LingoKids successfully kicked off another school year of foreign language classes. Founded in 2009 in the Tredyffrin Easttown School District to fill the void that was left when the district's own Spanish program was cut from the elementary schools, LingoKids is now in its fourth year and growing. "We have around 150 students in grades K-5 who are being exposed to a foreign language from native speakers at an age when they are still little language learning machines", says Helena Malarkey, the founder of LingoKids and mom of three from Berwyn. "We believe it is important to teach children at least one foreign language early, before they are in middle school and too self-conscious to try different sounds and sing songs. I think we all agree that foreign languages are becoming more and more important in today's globalized world. I tell parents all the time, that they would not wait to teach their child a sport until middle school either; to get that natural swing in baseball or tennis you have to start early. The same applies to a foreign language."LingoKids offers classes in Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin at seven different elementary schools in our area and just added Radnor Elementary and K.D.Markley Elementary to its growing list of schools.
