English for kids?

[mutsi]

Hi there! Does any English speaker living in Helsinki region know a English speking KERHO (club? playgroup?) for small children?

I'm a single mother of two (2 and 4 years). The father (who's mother tongue is English) meets the kids maybe once in a week and this is of course NOT enough to make them bilingual. So the kids don't speak English, though they do understand some. I feel that the kids are pretty confused and sometimes even distressed about this situation. We also travel quite alot and especially the older one who's really talkative suffers when he's not able to communicate with people.

I know there are several English kindergartens (and also schools) in Helsinki, but at the moment I'm not able to put the kids in one of those. So I was thinking if there would be any "compensatory activity" that could support the English language development of my kids.

Pls, if you know anything, let me know!

[raamv]

Kids TV: One of the major influence of my DD speaking fluently in English..
We get it via a satellite dish..but you can also subscribe via cable ( Viasat, Canalplus etc)
my DD learnt english from primarily watching a /(English + little Spanish) Bilingual American program called "Dora the Explorer" and then there are others like "Little Bill" "little einstiens", etc..
Another way is by reading books to them.
The biggest rule to follow is that One of you speak strictly in English and the other in Finnish..Once you start wavering..they start wavering too..

[Bella]

There is a kindergarten in Helsinki where you can apply for 4 hours per day in what days you like. You can choose morning or afternoon time. And what raamv said is true, they can learn a lot from Tv, and I like Dora the explorer (for my kids, not for me ).

[littlefrank]

My daughters english improved by reading to her, watching english cartoons and films, also I would deliberately say things wrong to her, like hurry up and put your gloves on your feet or hand her a jumper and say put these trousers on. she would then laugh and correct me... Also she enjoyed (still does) using 'eurotalk talk now english', if you like I could send you my er back up copy.

[Eledi]

hello, i am also a single mom, my daughter is 5 years old...i,m native english speaker, but due to being in Finland for about 4 years now, i tend to speak english to her but now and then drop few words/sentences in finnish...her dad is a finn, but since they meet once a week, its also not enough for her to learn finnish from him(luckily she learns it very well from her day care).....for me...she has learnt so much from Kids channels..i got a package,,shes got Disney channel,Play house disney and two others....she watches every evening after day care few programs....and weekends at our place or at her dads she watches much more(longer),,,,so on weekdays she can watch, say 1 hour and a half or 2 ,,depends on the days and programs..i tell you, shes catching up so fast and i am amazed......, i would advice you to get the channels..and if you already have those, try to go through the programs and check out "some" which you think would be funny but educative and make sure they watch them.For me, i don't have to choose them for her, she just likes the channels and all the programmes, so when we put the TV on for her, and i put one of those channels she just sits there and listens,,and now she even tells me to change sometimes..like..mummy i've seen that already, could you change to Toon disney....i feel so happy when she speaks english to me,and i thank God for that.