English, French, German (etc.) Playgroups for Bilingual Children in Italy

Bilingual For Fun was born in Italy, and here it is organizing Playgroups, i.e. opportunities for adults and children to meet and play in English, German, French, Spanish, name it! Basically in any language other than Italian.

We like to think of a place (both real and virtual) where kids and families of multiple nationalities, languages and cultures can meet. Both to help each other nurturing a language, and to help children see the diversity of the world’s languages and culture.

We started from Verona for practical reasons, and there we have two English, a German and French Playgroup. We are now looking for opportunities to launch Playgroups in other towns. Perugia (English) and Rome (French and German) are already on the list, but the sky is the limit. Playgroups are set up by Bilingual For Fun, but the day to day activities are run by a parent. So if you are looking for a Playgroup for your children let us know, and if you think you might run one definitely give us a shout, it won’t take much of your time at all.

This is how we run our playgroups: parents and children meet to play and there is only one rule, we don’t speak any Italian, only the Playgroup’s language. This doesn’t mean that everybody must be a native speaker in that language of course, but everybody must be fluent in it.

Playgroups are targeted at preschoolers, i.e. 0 to 6 years old. In some cases we also organise the playgroups by age range, one for small children, from first months up to about 3 years, and one for older children up to 6 years, although this is not always practical, particularly for families with more than one child.

The format is rather easy: we always sing few songs and then which we do different things: play with toys, read books, act a situation (like Let’s all catch the train!), jump, eat a snack, do the animals’ sounds, in short anything that grabs children and parents’ attention. However songs are always among the most beloved moments, some children dance sitting on the floor, others really sing (its simply amazing how children can sing in a language they don’t speak!). With older children it’s really impressive to see that the same children that see no reason to speak English at home (mostly following a perfectly sound logic) eventually speak it without even realising while playing.

See here for more informations on Playgroups and how they help children learn and speak the second language.

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