Bonjour! Meet Scruffy the dog who’s inspiring children to learn French
AN adorable little ball of fluff in Cheltenham has been helping children learn French. Scruffy is a six-year old Cavachon and the star of a new book called “Speak Scruffy! Have a Go! Learn French with Scruffy”.
The little dog is the proud pet of Mrs Katy Unsworth, 50, who is a pre-school teacher in Holy Apostles Pre-school and has lived in the town for 25 years.
Scruffy is bringing the fun back into learning languages in his new adventure, which sees him embark on a journey with his best friend Whiskers the cat, a friendship based in reality.
He has also been on a plane himself, although not to France, but on a family holiday to the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall.
However, he is set to travel soon to his mum’s school, where the children can play with him whilst enjoying the book.
Explaining what inspired her to help Scruffy inspire young minds, mum-oftwo Mrs Unsworth said: “I started out really to solve a problem, when you go abroad and you feel like that English person who can’t say please and thank you and they tell you and they correct you but you can’t quite do it - it can put you off trying.
“So I decided to start at the beginning with the children. There was nothing out there really for fun, basic language learning it was all just non-fiction books.
“I wanted a story where they could learn simultaneously the culture and the language because it can be quite daunting. I thought I’d do a travelling story and I’ve got a dog called Scruffy so I thought he could be the star.”
Speak Scruffy! Have a Go! Learn French with Scruffy is available in “all major book retailers, in both Kindle and Paperback, click here for more.
She added: “Scruffy is going to come into school with me, the kids love the idea of him and learning whilst playing. It’s been really rewarding when they’ve started speaking it independently.
“He’s preparing the kids for when we can travel again and reminding them that there will be brighter times and give them something to look forward to because things will get better.”