The Finnish magazine Kasvu, which is a magazine for early childhood education professionals, wrote an article about Moomin Language School in March. The article is written by Jaana Laitinen.
Language Learning through Play
The editors of the Kasvu magazine had the opportunity to follow a playful lesson in English at Tenava-Taapero, a kindergarten in Southern Finland. Moomin Language School's playful lessons are very popular and children get to learn English through songs, play and tablets. Playful lessons are for social learning where children learn the foreign language by moving, listening, singing and looking at pictures. Playful lessons are held by the children's own familiar teacher, and children have fun learning new languages together with their friends.
4,000 Words in 4 Years
Moomin Language School is a digital language learning service for children aged 3-7. It includes weekly playful lessons and an educational mobile language learning application for daily use. The language learning application is for independent learning for 5-15 minutes per day. Foreign language is learned in small doses every day - this way the child won't get overly stimulated and lose interest. The kindergarten educators will make sure that every child gets to practice the foreign language daily. Parents can follow their child's progress online. Moomin Language School has curricula for four years, and children get to learn 4,000 new words during that time.
Second Language Develops the Brain
Learning a second language causes no harm but there is a lot of advantages in it. When children turn 3, they have learned the basics of their mother tongue. Some believe that learning a second language is somehow harmful for the child's mother tongue development, but research has proven this wrong. At the age of 3-7 years, children go through a sensitive period during which they are highly receptive to new skills. During this period, children can easily learn new languages.
Read the article in Finnish here.
