CAMDEN, S.C. — Building bridges between the English and Spanish language.
It's a new six-week pilot program taking place in Kershaw County.
The program has gone from six attendees in the first week to 30 in the second.
The program allows teachers, students, parents, and community members to come together under one roof to weave together the English and Spanish language, through many different forms of learning.
"We've done group activities with the Hokie Pokie, in Spanish and English, we've done fun hands games, read bilingual books, songs, just stuff to get people relaxed, and to know each other," says co-ordinator for the Kershaw School District program Regina McDonald.
"After that, we split up into two groups so that we are giving learning time for parents so they can develop their English language skills, and then the learning time for their children and their teachers so they can develop academic language and literacy skills in Spanish and connect it back to English," says the co-ordinator for the program through the South Carolina Department of Education Mrs Carnesale.
Both women say being able to see the parents and students spending time learning to read, write, singing and speaking in different languages will open more doors for them.
"In here the ability and the drive of these parents to be present and learn both skill sets for the betterment of their child it makes me proud," says Carnesale.
She goes on to say that, "Two-thirds of the world is bi-lingual, so they can go anywhere, and relate and communicate and build as individuals its beautiful."
They hope to see the program expand in Kershaw County, and be picked up by other districts across the state.