No longer just high school or university students. Erasmus+the project that allows you to participate in a study program abroad recognized by your school, born in 1987 and which today attracts an average of almost 20,000 students per year, opens its doors to the little ones.
The Grosso municipal nursery in Bologna in fact it hosted 4 girls and 4 Spanish boys for 5 daysfrom 8 to 12 April 2024.
The little ones, enrolled in the Escuela de Educación Infantil La Julianita from the city of Aracena, in Andalusia, participated in various recreational-creative and cultural moments prepared by the educational structure, together with a parent each and 3 teachers from the Andalusian school. Among the activities stand out a nature walk and one in the historic center of the city, a visit to a children’s library and the Children’s Book Fair which was held on the days of Baby Erasmus.
This project of mobility abroad for children come on 3 to 6 yearswas defined by the municipality’s school councilor
Daniele Ara, «important and innovative, capable of bringing services, families and children into dialogue, united by an idea of a Europe that collaborates and invests in a future of coexistence and social development».
And this is precisely why we are faced with a great opportunity for comparison, increase and socio-educational growth also for teachers, who have the opportunity to learn and embrace other educational prototypes to implement and spread greater interculturality also at a training level.
At the same timethe children involved are put in a position to build relationships with their peers from other countries through multiple shared activities, thanks for example to the use of children’s books in Italian and Spanish.
The linguistic difference did not in fact translate into an obstacle as confirmed by Alessia Cingolani, pedagogist and head of international projects in the Education area of the Municipality: «the children spoke to each other in Italian and Spanish, understanding each other with great spontaneity».
An aspect that confirms what was explained by Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences and co-director of theInstitute for Learning & Brain Sciences of the University of Washington, who during a TEDx underlined that the phase of maximum learning aptitude for a second language ranges from 0 to 7 years.
The Baby Erasmus in Bologna has therefore proven to function smoothly, also extending to the smallest groups the principle on which it laid its foundations and began to grow years ago, namelysocial inclusion.
The hope is that the project will soon expandallowing more and more girls and boys who attend nursery school to go to Spain or other countries to live an experience of growth and knowledge.
by Beatrice Casella
3 min read
by Azzurra Rinaldi
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Tags: Bologna educational exchange among small
