We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joanna Bucaro. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joanna below.

Joanna , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

My name is Joanna and I am originally from Guatemala. I am a teacher and I have been living in Florida for 20 years. When I came to the US my children were young. They started going to school, they learned English and little by little we started speaking more English at home than Spanish. It was convenient it was comfortable. My youngest was 2 years old when we came to the US; so, by the time he was 12, English was his “native” language.
The first time we traveled to my home country, I realized that he was having a very hard time communicating with my family because he could not speak fluent Spanish and that’s when it hit me. I knew that I had to do something about it and make sure that he could communicate with his own family.
So, I started looking for options to have him learning and practicing the language. I couldn’t find options that would be convenient for our schedule.
I decided to teach him myself since I am a teacher.
Then I started teaching other kids from other families. Little by little started growing until we got to the point where we are right now. We’ve been holding the All Kids Spanish program for almost 12 years now.

Joanna , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are a fun online Spanish program for kids from 2-10 years old. Live and high energy classes to learn the Spanish language adapting to our students’ needs and interests. At first we were doing in person programs but after the pandemic we switched to the online format and we decided to stay online.
The online format is very convenient, students are learning from the convenience of their homes. It has also allowed us to reach students in other states.
We have 1:1 and group programs. With 6 different levels of instruction. From beginners to advanced levels.
Schedules are very flexible to fit all needs. We connect through Zoom and as part of the registration, provide an access to an e-learning center for students to practice on the days that they are not connecting live with their teachers.
Conversational skills is one of our priorities within the different programs. For the 1:1 programs there is a lot of flexibility and the class can be personalized depending on the family’s goals.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

All Kids Spanish is a family. All of our students are important and we care about them. We make sure that all the members of our staff are passionate about their work, so we can all be in the same page of seeing each of our students as unique and talented in different areas knowing that we can impact the rest of their lives teaching them language skills that will open doors for their future. We make our best effort to bond with our students and their families and cater to their specific needs. We have been able to see our students grow through the different levels, having met them when they started in the toddler class and seeing them graduating from the last level.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Well, I think that the pandemic impacted all of us in ways that we didn’t even think were possible. It forced us to be creative, to look into other possibilities, to be consistent and most of all to have faith. In 2020, when we had to close the studio where we use to hold our in person program, we knew that we had to act fast and come up with options. That’s when we switched all of our programs to the online format. It wasn’t an easy task but I am so thankful for my team. If it wouldn’t have been for them I don’t think we would have been able to do it.
After we closed the studio, our programs were fully running within 1 week with the online format. We took the risk, not knowing if it was going to work and it did!!! I am so grateful !

Contact Info:

• Website: https://allkidspanish.com/schedule/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/all_kids_spanish/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allkidspanish/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/all-kids-spanish-orlando