Episode 284: Introducing Your Baby to Real World Concepts with Jessica Rolph, Co-founder of Lovevery

Summer is here and we’re ready to play! This week we interview Jessica Rolph, cofounder and CEO of Lovevery, a stage-based play product company. We have been big fans of the brand for a while now with Bricia loving the sustainable, organic toys for Augustina and Paulina using the older stage toys for Zixta. In this episode, we learn that Jessica began her entrepreneurial journey with her first company, Happy Family, before moving over to the play space & Lovevery, where she has continued to expand her love of child development. We also talk about the power of observing your baby trying to understand the world & why it’s so important that they fail, even at a young age. Finally, Jessica shares a few of her favorite lessons for future entrepreneurs. 

More about Jessica: Jessica Rolph is Cofounder and CEO of Lovevery. Prior to Lovevery, Jessica was the Cofounder and COO of Happy Family, helping to launch, build and lead Happy Family to its position as a top organic baby and toddler brand in the US. Happy Family was acquired by Group Danone in 2013. 

Jessica also co-founded the Climate Collaborative , a non-profit organization helping companies in the natural products industry take meaningful steps to reverse climate change. She is an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow and was awarded the Park Leadership Fellowship, graduating from Cornell’s Johnson School in 2004. Jessica also holds a BA from Cornell University, where she graduated cum laude.

Jessica and her husband, Decker, live in Boise, Idaho and are parents to Beatrice, Thacher and Leland.

A few lessons for Future Entreprenuers from Jessica Rolph

• When you have an idea, it becomes your baby. Some people will understand your concept and others won’t, and that’s okay.

• Separate your emotions from doing the work.

• You can’t learn unless you put one foot in front of the other.

Quotes by Jessica

“A child’s learning environment is you.”

“By doing, ideas will become.”

“I can’t be it all. So I tell myself the mess and clutter is okay. I’m grateful for my friend that are still there.”

Links

Shop Lovevery’s play kits at lovevery.com and learn more about their new Spanish book sets here. You can also sign up for their email newsletter (available to anyone, not just subscribers!) for a weekly email series of FREE resources!

Bricia also mentions the RIE parenting method. Check out our older episodes about the RIE philosophy here and here.

Episode 243: Making Language Learning Fun with @bilingual_birdies founder, Sarah Farzam

So many businesses have had to adjust under quarantine but this week's guest had her business flourish even more online. This week we speak to Sarah Farzam, CEO of the bilingual education program, Bilingual Birdies. She shares how her program uses music to help kids stay engaged and excited about speaking a second or even a third language, and how you can make some extra cash as well while keeping the kids busy this summer. Estas Lista? Escucha ahora mismo!

More about Sarah Farzam: Sarah is half Mexican and half Iranian and grew up speaking Spanish, Farsi and English. She’s from L.A. and graduated from UCLA with a BA in English.  In 2006, with zero business experience, Sarah launched Bilingual Birdies, a foreign language and live music program for children up to age six. Today Bilingual Birdies teaches Spanish, French, Mandarin, and English to thousands of children per week across 21 cities in the US, Canada, and Australia through their online training program which certifies and licenses bilingual and educators to launch their own Bilingual Birdies businesses in their own city.

Enrolled families benefit from original Bilingual Birdies products such as bilingual ebooks, music albums, and the most adorable bird puppets you have ever seen in your entire life.  Under Sarah’s leadership, Bilingual Birdies educators have traveled to Guanajuato, Mexico to volunteer and preform in the children’s section of La Calaca Festival., journeyed to Paris, France to train early educators on how to implement their methodology to teach English to children in a fun and musical way, and most recently they traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to volunteer at Little Ray of Hope, an informal preschool in Kawangware, the country’s second largest slum. Nearly 13 years after Sarah started Bilingual Birdies she is more motivated than ever to identify bilingual educators with an entrepreneurial spirit who are looking to share their language and culture with children, make money doing what they love, and transform their communities to encourage future generations of global thinking, open-minded humans. You can learn more about Sarah Farzam and Bilingual Birdies at bilingualbirdies.com. 

Our Conversation with Sarah

Tell us about yourself. How are you? How is life in quarantine?

You’re trilingual! Tell us about your company. Is this how is began?

How many languages do you teach? What is the age range of your students?

How has your business shifted with covid?

What does a class with Bilingual Birdies look like?

What are some tools that you recommend for my parents to use at home to help teach your children another language?

How often are your students taking classes in order for them to feel comfortable speaking the language?

Do you need to be a musicican to start the program as a teacher?

When covid is over and we are no longer required to do social distance learning, can our kids take this class in person?

Sarah’s Tips for Making Second Language Learning Fun

• Amp up second language learning in any area you can! If it feels like homework, chances are your kids won’t want to learn it. Work at it everyday based on your child’s interest.

• Reading books and singing songs/listening to music in another language is a great introduction to the love of language learning.

• Play based learning is super effective. Bilingual birdies gets your kids dancing and moving with the use of puppets, props and more, and you can do the same thing at home!

• Turn learning into a game by incorporating the new language into your daily routine. Breakfast, bath time, and cleaning can be an opportunity to get stuff done and learn new words and phrases.

• Check out video.oznoz.com to watch your kid’s favorite cartoons in up to 10 different languages.

Links

To learn more, sign up your child for virtual language classes, or learn how you can start the program in your city, go to BilingualBirdies.com.