● Programs

Bilingual Birdies Asheville

Join us for our caregiver-child community classes at The Well in West Asheville. We gather mixed-aged learning groups from babies through age 5, so that parents can bond with their children in the target language. If your child is older than 5, they are welcome to come— we just target the 1-5 age group with our puppetry, repetitive melodies, age-appropriate musical props, and imaginative play games.

Mixed ages really sets the tone for our family-style learning. Older children like to show the little ones what to do, and younger children like to learn with older children in the room. Babies wiggle and giggle along the way, and we keep safety a priority in every class. In classes, you will receive support materials regarding the vocabulary that will be targeted over the course of the series, and some digital music.

Questions about Bilingual Birdies Asheville?
Email bilingualbirdiesasheville@gmail.com.

Preschool Partnerships

We visit preschools once a week for “Birdies Day,” where we collaborate with classroom teachers and hold 30 or 45 minute classes. We can visit multiple classrooms in a day, or just one group, depending upon your school’s budget. We can do a year long residency (recommended) or a short term unit, focusing on a certain vocabulary theme.

Bring Us to Your School
Bring Us to Your School

About Bilingual Birdies

We use the Bilingual Birdies method for teaching foreign language. This means we teach language through live music, theater games, imaginative play, and engaging puppetry. If you want more information on the Bilingual Birdies brand, you can check out Bilingualbirdies.com.

Bilingual Birdies Asheville began in 2022, when Dr. Šara Stranovsky moved from New York City to Asheville, NC. She was a teacher with the amazing Bilingual Birdies team in New York City while performing on Broadway stages and world-renowned teaching institutions like BAM and Lincon Center Education. When she came to Asheville and started her own family, there were no programs like Bilingual Birdies, so she received special approval to launch using the Bilingual Birdies curriculum, in Asheville. Since then, Dr. Šara has added her own unique flavor, extensive teaching experiences, and a mission to uplift local bilingual voices in the community.

● Program Overview

How we teach

Our series classes are organized by themes. In our first year series classes, we focus upon super simple themes, like fruits, friends, jungle animals, and body parts! In our year 2 classes, we focus on slightly more specific themes like school, space, and emotions. We rotate themes throughout the year so that children will get something new for the 1-4. years they are returning with us!

8-Week
Sessions

Summer series now in session!

Program Structure

Our classes in the community are 45 minutes long, and incorporate a ritual warmup, ritual songs (hello and goodbye original songs), and we repeat our themes for a whole month before switching to a new theme. Children receive lots of repetition for their preschool agegroup, and we also introduce these themes with fun new props and imagination activities to keep things fresh! We hope every class will feel like a dance party, and we always end class with bubbles.

What’s Included

The cost of our series classes covers the cost of our dynamic interactive classes. They are described as an interactive private concert! Teachers are highly trained performer-musicians who are also experienced educators who are wonderful with children, as well as fluent or advanced in the target language. What sets us apart is that we are a language class and music class all in one, we play LIVE instruments, and we incorporate puppetry. Our teachers were trained by Sesame Street puppeteers! With our classes, you will also receive digital music that corresponds to most of the songs you learn in class, as well as some digital ebooks and vocabulary sheets. Families can opt into receiving a child’s puppet to match the teacher puppet. ($35 add-on item.)

Session Lengths

We do not advertise drop-in classes, though sometimes we do pop-up single classes in the community. Our 8-week community class series are designed to create safe and intimate learning groups, so that kids get to know one another a little bit and get accustomed to the class template. We know how hard it can be to commit beyond 8 weeks, so the length is designed to be flexible. If you want to take multiple semesters in a row, we have a lot of contiued learning between semesters!

Mixed Age Groups

Classes are “family style” which means that parents can register sibings to come and learn together. We have tried creating groups that are age specific, but ultimately have found that class time slot flexibility was most important and children learn really well with mixed ages. If you are looking for a super specific class for your infant,

What people are saying…

  • “My son went to preschool and made a friend with a Spanish speaker in his class, and I know it was because of his experience in this program and singing and talking to bilingual puppet friends.

    Susan R.

  • “This program has been such a great part of our children's childhood! They love the songs and Ms Shara takes such care in how she delivers the classes!"

  • “As a presschool director, we just love having Shara and her colleagues visit our school. Spanish and music in one! The kids love it!"

    -Liza preschool director and teacher

Meet the Teachers

Šara

My name is Dr. Šara (“Sha-rah"), and I started Bilingual Birdies Asheville to increase diversity and language-learning for littles in Asheville. I’m a trilingual performer with a PhD in Performance and Cultural Studies. I’ve lived in France, Senegal, Brazil, Cape Verde, and toured on many international stages for both adult and children audiences. When I’m not performing, I love teaching kids to learn about other cultures through my years of experience as an arts educator with Bilingual Birdies and beyond. I speak French, Spanish, and Portuguese and teach alongside running this program at Bilingual Birdies Asheville. I’m also a teaching artist of other artforms, and have taught multiple arts genres with leading institutions like BAM, Lincoln Center Education, Urban Arts Partnership, and Bilingual Birdies in New York City.

Director/Spanish & French musician-teacher

Melissa

Spanish & French teacher

Melissa Hyman is a musician, arts educator and mom, originally from the NYC area. She studied French for many years, has a BA in Spanish from the University of Vermont and has lived in Perú and Switzerland.  Melissa currently teaches rock band at French Broad River Academy, is the Asheville Music Teacher for Arts For Life (an arts-in-healthcare nonprofit serving children and families facing serious illness), and coordinates the Swannanoa Gathering Children's Program at Warren Wilson College. 

She also performs with several local bands including The Moon and You, Cowboy Judy, Tina & Her Pony, and Hannah Kaminer & the Wistfuls. Melissa is a longtime singer, songwriter and recording artist who plays and teaches cello, bass, ukulele and guitar. She is thrilled to become part of the Bilingual Birdies family - this program aligns beautifully with her interests, values and skills!

Frequently Asked Questions

  • It depends on your family! We have had babies join as early at 6 months! If you have a baby, you may be swaying with them and holding them as we do some of the activities, and babies can recognize other languages as early as 7 months! Some people like to wait until their child can sit up on their own or be a little more independent within a small group circle as kids dance around on a carpet. We will work together to be safe no matter how young your child is. We do not focus specifically on infant development, but music, props, scarves and community singing are great for babies as well as the prek age children around them!

  • We try to work with people who need a discount. However, please understand that the prices listed are designed to pay teachers fairly for their value (we are educators, language teachers and musicians in one), and reducing the rate puts a strain on our community-focused program. If you need a discount, please send an email and we can try to work out a trade or custom situation.

  • Each registrant takes a place in the class, so we cannot allow partial registrations. If you are absent, you still have to pay for a class. However, you can make up your class in another time slot offered.

  • We would love to come to other areas! However, we have a one mama admin-team who needs help! If you have a specific place in mind for a community class, we can look into making it happen.

  • You can bring a tag along infant baby until they are about 9 months old. After that, they will be receiving attention from our awesome teachers, so we ask that you pay for a sibling at this time. (We offer a 10 & off discount.)

Resources for Parents

With your classes, you will receive some digital support materials. These are ways to keep the learning you do in musical form, at home! These include digital ebooks with your special bird friends, vocab sheets that hilight the theme of the month, and digital music from the amazing network of Bilingual Birdies teachers who came together to record full band albums! We don’t have recordings of every single thing you will hear in class, but all theme units have several songs on various albums. Your child will be dancing in the car to them!

You can also purchase a child’s puppet as an add-on item. Just email us to receive yours: asheville@bilingualbirdies.com. $35