New businesses let kids’ play dictate the language

Channeling communication and creativity through play, three women say it’s their job to provide ideas, material and guidance; the kids do the rest.

Expats with new businesses in Turkey - an art center for kids and an afterschool play center - focused on English but soon found that play and creativity crosses language barriers. With a daily crowd of kids representing a blend of nationalities using English as the medium, Smart Cookies co-owner and teacher Stefani Sampson said the center was in part born from searching in vain for a similar place when her son was small. A year and half later, the result is an urban "neighborhood" feeling where intercultural play reigns.

After living in Istanbul for 13 years and teaching kids from preschool to high school, Sampson decided to open an afterschool center last year. A single mom, she said when her 9-year-old was a toddler she struggled to find activities for him.

"I always dreamt of a place that was child friendly, interesting for the parents and would help him grow creatively and socially," she said. Sampson says she grew up in a culture and generation where arts, crafts and cooking alongside parents were common activities at home. Today’s urban lifestyle of living in crowded cities like Istanbul in small apartments has changed the landscape for kids, she said. "It’s much harder for parents to do those kinds of things."

Enthusiasm is key
Sampson, a Los Angeles native, said a little more than half of the kids - a.k.a. Smart Cookies - who speak English as a second language have vastly improved in a short time. "I’ve been pleasantly surprised, whether they’re German, French or Turkish, by how quickly they improve their English here," she said. The key is their enthusiasm, she said. "The kids want to come here as soon as school gets out and they don’t want to leave in the evenings."

The other California-native and co-owner/teacher Shelby Graves Gürcan was teaching middle school at Şişli Terakki when she heard Sampson’s idea. She said Smart Cookies differed from other play centers because the kids are a multi-lingual group at play in a native English environment. Gürcan said parents of native English speaking children have told them that the center is helping to preserve their child’s connection with their culture and language.

She said kids who aren't native speakers are showing vastly improved performance in English lessons at school because their confidence is high. "When kids come here it is like they have gone abroad." One mother told them that her daughter was talking in her sleep in English - her second language. "Another father told us that his three-year-old was correcting his pronunciation: ’It's not tree, it's three, baba!’"

The programs are five days a week and registration is month-to-month, unlike other play centers that require longer commitments. On Saturdays, popular activities include the Mommy and Me program, which attracts mostly foreign moms with kids ages 1.5 to 3, and involve cooking, art, story time and songs. The cost is YTL 160 for four lessons. Smart Cookies is in Akatlar near Etiler at (0212) 351 6383.

Lots of lovely art at LOLA
Combining a few objectives under one roof, Alara Hindle has transformed an old coal depot in Emirgan into an inviting open-plan environment where kids are creative in play Ğ and in English. Half of the kids who come to LOLA are foreign and half are Turkish.

Hindle, 28, started Lots of Lovely Art, or LOLA, last year after studying Islamic Arts and Archeology at Oxford University and teaching English to Turkish children. She said she had hoped to provide relief to stressed-out kids she had seen in Istanbul schools. "They don't have time to be kids. They don't need any more lessons; they just need to chat," said the London native.

To her pleasant surprise, the venture has turned out to be more about the art than language. For most kids, the artistic inclination is evident when they walk in, she said. "Because it’s not school and nobody forces them to come, they’re already the creative types." LOLA hosts toddlers to teens in the following programs for the holidays, and the ongoing after-school programs and weekend workshops have earned a following.