Mindy Nix and Susanne Huffman founded Oui & Sí to give kids a hands-on introduction to learning French and Spanish. The mother daughter duo are French language professors in the metro, Nix at Oklahoma City and Oklahoma Christian universities and Huffman at the University of Central Oklahoma, and both tutor in French and Spanish. Huffman also teaches kindergarten and preschool French. Together they carefully curate Oui and Sí French and Spanish learning boxes for open-ended play and instruction for ages 3 through 7.
Each themed box comes with a variety of high-quality tactile objects, like letter tiles, figurines, objects from nature, flash cards, dominoes and dice, to promote interactive learning of numbers, letters, shapes and language in either French or Spanish. A QR code can be scanned to reveal a lesson plan that focuses on French or Spanish vocabulary, new phrases and fun games. Box themes include space, construction, dinosaurs and farm fun, as well as holidays, and rather than just a focus on memorizing pertinent words, the learning is immersive to include conversation, sentence structure and more.
Oui and Sí officially incorporated during the pandemic, and the word-of-mouth response has surprised Nix as parents are seeking supplemental learning for kids at home. While learning languages at a young age is beneficial, it’s never too late to learn, and Nix has enjoyed hearing about parents learning right along with their kids using their boxes.
“Teaching has always been a passion for Susanne and I, especially teaching languages,” said Nix. “So, being able to reach more people, especially during these times, has been very gratifying.”
Next, the founders of Oui and Sí are working on resources for kids through age 12. Boxes can be purchased individually or as a subscription at ouiandsi.com or local retailers Learning Tree and Plenty Mercantile.
