Sicilian family enjoys learning English together with Helen Doron!
Patrizia Bellitto is the daughter of an English teacher and was lucky enough to learn to speak the language at a very young age. She and her husband, Alfredo, are both software programmers, and work for a semiconductor multinational industry in Sicily, which is in southern Italy. Two-year old Simone attends Baby’s Best Start at the Helen Doron Messina Sud Learning Centre where Valeria Gennaro is the manager and teacher of their son’s course.
She is very pleased with the Helen Doron methodology and when asked what she thinks of teaching such young children English she was quick to tell us “If I could go back in time, I would enroll Simone in Baby’s Best Start a year before, when he was only 10 months old! It’s never too early, and the activities of this course are perfectly designed for little babies to learn English along with their mother tongue.
“I’m very satisfied with the classes and the activities we do during the lessons. Simone still does not speak, only a few words (even in Italian….), but I’m sure that he is learning almost all the words covered in the course because he understands everything if I speak with him in English. Simone enjoys himself a lot during the classes! Above all when there are manual activities like painting or playing with balls and other instruments. He is a very lively child, so this is the best way to attract his attention.”
Patrizia reflects that they originally chose to send Simone to Helen Doron as it is conveniently located close to their home, but continues to send him as, “I immediately saw the benefits of this method, where the learning is achieved through games, music, songs and fun.”
Last Christmas, Patrizia reports that Simone’s gift from his parents was a boxed set of Didi the Dragon stories “and we use the app with the augmented reality in order to watch the videos and listen to the songs, which he loves. We also downloaded and frequently use the Dragon Tales series app. ”
Learning English has become a family activity. “At home we speak Italian, of course, but since we started to attend Helen Doron class, I try to speak some English at home. Alfredo has started to attend a private course at Helen Doron school, as well! He wants to improve his knowledge of spoken business English. I work in a multinational company where speaking more than one language is necessary if you want to grow your career. But it is important not only for business purposes: English language is a part of our everyday life, regardless of where we live in the world!”
Patrizia concluded with a message to parents who are considering Helen Doron classes for their young children. “We recommend Helen Doron to everyone we know and will continue doing so. I want to especially thank Valeria, our very helpful and patient teacher, and I’m sure that Simone will attend all the courses of the Helen Doron school!”
