The Thinkers Cottage

Bring Milena to Texas, organized by Carrie Hoke

Many of you have reached out these past few months to ask how you can help our friends in Ukraine. I’m very thankful to those of you who have helped. When my students and I were in Kyiv 3 years ago, we had an amazing teacher, Oksana. Her 14-year-old daughter, Milena, is coming to spend the school year with us, and we are thrilled to be able to offer her a chance for a normal start to her crucial high school education. There are extensive legal and travel fees associated with bringing her here, and I found out recently that I will need to travel to Poland to meet Milena and bring her to Texas. This was an unexpected expense, and I will need to take unpaid leave from my job. We would really appreciate anything you can do to help. Take a minute to watch this touching video my students made about Oksana and what she means to them.

Bring Milena to Texas, organized by Carrie Hoke In 2019, our Russian class had the incredible opportunity to study abroad in Kyiv, Ukraine. Our teac… Carrie Hoke needs your support for Bring Milena to Texas

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It's now easier to send The Thinkers Cottage a message.

The Thinkers Cottage updated their website address.

The Thinkers Cottage updated their website address.

Bonjour!

For those that were waiting for the update on when the classes for French 1 and 2 will be offered. You wait is over! ❤

Classes will be on Mondays with French 1 from 1-2:30pm and French 2 from 3 - 4:30 pm.

Space is very limited in the fall so be sure to reserve your student's spot.

You can either PM (Amanda J. Burt) or email me at [email protected] for more details.

Looking forward to hearing from you! Hope everyone has a safe and happy summer!

Just a quick "Stay tuned for more info"

Thinkers Cottage will be offering one level one class this year.

It will be for the French Class.

More details coming this week but space will be very limited.

One of the things I love about teaching French at The Thinkers Cottage is that I have the freedom to change things up a bit. So instead of a traditional Chapter 3 test my French 2 students cooked and explained their recipes in French! Great job class! These kids impress me every time!

I love doing cooking classes with my Russian students. Today we cooked borsch, one of my favorites. We also had Russian tea. It was a great success!!

Last year’s awards arrived late for obvious reasons. We are so proud of all our high-achieving students!

The National Russian Essay Contest:
1 Silver Medal
8 Bronze Medals
6 Honorable Mention

The National Latin Exam:
Level II:
1 gold medal, Summa Cum Laude

Level I:
1 gold medal, Summa Cum Laude
1 silver medal, Maxima Cum Laude

Intro Level:
1 Perfect Score!!!
2 ribbons for Outstanding
Achievement
4 certificates for Special Achievement

Considering adding Language to your Fall school schedule and want to know more? Mark your calendars.....Thinkers Cottage will have a booth at this upcoming event! See you there!

French Can Take You around the World!

There are so many reasons to study French. Dream with me for a moment and let’s explore a few of them.

The Facts:
- French is the most frequently studied language after English
- 175 million French Speakers in more than 50 countries
- 2 million people speak French as a first language in the U.S.
- Discover the uniqueness of many cultures from around the world
- More than 30% of vocab derived from French, so it can even improve your English skills

As you plan your future, French can lead to careers in manufacturing, finance, law, government, education, science, journalism,advertising, telecommunications, tourism and hospitality. Plus benefit you in working with international agencies. Did you know that the majority of U.S. exports are to countries having French as a national language? Approximately $1 billion in commercial transactions take place between the U.S. and France every day.

It is amazing that through one language, French, the richness of these diverse regions can be learned and experienced. French is associated with renowned artists, literary giants, medical, scientific, and technological advances.

Imagine with me…….yourself as a fluent speaker of the language, communicating in French with people all around the globe. Be it serving in with a missionary group, Doctors Without Borders or negotiating a business deal for a multinational company.

Being a French speaker, open doors to opportunities that become possible just because you have chosen to communicate in French.

Come enjoy the adventure that awaits you at The Thinkers Cottage! Registration for fall is now open. Register thethinkerscottage.com today!

To all of the Families and Friends that we have in Thinkers Cottage. Happy Resurrection Day!

