My name is Maria Ure and I am a native of Argentina. I have designed this Spanish program and have been successfully teaching it since 1986 in preschools in Manhattan Beach.  I have three fully bilingual children, ages 23, 18 and 13.

I designed my program with the purpose of providing the children with a fun learning experience. With that in mind, I try to promote with much enthusiasm the learning of the language by playing games, singing, acting and utilizing many visual aids. It is not just something they do for some time at school. It is a hands-on experience that becomes part of the children’s every day life. After they learn their first words, they will want to use them everywhere they go and share this knowledge with everybody.

The vocabulary they learn is very extensive and covers everyday topics such as the colors, numbers, parts of the body, the family, the sizes, the houses and the rooms, the animals, clothing, the community helpers, the city, the seasons, food names, the opposites, the farm, feelings, just to name a few. This extensive vocabulary is not learned in a vacuum but in a context that they can relate with in their everyday experiences. Once they get familiar with the new words, they begin to combine them together in short sentences that they use in class to communicate with each other and with me. This is a valuable experience that allows them to realize that Spanish words are not only something they can speak with me but they can also use among their classmates, at home, in the market, etc.

Studies show that children exposed to a second language before the age of six have a much greater ability to learn the language than adults do. The secret resides in their natural disposition to use all senses in the learning process. My teaching philosophy encourages them to participate in class by using their eyes (visual aids), their words (speaking), their hands (touching objects and materials), their ears (listening to me and to each other) and their whole bodies to express motions, feelings and interpret songs