LITTLE PIM BLOG
Dance Party: Little Pim + Baby Loves Disco
Attention New York families! If lazy Sundays aren't your thing, come down to (le) poisson rouge in Greenwich Village this Sunday (9/15) from noon to 3pm! Little Pim will be joining Baby Loves Disco at for an all-out, baby-centric dance party. With classic tunes from the 70s and 80s that mom and dad may remember, plus a chill-out room full of books, puzzles, and other surprises, this will definitely be a party the whole family can enjoy. For more information about ticketing and the location, click here. We'll be waiting for you in the chill-out room.
Little Pim at the Babies R Us Learning Center - Saturday 9/7
It's Grand Opening weekend at the Babies R Us Learning Center, and Little Pim will be there with bells on! Swing by the Union Square Babies R Us sometime tomorrow, Saturday, September 7, between noon and 3:00pm to visit the Little Pim table and discover some other amazing educational toys for your little ones.
Don't forget to say hi – you could win a French Deluxe Gift Set!
Little Pim Coming To Toys"R"Us
Little Pim is proud to announce that we will be featured in the new education expansion at Toys"R"Us stores nationwide and online at Toysrus.com. For more information read here: Toys"R"Us® Expands Year-Round Education Product Selection, Debuts All-New Imaginarium® Learning Line
National Teacher Day Memoirs
Guest blogger Thea Hogarth currently works in product development in Little Pim, and today shares some of her experiences as an English teacher in France. She taught in France during the 2011-2012 academic year. Today is National Teacher Day, and it’s hard to imagine that almost exactly a year ago today, I was preparing to leave behind a year of teaching English in France. This time last year, I was attempting to pack an entire bedroom’s worth of stuff into a suitcase. I had spent the previous eight months assistant teaching English in three primary schools in the French city of Angers with the French Éducation Nationale’s TAPIF program… and I was exhausted. Mind you, I had no reasonable excuse: I worked 12 hours a week and got two weeks of vacation for six weeks of school (totaling a whopping two full months!). Plus I was living smack in the middle of a wine region in the Loire Valley; I was living, by definition, the good life.
But many of my students weren’t. Two out of my three schools were officially classified as being in the ZEP (Zone d'Education Prioritaire), the French classification for high poverty schools - the kind of environment that can really wear a teacher down. I entered the school year expecting my students to be little French angels, enchanted by the idea of meeting an American straight from New York. And, indeed, my first few classes were peppered with adorable questions along the lines of, “Do you have to take an airplane home after school everyday?” but my novelty quickly wore off. Many of my students were born outside of France and were already familiar enough with the experience of the foreigner. Class time with me quickly became an opportunity to throw paper at the back of my head, imitate me to my face, and kick me in the shins (who knew how easily Simon Says could become a contact sport!). By the beginning of my second week, I was taking breaks to secretly cry between classes.
Yes, I was basically living the first half of “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit,” but with 8-year-olds… and in France. And, yes, my story also has a reasonably happy ending. By the end of the year, we had grown accustomed to each other; we had learned each other’s boundaries, but more importantly, we had learned to laugh together. Teachers in the ZEP and in schools around the world work hard to create safe, supportive classroom environments – becoming masters of the alchemy of turning aggression and frustration into laughter and trust.
As I said goodbye to the kids who made me cry, one boy came up to me on the playground and pulled this note out of his sleeve (transcribed exactly as written): “Dear Théa, We miss you already, you are fantastic. We were happy end when you were in our class room. We wish you good holidays. Hello Théa good bay thea!” Undoubtedly, he and his classmates had put their heads together to compose this masterpiece (with outside help, I’m sure), and I was grateful. Of course I was thrilled by this somewhat unexpected display of affection, but more than that, I was gratified that they had created something for me in English even though they knew I understood French. They had reached across a gulf much larger than that between teacher and student.
Today, of all days, I’m thinking back not only on my year in France, but also on all the amazing teachers who made my experience in France possible. My engaging, imaginative French teachers ultimately enabled me to apply (and be accepted) to this teaching program, and inspired me to smile through the tears. Today, let’s all think about the amazing educators in this country and around the world who practice patience and compassion to create a classroom environment that is both supportive and inspiring.
Kids Night Out With Little Pim!
Little Pim will be at J&R Kids in Manhattan on Saturday December 15th, at 5pm.Come down for a fun-filled afternoon of singalongs, stories, and Little Pim! Join Sonia and Mona for this very special evening of bilingual fun, absolutely free. To learn more about this event, please click here.
