In this post, we are thrilled to share the insights of Katerina Sakellariou, an experienced English language educator from Greece.
Katerina has over twenty years of experience teaching in kindergartens and language schools, and a decade of experience within the Montessori Community. Her students, aged 10-11, have successfully completed the entire Moomin Language School curriculum, and here’s what they – and she – have to say about the experience.
I wholeheartedly embraced the opportunity to become one of the language teachers who would introduce young learners from Greece to the Finnish learning philosophy, and the Moomin Language School program seemed like the appropriate tool to do so.
To start with, what intrigued me in the first place was the well-rounded framework of the Moomin Language School platform, which enabled children to gradually develop their language skills. The use of songs, games, and stories appeals to young learners, making language learning a joyful experience. From recognition to repetition with genuine pronunciation, and from tracing to writing, the entire content appealed to my students a lot, and all this was achieved with independent use.
The limited time that the learners had to be exposed to the screen through the daily sessions was an added benefit to their learning process, aligning well with their attention span at that age. The Moomin characters made the lessons fun and relatable for the children, keeping them engaged throughout.
As for their parents, the most frequent comments were about the independent use of the program, which helped increase their children’s confidence without interfering with their daily school schedule. They also enjoyed seeing their children build language skills effortlessly and learn universal values.
Many students remember Moomin Language School's main characters Tommy and Lily well.
The thematic units covered many areas of vocabulary and gave us the opportunity to become more creative, interact, conduct research, and complete projects. Allow me to mention the ones that we particularly enjoyed:
• Jobs
• Festivals and celebrations
• Travel and transportation
• Food and meals
• Adventure and exploration
• Animals
• Space
• Reptiles
• Myths
• Ocean life
To top it all off, in levels six and seven, we really excelled. The children said that they felt as if they were in their Greek classroom, doing math, science, language, arts, drama, history, and world culture – all in an engaging and fun way.
Students enjoyed the learning application's interactive games.
To celebrate the completion of the program, we decided to prepare a big project where each student would make a complete presentation of a country of their choice, including information such as the flag, neighboring countries/oceans, some facts about their history/culture/music, and of course, a typical dish. We had a feast, we danced, we played traditional games – we really enjoyed ourselves.
Skills I feel the students have developed include:
• A strong foundation in listening, speaking, and basic reading/writing
• Improved creativity, memory, and problem-solving abilities
• Confidence in communication and a positive attitude toward learning
• Cultural awareness and empathy
We said goodbye to our Finnish friends with bittersweet emotions. Thank you so much for the wonderful trip to the world of language.
Kinds regards,
Katerina Sakellariou