Our First Form Latin class got to sample a typical Ancient Roman breakfast today. I think they liked it!

I love this!

Many of those who are praised for their success and their ability to speak multiple languages were once ordinary students who found inspiration in a world language class. Be proud of that.

https://bit.ly/2Qggiog

Fall Welcome

My alma mater is a language heaven. On campus you can hear languages from every corner of the world being spoken, and when selecting a language to study, one has over 30 to choose from. Wow!

Fall Welcome This is "Fall Welcome" by College of Liberal Arts on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Beautiful Russian song

Much of my time as a Russian teacher is spent as a "Myth Buster." Mostly thanks to terrible Hollywood stereotypes, many people have a false view of the Russian language and people. One of the myths I love to bust is the myth that Russian is an ugly and harsh language. I recently had a woman tell me that while Russian might be a useful language to learn, she wouldn't want to learn it because of all the guttural sounds Russian has. MYTH! Russian has no guttural sounds at all, but is quite lovely and poetic. This old Russian folk song proves it, at least in my humble opinion.

Beautiful Russian song Amazing voices !

What a wonderful way to finish our cooking sessions! Thank you all for the wonderful success of our French Summer Cooking! I pray that you all had just as much fun as I did! I can't wait to do it again!.

Session 3 - Ratatouille and Profiteroles! Yumm!

Tune in at noon for the live announcement of our Tart Pan Giveaway!

We're gearing up to start classes in another week. It's always so exciting for us to be part of the adventure a student embarks on when he begins to study a new language. We still have a few spots open in our beginner French, Latin, and Russian classes. We'd love to have you join us!

French Can Take You around the World!

There are so many reasons to study French. Dream with me for a moment and let’s explore a few of them.

The Facts:
- French is the most frequently studied language after English
- 175 million French Speakers in more than 50 countries
- 2 million people speak French as a first language in the U.S.
- Discover the uniqueness of many cultures from around the world
- More than 30% of vocab derived from French, so it can even improve your English skills

As you plan your future, French can lead to careers in manufacturing, finance, law, government, education, science, journalism,advertising, telecommunications, tourism and hospitality. Plus benefit you in working with international agencies. Did you know that the majority of U.S. exports are to countries having French as a national language? Approximately $1 billion in commercial transactions take place between the U.S. and France every day.

It is amazing that through one language, French, the richness of these diverse regions can be learned and experienced. French is associated with renowned artists, literary giants, medical, scientific, and technological advances.

Imagine with me…….yourself as a fluent speaker of the language, communicating in French with people all around the globe. Be it serving in with a missionary group, Doctors Without Borders or negotiating a business deal for a multinational company.

Being a French speaker, open doors to opportunities that become possible just because you have chosen to communicate in French.

Come enjoy the adventure that awaits you at The Thinkers Cottage! Open House this Wednesday August 7th - PM for details. (registration for fall still open, but not for long. Register or ask questions today!)

French Bread and French Onion Soup

Our Second Session French Cooking Classes have begun. And another terrific success! Thank you Elicia Rice for being such a great help! Thank you Amy, Elicia , Dutch N Katie Fuller, Emily, Jennifer and Audrey for sharing your daughters with me!

There were lots of smiles to be had! And wonderful smells and delights taken home!

I cannot wait to do it again next week!

Our students appeared in the summer edition of the UT Austin CREEES (Slavic Department) newsletter. Молодцы!!!

From all of us here at The Thinkers Cottage, have a Happy and Safe Independence Day!

I’m going to make this short because I’m going on about 36 hours of no sleep, and I’m about to call it a night. After a long, exhausting trip, we finally made it to Kiev. We all got settled into our apartments and then went to dinner at a Georgian restaurant. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. We needed them!!

Our exciting adventure has begun!! We’re off to Kiev to study Russian for a month. We made it through the long 9-hour flight to Amsterdam. We’ll be in Kiev soon!!

Wow, another amazing experience with Session 1B cooking class! We have some talented chef's in the making!

I loved every minute of it!

It warms my heart that there is such a love for learning culture/language and cultural cooking!

