South Florida woman creates game that turns language learning into fun experience for kids
A South Florida creator is turning language learning into a fun, new experience for kids trying to learn another language.
Mother Dania Mas and her 6-year-old daughter are fully engaged in a game called Feppy, a hands-on learning experience built around three core elements – books, songs, and games.
"Soy, soy you got it!," said Mas as she played a Feppy card game with her daughter.
Ronit Shiro created the game after recognizing a need within her own multicultural, multilingual family.
"Our name Feppy means to embody the bilingual happiness. It comes from the Spanish felice, and the English happy," said Shiro.
Shiro launched Feppy in 2020, right before the pandemic, when families suddenly needed new ways to keep kids learning at home.
As a bilingual mother, she saw a gap, most educational tools focused on either English or Spanish, not both together.
"Sometimes you have a house, a family where the mother speaks English and the father speaks Spanish, so we needed to find a product that could really bring the family together," Shiro said.
And that's how Feppy was born.
At the beginning of each book, there's a QR code. When you scan it, you get an audio-video version of the book, so you have the physical copy, but can choose between Spanish or English audio.
"The importance of the audio-video book is first of all for pronunciation, the magic happens when kids understand both," said Shiro.
Mas and her daughter are having fun while building real language skills together.
"Feppy makes it fun," Mas said. "We get to now do things that are games, read stories and make it something interactive with the kids and they get to have fun while learning the second language and improving the second language."
"I think Feppy is a really fun way of learning languages and I think it's fun," said 6-year-old, Demi Mas.
For this family, Feppy isn't just a game. It's become a shared learning experience they've enjoyed for years, building confidence and connection one word at a time.
Feppy grows bilingual skills through hands-on, multisensory play and fun games that slip right into kids' everyday routines, making language learning feel less like studying, and more like play.