Dr. Agnes Szabó

Founder-Director

Guards Brigitta

Hungarian - History teacher

I graduated as a journalist in Budapest, then obtained a qualification in Hungarian culture at the Zsámbék Teacher Training College, and also participated in the folk high school training at the Tradition Workshop. I also wrote my diploma on the analysis of children's drawings.

I have worked as a journalist, participated in the organization of several state celebrations related to children and Hungarians abroad, and in addition to all this, I also regularly proofread. I have four children, three of whom are already university students.

I have been teaching Hungarian, creative writing and history classes at Bóbita for ten years, and together with Dr. Ágnes Szabó we hold our summer camps: the youth camp focusing on city walks, photography and cultural experiences, and the knight and damsel camp for younger children, which takes place in a beautiful rural setting near Brussels.

Together we run our ever-popular cooking club, which we hold once a month.

I love being with children, working with them and teaching them. In my teaching work, I consider it most important that learning be an experience, an enjoyable, often funny adventure. I consider it important that lessons are held logically, building on each other, developing different skills and abilities, always leaving room for play, conversation and discussion. My goal is not only to transfer knowledge, but I would like the children to reach a point where they would be able to acquire knowledge independently and in cooperation with each other.

Kristina Kemendy

Kindergarten teacher

I graduated from the Benedek Elek Pedagogical College in Sopron in 1998 as a kindergarten teacher. I worked as a kindergarten teacher in Hungary for 8 years. We have been living in Belgium since 2007. In the meantime, our family has grown to 6 people. I am the mother of 3 girls and a little boy. In addition to raising children, I completed the children's yoga teacher training and the Do it this way! pedagogical program.

I was happy to join the Bóbita team in 2021. I think it is important that the children living here learn about Hungarian culture. My passion is experiential pedagogy. That is why my classes include a lot of singing, nursery rhymes, dancing, movement, singing games, and crafts.

Katalin Kiss

elementary school teacher

I graduated from the Teacher Training Faculty of the Reformed Theological University of Debrecen in 2000. After that, I taught in church, private and state schools in Hungary, both in Budapest and in the countryside. In Budapest, I spent a few years as an economist in the world of banks, but my heart always pulled me back to children.

My husband's work took us first to Luxembourg, then to Brussels, where our family grew to four people. During these years, I also participated in several further training courses. Until I had my own child, I trained in the field of talent development. However, in the years after the birth of my son, my attention turned to neurodiversity, so I completed my further courses under the wings of the Hungarian Relaxation and Symbol Therapy Association.

I believe that learning can be a joy for every child, so I try to ensure that children feel safe, are satisfied with themselves, and enjoy attending classes. Therefore, I try to increase their self-confidence with lots of praise and positive reinforcement, so that they become more active and free in classes. I joined the Bóbita team in 2025, and I am currently the teacher of the preschool and fourth grade.

Dr. Illésné Jakab Ildikó Emese

Opera singer, Music teacher-Cockroach activity leader

I am Dr. Illésné Jakab Ildikó Emese, opera singer, private singing teacher, Kokas class leader, doctoral candidate at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, mother of three children, I live in Budakeszi with my family. I graduated from the Opera Department of the Academy of Music in 2012 as a student of Éva Marton and András Almási-Tóth. From 2012 to 2014 I was a soloist at the Hungarian State Opera House, and from 2012 to 2019 I was a doctoral student at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music.

Although my childhood dream was fulfilled by being able to perform on the stage of the Opera House, after the birth of my children, children and their world became the focus of my life, so – not breaking away from what I learned at the Academy of Music for more than ten years, but rather building on it – I try to make my musical talents fruitful by studying and practicing Kokas pedagogy. For three years, I have been holding Kokas classes under the title HangÖsvény, weekly and monthly in my home town of Budakeszi, in Budapest at the Palace of Arts, in the Ötpacsirta Salon, in the Klebelsberg Cultural Mansion and bimonthly in the Bóbita.

"He who bends down to children remains crooked. He who settles among them can look them in the eye." (Klára Kokas)

In connection with the intellectual legacy of Klára Kokas, it has become clear to me that there is no more valuable work than what we do for the growing generations. These complex, all-artistic creative Kokas activities, in accordance with the spirit of Klára Kokas, develop the personality with artistic music and communication beyond words; visual creation, music and free movement work wonders for children and the community.

The focus of Kokas pedagogy is on the human being, who is lovable in his/her weakness, differences, difficulties, and disabilities, every individual is valuable and unrepeatable. The main tool of Kokas classes is noble, artistic music, which is on the one hand a pure source, a starting point and a point of alignment: a path to the experience of movement, the most complete tool for self-expression, connection, and helping our spiritual processes. On the other hand, music is also the goal of the class, the culmination to which all elements of the class are aligned.

My heart is grateful that Dr. Ágnes Szabó entrusts me with the Bóbitás children from time to time. We sing, improvise, chant, dance and create, all the while shaping ourselves together with the noble, beautiful, pure music. As the music permeates our cells, our attention to each other, our openness to what we ourselves may not have experienced yet, and our desire to understand the thoughts of others grows stronger. I really enjoy the sessions with the Bóbitás children, both young and old, because their hearts are full of love, communication and the whole world can fit into their thoughts!

Bright classrooms

Comfortable and practical furniture

Outdoor garden

Kitchen

Foreign language library

Theater and multimedia room