C'ville Entremom

Are you planning a Summer escape to Italy?? A romantic escapade to France?? Are you finding that you could use a cultural makeover?? Luckily, we have just what you need here in Charlottesville (Entremom-owned, of course!).

Speak! Language Center is a full-service language and culture center offering a variety of foreign language classes (Italian, Spanish, French, etc.) for adults and children as well as many cultural or food/wine events and even study abroad opportunities.  Speak! Language Center is known for offering fun, dynamic, culturally based small group (maximum eight) language classes in a beautiful setting. They offer morning and evening classes, custom courses (get a few friends together and start a class of your own), cultural events and enrichment courses, language/culture camps for children, custom after-school programs for area schools and also translation/interpretation services.

Christina Ball, mother of Mila (8), originally started her business in 2004 as Ecco Italy (specializing in Italian language and culture classes). In 2005, she added Spanish to her offering and in 2009 she expanded, moved and opened her newest center, Speak! Christina has a Ph.D. in Italian Language and Literature from Yale University and has been teaching Italian for 20 years. When she moved to Charlottesville, she began teaching a continuing education class in Italian for Travelers. It was during this class that she realized how many people out there were in need of inspiring, effective language and culture courses, so in 2004, she began her “dream school.”

So, how does Christina juggle raising Mila and running her own business? Christina says that she will usually work at Speak! in the morning so that she can be with her daughter in the afternoons. She also has 10 language teachers who teach her many class offerings so she can also work at home if needed. Now that she offers after-school classes for children, her daughter can even be with her at Speak! while she learns Spanish or practices her near-fluent Italian.

Speak! Language Center is located in the Glass Building (Downtown – 313 2^nd St. SE, Ste. 109). Prices start at $15/hour for small group lessons.

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The most exciting part about getting to know this great group of women is learning about the great businesses in the area and the services that they offer.  Over the last couple of months, I’ve met some wonderful ladies.. all through networking.  That being said, without ever having seen the venue, I decided to have my daughter’s 4th Birthday at Explorations Play Studio in Charlottesville.  Nicole Root, owner of Explorations Play Studio, took the reins and planned my daughter’s party for me.  Get this.. all I had to do was bring the cake!  Woot!  After 3 years of hosting her parties at my house, this was such a welcome change.  You can check out Nicole’s write up here.  Another plus in the networking department…  Nicole gets to use the pictures I took from Trudy’s BDay party on her site!  How cool is that?

On a side note, I have some exciting announcements and additions to the blog!  First of all, our next meet up is one that I’m really looking forward to.  I’ve had a lot of the Entremoms ask me about teaching them how to use Twitter and Facebook to market their business.  I am, by no means, an expert BUT… I know people who are.  So join us for our next meet up (BTW, we are going to go to an every other month meet up schedule going forward!):

When:  November 18th @ 7:00 pm

Where:  Openspace CoWorking, 455 2nd Street SE, Suite 100 Charlottesville

Event Details:  Marijean Jaggers of Standing PR and Stl. Working Mom (PS. She’s also Mrs. CBS Blog of the week queen) will discuss using Social Media to market your business.

The event is free and sponsered by OpenSpace CoWorking, C’Ville Entremom & Standing PR.

Announcement #2:  We have invited some guest columnists to join us in writing about topics they know best.  Look out for our 1st feature later this week from one of our own C’Ville Entremoms!

And, you know me.. It’s not a good blog post without some pics.  Here are some captures from Trudy’s party at Explorations Play Studio!

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 As Summer comes to an end and all of the fun activities like the pool and camp are closing shop for the season, you may be asking:  what is left to do?  You could take the kids to the same old park or… you could grab the kiddos and go check out Explorations Play Studio.

Explorations is a play studio that is aesthetically and purposefully designed to entice children to explore and discover.  Owner Nicole Root describes the play studio as “an oasis for children where the joys of free play and natural exploration have been preserved.”  Sample exploration activities include:  sensory tables (flour w/sifters, shiny seeds with basket scoops or sand with rocks and shells), sniff and compare trays, choosing interesting items to weave through the upright weaving loom and building with hundreds of hardwood blocks or an array of natural and manufactured “treasures.”

Explorations caters to families with children ages 2 to 9 and has a wide range of offerings from weekly classes to private parties to monthly events.  Families can sign up for a 10 week session or drop in during Open Studio times.  There are designated times for free exploration, but there are also teacher guided opportunities focusing on Creative Drama, Art, Spanish and Yoga.  Explorations is also available for birthday parties, field trips, homeschooling, play groups and teacher workshops.

Nicole, a progressive Kindergarten teacher by trade, wanted to combine two of her passions and start a business in the Charlottesville community.  Her 1^stpassion is providing open-ended materials for children to be creative using their own inner drive.  Her 2^ndpassion is creating an appealing space for children.  Nicole states that “Little Gym focuses on the physical component of development and Music Together focuses on the musical component, why can’t I focus on the free play component?”  Well, lucky for you C’Ville, that is just what she did! 

So how does Nicole run her fabulous studio and raise two girls, Madison (9) and Chloe (5)?  Nicole says that it is tough!!  Luckily, she loves being a Mom and she loves being an entrepreneur, so she wouldn’t have it any other way!  Whenever life gets too stressful, she heads on over to Bikram Yoga or goes for a run!

Explorations advertises in Albemarle Family and in C’Ville Weekly, but mostly depends on their database and word of mouth to find new clients.  If you’d like to find out more about Explorations Play Studio visit www.explorationsplaystudio.com.  Explorations Play Studio is located 1919 Commonwealth Drive.  Prices start at $15.00.

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