Bilingual Birdies parent-and-me class should arrive in Valley Stream in March
Marilyn Duque of Bayside and her yellow chick puppet named Myla. Credit: LeidyDanisu Photography
A new parent-and-me class meant to introduce kids to the Spanish language has launched in Little Neck and should be coming to Long Island beginning in March.
Marilyn Duque, who launched Bilingual Birdies in Queens this month, is planning to begin a class in Valley Stream as well. “We teach Spanish through music, dance and puppetry,” Duque says. “There’s key words that are in Spanish. We do a lot of repetition and we translate.”
The weekly, 45-minute class features a puppet named Myla, a yellow chick who only speaks Spanish. Duque leads the live singing playing maracas and drums. Class also includes a “fiesta” dance party and parachute time. Class is geared to newborns through age 5.
Bilingual Birdies is a national franchise. Duque decided to debut classes in Queens and on Long Island because she says she couldn’t find such a program for her own young children, ages 3 and 5. “I have a love for the language and the culture,” says Duque, who is Colombian and lives in Bayside.
Each session is six weeks long; classes are $30 each and there is a $15 registration fee that includes a Bilingual Birdies CD download of songs. The current classes are at 10 a.m. Sundays at the Alley Pond Environmental Center, 22806 Northern Blvd., Little Neck. The Valley Stream location is currently being finalized, Duque says.
For more information, call 516-200-2691 or visit bilingualbirdies.com.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
