The Capitol Hill small business world is a blur of food and drink. Bars replace bars, restaurants replace restaurants. Retail shops close and a bar or restaurant more often than not fills their space eventually, too. But not every new thing on Capitol Hill is a bar. Rosie Rodriguez has been running a full Spanish immersion pre-school since March 2009. It started in her home, financed by a state granted CASH loan, but recently she moved to Capitol Hill out of necessity. Rodriguez needed more space for the kids in the El Cuento language school and many of her clients live in the area. The school now serves 20 children during the week and is currently enrolling more.
“We’ll go to the park and say this is the tree, this is the car, this is the sign, but all in Spanish,” Rodriguez said. After hours, she will sometimes receive phone calls from confused parents asking for clarification on what their child is saying.
The school replaces a physical therapist that recently left the 19th Ave location across the street from the Country Doctor medical clinic.
Rodriguez’s pre-school is a busy place. It’s a language school but the students are still learning math and science and putting on puppet shows — but all of it is in Spanish. They even go on field trips to explore their world in the language.
“People want to learn Spanish,” said Rodriguez’s husband Fernando Alarcon. “There’s a big demand for it.”
First-time students are often timid and limit responses to “hola” but Rodriguez has found a way to construct meaning for even the newest students. To help the students understand the day’s schedule, different songs are sung at different times of day to signal when it is time to do different activities. Eventually, the kids catch on and associate the song–and maybe even some of the words in it–with the activity. After enough exposure children become proficient and are eager to share their knowledge with adults.
From Seattle Woman Magazine:
At her El Cuento Spanish Immersion Preschool, children who are not native Spanish speakers switch back and forth between Spanish and English. Rodriguez speaks to them only in Spanish:
“I want orange Play-Doh,” 2-year-old Emily says.
“En Español, por favor,” Rodriguez replies.
“All I could say when I got here was “Feliz Navidad,” 5-year-old Ivan tells me. “I can teach you some words.”
He points to a colored mat on the floor:
“Rojo” is red.
“Verde” is green.
“Perro” is dog.
“Gato” is cat.”
Rodriguez’s goal is for the students to eventually be able to read and write in Spanish as well but for now they are settling in to their new space.
“Sometimes the kids tell me they don’t want to go home at the end of the day,” Rodriguez says. “They are having fun while they are learning.”
We are so excited to have Rosie and El Cuento in the neighborhood! Our son had Rosie as a teacher a few years ago at another Spanish pre-school and he just loved it. He is now 5 and speaks Spanish very well with other native speakers.
Our daughter Sydney attended the school with Rosie for almost a year. She loved it. Has a montessori feel in the classroom. Rosie is loving, patient with the children while only speaking spanish, even while they speak english. Its amazing how the children are not intimidated by the language, and truely begin the process of understanding and speaking spanish. We only wish she had follow-on classes that we could send our Kindergartner too!
Congratulations Rosie!!
Peg & Sydney
My 3 you daughter has been going since she was 27months old. I was afraid she would be so scared because of the lack of English. She was tired for the first few days and but had so much fun she always wanted to go back. Now I can hardly get her to leave! I also LOVE Rosie’s teaching style; no time outs, speaks with positive instructions, VERY patient and very creative. I wish the parents could come so I could have as much fun learning Spanish!
We have been with Rosie at El Cuento since she opened in March 2009. Our daughter has been so very happy and stimulated at this school. She has been in Spanish immersion pre-school since she was 2 and now has an excellent understanding of the language (even when Rosie speaks very quickly) and is starting to speak much more. She comes home telling about her day ( interactions with other kids, circle time, reading, local walks, projects, dress up, sand play, water play etc) and singing her heart out in Spanish. Thank you Rosie for bringing this opportunity into our area. It is wonderful!
This sounds like an exciting place to spend the day for our almost 3 year old, articulate toddler.