Ship Ahoy! Classes
Our offer consists of a successful combination between all classes listed below, and depends on children’s individual interests and the shape and dynamic the group takes.
The Reading Club
is a great place for young readers to fall in love with books and develop this love into a lifelong relationship. Studies have shown that children with books stay three years longer in school than children without books.
Having this in mind, we provide easy access to a wide range of books with captivating stories, interesting topics and appealing characters, thus submerging young students into a world that is rich and sophisticated in vocabulary and ideas.
As we greatly value children’s spontaneity and honesty in sharing their experiences, we implement an interactive style of reading, which helps to accelerate their language development through social interaction.
We support children in sharpening their focused listening skills, developing comprehension, role playing, re-telling the story and building up a conversation around the topic, according to the principle "Conversation is gold".
Philosopher’s Umbrella
"People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day."
(Winnie-the-Pooh)
So, we gladly bring this ‘nothingness’ into our play and prefer discussing the smaller questions in life, till we are able to discuss the big questions.
Children are encouraged to think aloud, to take turns in expressing their own ideas, to articulate thoughts clearly, to practise independent judgement, to explore nuances of ideas, to listen to other opinions and to understand the views of others. This way children will benefit by developing critical and creative thinking, problem solving and deeper empathy.
We dedicate time for philosophical dialogue and inquiry, guided by the idea "better ask too many questions than too few."
Science, Experiment and Magic
We capitalize on children’s natural enthusiasm for learning through exploration. How to understand the world around me? How to differentiate between what’s real and what’s fiction?
We are trying to ensure a meaningful bridge between children’s rich imaginary world and the real concrete world. Children are excellent and passionate explorers, and we assist them on the road to observing, describing and understanding.
While carrying out science-based activities, we keep talking and asking questions, we make hypothesis and draw conclusions, staying curious, thinking like little scientists.
Arts, Crafts and Music
We devote much time to music and arts. Whether it will make us smarter, or elevate our cognitive skills, or get us better grades in school, we cannot be entirely sure.
While researchers are trying to find/(figure) this out, we’re just having fun with music and arts for the pure joy it brings. Since emotion is the gatekeeper to learning, drawing and painting emotions, memorizing lyrics, melodies and rhythm patterns are just a piece of cake for us, - even when we do it in English. Simply put, we are at our best when allowed to be the little artistic geniuses we are, letting our imagination take us wherever it wants.
Sometimes, when the muse strikes us, we write our own lyrics and make up our own songs.
And, of course, we will sneak a peek at the great artists’ works.
Build My City/My Farm
is a special project that relies strongly on crafting and activities that are meant to train children's spatial skills. Through cooperative construction play, children become familiar with spatial vocabulary.
The other benefits go far beyond those of learning a foreign language and are worth mentioning: they improve visualization of spatial relationships, creative thinking and help develop divergent problem-solving strategies.
The idea behind this project is that the children will have an early introduction to diverse professions and get the chance to 'practice' them in a playful way. For the most ambitious ones, we schedule visits to museums in town.