I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend! Just wanted to give you all an update for our French Cooking classes this summer!

Currently: Session 1a (June 12) - 1 slot left
1b(June 19) - 5 slots left
Session 2a (July 24) - 1 slot left
2b (July 31) - 5 slots left
Session 3a (Aug 14) - Class is full
3b (Aug 19) - 5 slots left

Be sure to go over to events to check out all of the details and also to sign up for an event!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Good Morning!!!

Well, I have GREAT NEWS!

As requested, I have been able to schedule 3 more French Cooking Classes for this summer.

These will be the same classes that have already booked up. I am just offering as Session 1B, 2B and 3B.

The Dates are June 19th, July 31st and Aug. 21st from 1 - 3pm. Classes are $20 and will cover all materials.

For more details be sure to go to events on the Thinkers Cottage Page to reserve your spot.

Be sure to reserve TODAY as spots are limited to only 6 (ages 12 and up)! These spots went FAST a few days ago, so if you are interested don't wait.

Let me know if you have any questions!

These five advanced Russian students competed in the National Olympiada of Spoken Russian back in April. They all earned a gold medal score but have been waiting to receive their medals. How fitting that the medals arrived right before our pre-departure meeting for the study abroad program these students will be leaving for in less than 3 weeks. Many of you, our friends and family, have generously supported our students on this educational journey. They can give you no greater "thank you" than to prove to you that they are worth every penny by earning this high honor at the Olympiada.

Kiev - here we come! 19 days and counting!!

At The Thinkers Cottage, we aim to give our students every opportunity possible to gain fluent proficiency in a foreign language BEFORE they leave high school because we know that being truly bilingual is a unique skill in this country and will help put these students at the top of the pack when it comes to college admissions and employment.

Come join our award-winning Russian program! Russian I is being offered for the 2019-2020 school year at our Conroe location - Thursdays 3:00-4:30pm.

www.thethinkerscottage.com
email: [email protected]

The response for the French Cooking Class has been outstanding! I am so humbled by this! God is so incredible!

With that said, Sessions 1 and 3 are full and there is one slot left for Session 2.

I am considering opening up a second opportunity of the same classes. Let me know in the comments if this would be something you would like to see.

Do you love Culture, cooking and Languages? Join me for one or all 3 of Thinkers Cottage French Cooking classes (ages 12 and up)

Let me know if you have any questions. Sign up today!

The first class is next week!

Don't delay as we only have a few spots left!

Meet our fabulous French teacher, Amanda Burt. Amanda was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario Canada. It was in Toronto where she first began learning and studying French at the early age of 8. Amanda is the mother of two girls, ages 11 and 7, and has been homeschooling from the beginning. Amanda first started to travel at age 11 and developed a fascination with language and culture. And then traveling again in her adult years rekindled a thirst to learn more about the French culture in order to experience more in her future travel endeavors. Combined with her passion for homeschooling and love of learning, her excitement spills over into her classes to ensure that the students are as excited about French language study as she is!

Amanda is offering French cooking classes this summer. See our Events page for more details. These classes would be a great way to introduce your student to French language and culture.

French I is being offered at our Conroe location on Thursdays from 3:00-4:30 for the 2019-2020 school year. Check out our website www.thethinkerscottage.com or email us at [email protected] for more information.

We recently received this beautiful hand-lettered certificate from the American Classical League. It was awarded to one of our students for the incredibly high honor of having a perfect score on the National Latin Exam. Only 698 students out of nearly 130,000 who took the test this year attained this distinction. Congratulations, Catherine!!

Two years ago, this same student was teaching herself Latin using DVDs, but she was struggling with some of the concepts and felt like she needed an experienced teacher. She has excelled in our classes, receiving a perfect score on the National Latin Exam for two years in a row. If you have a student who has been studying Latin at home and would like the benefit of learning from an experienced teacher in a classroom environment, we have a place for him or her. We'll be offering four levels of Latin for the 2019-2020 school year. Message below or email us at [email protected], and we can help you find the class that is a perfect fit for your student.

We’re here sharing our love of languages with the local homeschooling community. Come see us!