What makes Ya Ya Preschool unique is that our curriculum is designed in Mandarin to be taught only in Mandarin, unlike a typical bilingual school that teaches its curriculum in both Mandarin and English. Since the original Ya Ya Immersion program at Mandarin Seeds, launched more than a decade ago, our unique and proprietary Ya Ya curriculum has had a successful track record for children who have come from diverse language and cultural backgrounds, including heritage speakers, families where only English is spoken, as well as multilingual families.

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When the children come through the door of a Ya Ya classroom, they are transported into a nurturing and playful space where Mandarin is the language spoken by all the teachers. Our immersive school environment itself acts like the invisible teacher. The classroom is carefully set up with books in Chinese, thematic decorations and thoughtful materials that introduce kids to the visual and tactile world of Chinese characters.

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We believe that, with parental support and encouragement from teachers, every child can succeed in the Ya Ya classroom. From birth, a child naturally begins to learn any language being spoken to them, and they are adept at distinguishing the sounds of multiple languages. Studies have shown that children who are exposed to a second language during early childhood have greater success in mastering that language later in life.

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Every school year, it never ceases to amaze our teachers how quickly the children become comfortable in the new environment and start to make meaningful linguistic connections with their classmates and teachers. Ya Ya Preschool creates a community where every child feels free to express themselves and communicate with each other in Mandarin.