Little Pim Sandy Update
Dear Friends,We're pleased to announce that Little Pim is back up and running in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. We were all lucky enough to get through the storm with minimum disruption. Although the office was without power for a while, we're grateful that our staff, friends and colleagues are safe.
On our first day back in the office though, our thoughts go out to all those who have not been so fortune. To those who have lost their homes, their businesses, and even their lives - to people for whom getting back to normal will take considerably longer than a week.
We'd like to thank everyone for their patience and their support over the last week.
Best,
The Little Pim Team
A Message from Little Pim after Hurricane Sandy
Dear Friends of Little Pim,We wanted to let you know that we made it through the storm ok, and the office has not been damaged. Our site is still up, and our warehouse is shipping product, operating off a generator, to parts of the country not affected by Sandy. We are New Yorkers! It takes more than a little wind and surge to ruffle our feathers, but this WAS and is, a big one. My family was evacuated from our apt in Battery Park City and we just returned yesterday after two days, happy to find minimal neighborhood damage despite the 14 foot waves that washed over our streets. We are now one of the only neighborhoods below 34th street with power, and feel very lucky to have it.
Thank you for your support and patience as we try to get back to work this week. The MTA is still closed, and 4 of our 7 staffers have no power. The office (on 17th street) has no power and will not re-open until it does. Those of us who have electricity and Internet at home are working from home when we have Internet access, which is intermittent. Please excuse us if we don't answer emails in a timely way, as we are juggling whichever business issues are most pressing.
We hope you and your families and friends in the metropolitan area were out of harm's way and our hearts go out to the many families with young children who are still caught up in the aftermath of Sandy, with no power and much uncertainty about the days to come.
Thank you for being part of our extended Little Pim family. And Happy Halloween. We will all make sure our kids still have a wonderful Halloween and will remember this as, "that Halloween", when everything was upside down. And then, life goes on. C'est la vie. Please read my P.S. for how you can help.
Best,
Julia Pimsleur Levine
p.s. We will suffer a serious loss of income in the days and weeks following the hurricane, as will millions of local businesses. For small businesses like ours this can have a huge and lasting impact. As you probably know, New York and its environs comprise one of our largest markets and sales may seriously drop off as people focus on recovery. If you have friends far from the hurricane's path, please encourage them to buy Little Pim on our site as a gift for a child under six this year. Thank you, every gift set counts! Use HALLOPIM for 15% off.
Little Pim Receives 25th Award!
LITTLE PIM RECEIVES 25TH PARENTING AWARD!
**The Series’ “Spanish Intro Gift Set with Book” Honored on
Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products Awards Program for 2012**
Little Pim, the foreign language learning program for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, has just earned its 25th award. The “Spanish Intro Gift Set with Book” was just honored on Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products Awards Program for 2012.
Little Pim’s Spanish, French and Chinese iPad Apps were also recently awarded the 2012 National Parenting Center Seal of Approval, which judges a variety of products introduced to the parent/child consumer market. This is the series’ fourth win from the National Parenting Center. The Little Pim language series has now earned a total of 25 consumer and educational awards from leading organizations such as the National Parenting Center and Dr. Toy.
About Little Pim:
Little Pim is an award-winning foreign languagelearning program for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Between birth and the age of six, the human brain is hard-wired for language learning, and Little Pim helps families take advantage of this brief window, by makinglanguage learningeasy, fun and effective. Little Pim’s unique Entertainment Immersion Method® provides total immersion in the language. The method engages a child’s love of play watching real kids and animation. Little Pim’s proven repetition technique helps children retain new vocabulary. Founded on clinical research in early childhood development, Little Pim is available 11 languages including Spanish, French, Chinese and Italian
on videos, music, books, flash cards, gift sets and more. Come see why Little Pim is the number one way to teach kids a foreign language at www.littlepim.com.
For more info:
Aliza Rabinoff/DKC
Little Pim on NBC's Weekend Today Show Segment "Visiones"
Little Pim's founder Julia Pimsleur Levine was on NBC's Weekend Today (WNBC/NY) on Saturday! Click the video below to watch Julia's interview with Lynda Baquero, host of "Visiones".
Julia and Lynda talk about Little Pim and discuss just how easy it is for young children to absorb new languages.
Hear what Julia has to say on bilingual kids, learning a new language and early childhood development, and see just how easy it is for your kids to learn a new language with Little Pim!
Olympic Moms and language learning with Ali Wentworth
