Ciao a tutti, I am so proud of this last product we have realise for you and I want to tell you more about it. “LE MINI-STORIE” is a limited edition of simulation stories, where a child is completely engaged in a multisensory experience. The reader will be able to touch the language and feel it and experience the story through a combination of sound and image. To this purpose, the tale is built to be told in a way that stimulates the visual perception and, so, the children interaction with the story. This allows the children to learn new vocabulary, recognise the sign and link a form to a concept. The Mini-Stories have been created according with the linguistic principle of structuralism and semiotic. A child understands intuitively that there is more then one way to express a concept. The research, conducted by University of British Columbia and Université Paris Descartes and published in the Nature Communications journal, shows that infants in bilingual environments use pitch and duration to discriminate between languages with opposite word orders. Which basically means, baby is working overtime to listen to — and differentiate — the sounds (both long and short) you’re making when you form words. Baby’s special linguistic brain advantages come in three varieties: pure mental computation (number of synapses), brain plasticity, and sound perception. All of these are overlaid with the inherent human trait of acquiring language as soon as possible. Aside from being proverbial sponges, infants are more perceptive than adults, especially in the realm of sound perception. Infants are infinitely better at detecting different sounds and hearing the nuances in foreign languages with perfect clarity and precision. These individual sound elements are called ‘phonemes,’ and decades of scientific studies have provided overwhelming evidence that adults perceive the same sound differently than infants. Books are the most effective tool for teaching language, the Mini-Stories is the perfect gift for your precious one-on-one moments and to create a dialogue, encouraging your child’s comments, responses, and elaborations. Talk about what the characters are like and what they might be doing next. Exploring a new language together and play the character of the story make your journey inside our magic story a fun and exiting way to learn a second language. The Mini-Stories include a short story in both languages (Italian and English) to help you to follow the story with your child and an animated story to play with and interact the mains character that will be expressing and perform the linguistic key words. The Mini-Stories are full of imagination is an open ended game and a creative way to promote reading as one of the biggest treasure we have. I wish you a magic reading moment!  

Ciao a tutti, First of all I would like to introduce the art and craft for this week. I really look forward to see my Mini-Explorers having fun with playdough this week for our Frozen Pizza! Yes, I just say PIZZA! How would have been possible to have a Term discovering food without a pizza. Food is an experience and stimulates many senses. This Term we aim to interact our Mini-Explorers in different activities and help them to discover different materials. Our creative play this week is inspired from the smell of the wooden fire and the tomatoes with the basil. From the flavour of the mozzarella sticking on the hands. Most of all from the memory I still have to make the pizza with my Nonna. The way she kneads the dough of the pizza and she pass to us. It is an unforgettable feeling of my childhood the pizza on Saturday night. We use to have a lot of fun with Nonna to make the pizza and rolling the dough with “IL MATTERELLO”. The rolling pin that my Nonna used to have to make her delicious pasta, cakes and pizza. Minitalia Lab have created a special toy for our Mini-Explorer. The famous MATTERELLO will open the series of our creative games from the MINI-SHOP. The idea of the Mini-Shop is to offer you the opportunity to have our unique props designed and crafted from the fantastic hands of Minitalia Lab to stimulate an imaginative play and improve the Italian trough it. The rolling pin is hand made and come with the Italian recipe of the pizza to allow you and your Mini-Explorer to have fun to discover one of the tradition of Italy and share the pleasure to make the pizza at home together. You will find IL MATTERELO and more toys and stories to shop in your workshops. It is only a limited edition and each piece is unique. Make your play an exiting journey to learn Italian with creativity and… Enjoy your pizza!  

Ciao a tutti, I hope you all are enjoying this first term together. I can’t believe we are already at week 5 and most of my Mini-Explorers are already confident with some of the new words we have been practicing during this week. What exciting journey around the market. I love markets, I think they always express a lot about the local culture. I like the smell and the colours of the market. I like to see people shopping and fill bags with different kind of food the one that most suits their diet. I love to see my Mini-Explorers interact with our creative play created around the market to stimulate their verbal and cognitive skills. Discover their preferences about food and see them create our art and craft, inspire me as much as exploring a new market. The appetite of discovering they have is a wonderful expressiveness of imagination. It brings alive the culture around the food and open a window on the table of the world. Looking on our meal it is like to look inside our personality, I think. Sometimes tell us more then a story. I had a lot of fun to find some of the books we are reading this term and my pick is following a crescendo of emotion to bring you to one of our unique props story. I know that I often take a long break from this page but I recommend to visit our Mini-Blog in the following weeks because there are some very exciting news for you. I don’t want to anticipate more but get ready for next week, “Il Gelato Raffreddato” by Federica Sconocchia is arriving at Minitalia Lab to introduce our Mini-Explorers to the Italians rhymes, a very good exercise for our tongue… Buon appetito!  

Ciao a tutti, I have looked at the fireworks this year and thought at them such as an explosion of emotion. They have welcomed the beginning of a new year and greet the year behind. Dreams, ideas, love, passion, of all the special moments pass and the one we wish forward. Minitalia Lab celebrate a year of life in 2014 and we happily remember all the fantastic adventures we had during the year. This year of experience has been a stellar start for a new year plenty of surprise. We are so proud of the job we all have done together and what we have achieved so far. The passion that we bring along will never finish to make us to create more and give always the best to our Mini-Explorers. We have designed a new programme that keep alive the job made last year with many new ideas to stimulate the creativity of our children. Minitalia Lab has built a strong personality during this year and has brought to life a unique programme designed and created by us. Our curriculum offers to the children the opportunity to experience a new language and to develop cognitive, sensory and motor skills. Minitalia Lab is also a studio where children can express themselves and understand what they like. Our workshops are inspired by contemporary artist and we often bring to a new life old artist to provide an inspirational experience and feel the completeness of the world and understand the mystery of life. We love to surround the children with the best atmosphere and the greatest material giving them the most modern tools to listening, watching, experiencing and participating actively to our wonderful trip. We have updated our material to exchange with our Mini-Explorers thought and ideas by activating all of the senses and multiple intelligences to develop a multidimensional form of Italian. This Term we will invite the children to recognise what they see on the table and how food is part of our life. We will play to make breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, in one of the most famous market of Rome. Our Mini-Explorers have always a lot to tell and ask, we try to make of this a story of a joyful life! Are you ready to jump on our Mini-Bus to discover our next stop? Term 1, 2014 is about to beginning.  

Ciao a tutti, The Mini-Christmas Tree is now ready to wait for our final workshop with Santa Clause. It is almost time for a new year. We have now complete our first year journey together. I would like to thank all the Mini-Explorers from Minitalia Lab to have been part of this fantastic trip. We have so many new adventures for the new year. Timetable for Workshops 2014 are now on the website and I can’t wait to tell you more story and to build more surprise together. We have reserved a very unique programme for you with inspiring new artists to explore and more games to play. So much more to create for a new year together. Minitalia Lab is now launching Gift Voucher, for a very special present for your family and friends. Take the chance to make your present and give something unforgettable to the people you love. Sharing with them the pleasure to discover a new culture and much more, through our creative play in the magic world of Minitalia Lab. We love to see our Mini-Explorers growing and sharing this pleasure with you. Thanks for all the smiles you gave us during this year, for such a unique present you made to us. Buon Natale!