Open House Sunday For Mandarin Preschool In Brattle Square

Arlington MA

19 November, 2020

11:15 AM

Description

From Your Arlington: Last Updated: 19 November 2020 Written by Bob Sprague Open house for 1042 Mass. Ave. from 2 to 3:30 pm. UPDATED, Nov. 19: Bear Cub Mandarin Immersion Preschool Academy plans to open this fall at the site of the former A & A Deli in Brattle Square, featuring a Mandarin language-immersion program for children ages 2.9 to 6 years old. "Given the current challenges, we hope to open soon," wrote MaeLynn Arnold, the school's CEO. "And we hope to be a source of encouragement, a place of safety and learning for the children in our community, and offer an opportunity for parents to co-create with us the legacy of the Mandarin language for our children." In the light of Covid-19, she wrote, teachers and staff have been trained and certified to take all proper protocols to keep the school community safe and healthy. The preschool offers morning and afternoon part-time sessions to provide what she calls the highest-quality language and educational experience to our students. Behind the name The Ohio native who lives with her husband and children in Arlington told what was behind the preschool's name, Bear Cub. "Although I am not the Chinese speaker in the family, I came up with the name of the school because I liked how the name sounds in Chinese (Xiao Shiong Xiao Xue -- all the first syllables start with a 'sh' sound). "But my husband said that those characters in Chinese mean 'elementary school,' not preschool. So now the Chinese name is a little different, but we kept the Bear Cub part in both English and Chinese." Bear Cub Mandarin is their first school. Ms. Arnold's background is in music: She is a violinist and a Suzuki-certified teacher with many years of study and experience working with preschool-age children and running a violin studio. Her husband is a scientist/researcher originally from Taiwan. Curriculum's vision "We run a bilingual household, Mandarin and English," she wrote, "and the vision of opening a preschool struck almost two years ago as we were looking into preschools for our daughter. The curriculum is Reggio Emilia-inspired and custom designed to provide exposure and contextual experience to a wide variety of vocabulary. This student-centered, self-guided curriculum, which uses self-directed, experiential learning, is based on respect, responsibility and community through exploration, discovery and play. At its core is an assumption, the Wikipedia entry says, that children form their own personality during the early years of development and that they are endowed with "a hundred languages," through which they can express their ideas. The aim of the Reggio approach is to teach children how to use these symbolic languages (e.g. painting, sculpting, drama) in everyday life. This approach was developed after World War II by pedagogist Loris Malaguzzi and parents in the villages around Reggio Emilia, Italy. As to number of students, the preschool can accept as many as 20 in each session. As to teachers, they have have a director/teacher and three teachers. "Our team is very excited to collaborate on the special project of launching a program and introducing our custom designed curriculum," she wrote. The opening date remains uncertain, as licensing remains more complicated because of Covid-19, but a fall opening is expected. Hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Interested parents should contacted directly through a form on the website or email contact [at] bearcubmandarin.org. The public can also subscribe through the website for updates. YourArlington.com has provided news and opinion about Arlington, Mass., since 2006. Publisher Bob Sprague is a former editor at The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Arlington Advocate. Read more at https://www.yourarlington.com/about.