confidence speaking the language and crucially being a person
who makes learning fun. Serenella also offers us tips (songs, videos,
games) to use outside of the lessons."
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Neil
Child's age: 8yrs old
Language spoken in the family: English/ Italian
"Serenella is a fabulous teacher who really understands my child's learning needs, very creative with resources and has an ability to design wonderful and interactive lessons.
Having spoken Italian to my daughter since birth, she was a "passive" bilingual,
she would understand but would not speak Italian. Serenella engages her
with fun activities and develops sessions that are child-centred.
She has a warm personality and my daughter adores her.
My daughter has made consistent progress and most important,
has changed her attitude from reluctant to enthusiastic speaker "
Sara
Child's age: 3yrs old
Language spoken in the family: English/ Italian
We are a mix languages household (English/Italian), with a 3 year old son.
We found out about Grillo Parlante in October 2019 through the app Hoop as we were looking for Italian classes for our little one. Our 2 year old (at the time) loved the classes from day one. Serenella's approach to the classes is perfect for young children, it keeps them entertained and at the same time is very educational.
As our son was always looking forward to our Wednesday Italian class and we wanted to get him more exposed to Italian, we decided to try the 1 to 1 session. We have been having 1 to 1 with Serenella since January and we couldn't be happier. The little one is always very excited to have his lessons and very much looks forward to it.
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At home I'm the only one speaking Italian to our son and the improvements that he has made since we've met Serenella have been amazing. He can easily switch between English and Italian; his vocabulary, expressive language and confidence in talking Italian have improved dramatically.
We haven't stopped having 1 to 1 with Serenella during this challenging times, we started having 2 online sessions of 30 minutes each a week and we are now doing 3 lessons a week. Having online sessions has helped with giving a structure to our week at home, our son is still very excited to play with Serenella and his Italian keeps improving.
If you are a parent who's considering having their child learning Italian,
I couldn't recommend Serenella highly enough.
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Riccardo
Child's age: 2 and 1/2 yrs old
Language spoken in the family: Italian
We are an Italian family, we speak Italian at home.
The Children attend English schools and they don't have any Italian friends.
We strongly felt the need to help our younger daughter to develop her Italian. When she was 2 yrs and a half, she was not able to speak Italian. She was able to understand all the conversation but wasn't able to speak.
We’ve done 10 sessions of 2 hours each with Serenella so far, and after 3/4 sessions she started to speak, expressing her basic needs, and day by day she is able to share her emotions, her thoughts. She’s more conscious about her language skills and this language improvements boost her capacity to be more responsive.
Thanks to these big changes her listening skills are improving too. The child is more collaborative and few weeks ago we have been able to forget about the dummy, avoiding any stressful and painful moments.
Serenella is able to capture her attention even via Skype session! After COVID 19 spread the baby is doing Skype session with Serenella. She’s listening to her very carefully, actively participating to all the dancing and singing activities. Most of the time she stays sit on the chair, enjoying this new way of interaction, and looking forward to having her next lesson.
She really loves Serenella, after few session Serenella has been able to create an emotional link with the the baby, at home she always speaks and asks about her.
We really recommend Serenella help to boost kids language skills, to diversify the usual daily activities and to follow a professional, effective and proficient teaching method.
Luigia