I called the ES about my DD signing up for K in the fall and they mentioned the dual language program. It's a situation where there are 2 teachers, one for each language, and the kids learn in both languages from K-5th grade.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Pros? Cons? I realize different districts may have different routines but the way it's laid out to us is that they start simply and build up each year with more and more in Spanish til the kids are reading and writing in both languages. I do want DD to learn a 2nd language and the sks both took Spanish but we don't speak it at home.
Good input. At this point it would be entering the lottery for the class and not a guarantee. My major concern is the ability for DD to still understand her science and math lessons, as language arts would be in English. In our area, there is a large Spanish speaking population and it might benefit her to be able to speak Spanish (vs French, which is what SD and I took in HS - SD"s Spanish lessons were in elementary school, but there is less call for that here). DD already counts and knows some words (colors, shapes, whatever Dora knows) in Spanish.
I also spoke to a friend who teaches in a Chinese/English classroom in another school in our district and I am feeling pretty good about the program now. It is a very limited program (30 kids of each native language per grade) and this particular one is restricted to the kids in our neighborhood.
The younger the children start learning a second language, the better they will learn it.
There is always benefit in learning another language.
You are fortunate to have the choice to participate in a program like this.... try it, and if it doesn't work out, you could always decline in later years.
I would have done it in a heartbeat with one of my kids. Probably not the other because he had speech and language problems. I wish they had this opportunity when I was growing up. I would love to have grown up being able to speak two languages.
Do it. Just do it.
My youngest was in a Spanish immersion program from K through 5th grade, when we needed to transfer her to another school. It was a fantastic experience in so many ways; one unexpected benefit was that it was a huge confidence builder.
There were kids in her class who were found to have learning issues. The language didn't affect discovering them or treating them -- really. The teachers and staff in our program never assumed the issues were due to language. These kids had treatment plans and support as needed -- and in English, if that's what was required.
My girl is very ADHD and learning a second language early made it much, much easier in high school to pick up another. Those neural pathways had already been opened and ensured. Many ADHD kids (including one of my older girls) have great difficulty learning a second language if they don't start until HS, and a a few years of a second language is a requirement for acceptance to many colleges.
Really, if I had it to do all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Do it! We had our kids in a dual-language school (Armenian and English - the area we lived in had a huge Armenian population, and this was the only dual-language school in the area). Anyway, it was wonderful. The kids learned to read, write, and speak in both languages, and the majority of the kids spoke Armenian at home, so that's the language they spoke on the playground. My girls were speaking like native Armenians by the end of preschool, though we are not Armenian. I was so sad when we moved out of the area and had to go to a traditional public school. :( There's a lot of research showing that learning a second language before the age of 12 has a lot of life-long benefits. A whole other area of the brain is developed and used, that wouldn't otherwise be.
Both my boys were in Spanish immersion programs in preschool and kindergarten and I would gladly do it again. It does not interfere with their general academic pursuits, but adds to them.
I also think it gives them a better understanding of and tolerance for different cultures. Learning a second language is also very helpful to understanding how English is structured.
We don't speak it at home, and neither have been able to continue their Spanish in public school, but I still think it was a very valuable experience.
My sons are both in French Immersion (grade 2 and grade 5). They only have one teacher, who is fluent in both English and French. Every class they take is done in French, and only French is spoken at school, except English Language Arts. They speak, read and write in both languages and are doing very well. Neither my husband or I are fluent in French. We both took French classes in school, but not immersion. This has not been an issue as far as helping with homework, etc. I have had seven nieces and nephews graduate high school from French Immersion and all but one went on to English Universities, and all have been successful in English. I was concerned about sciences and math, but my friend who is an engineer and had gone through french immersion assured me it wasn't a problem as the language of math and science is latin and symbols.
I would talk to other parents who's kids are at that school.
Then, it also helps if the language is also spoken at home.
In certain parts of Europe, where most people are multi-lingual... the kids are now taught foreign languages in primary school. Not just from middle school and onward.
I would also, check out the school's curriculum and what their results are per education standards/learning per grade. And if the kids, are on par, academically, not only per language acquisition.
My kids are bi-lingual, since my Husband is European, and they were born into having languages at home. They also learn other foreign languages at school. Hawaiian, Japanese, Mandarin.
But they are taught in English.
But, it also helps if the parents also speak the languages.
We considered it and I'm glad we didn't. My oldest has some learning issues - it actually may be a muscle thing in her eyes it turns out. She is plenty smart and NOTHING was evident as a toddler, younger child. She spoke early and clearly, very active and inquisitive etc. No red flags at all. So I've thought how confusing it would have been to not know if her reading issues were bc of the dual language thing or not. So one thing to consider - any school difficulties likely will be harder to ID. Secondly, while I do think it likely expands their minds and my kids did learn Spanish from their nanny, practically speaking, Spanish is not the language of "business." It is for customer service and maybe as a teacher and definitely some applications etc but for "big business", it's not. I work in international finance/business and Spanish would have very rarely been helpful. Chinese I can see more. While I think most kids in China are learning English anyway and so even Chinese likely isn't necessary to be succeed, it seem to have more upside potential than Spanish. And finally, I wasn't super confident in our school district. It's very good but not so good that I wanted to add any more risk to the equation. Just my opinion.
My son is in 1st grade spanish immersion and he has no trouble learning science and math in Spanish. They do half the day in Spanish and half in English and he is thriving in science, math, English reading and Spanish. I was also on the fence about trying to get him in the class, but I'm so glad he made it in. We also have a high Spanish speaking population in our area. I was concerned that he would in be one of the only English speakers in the class, but all the the kids are English speakers and only a handful have Spanish speaking parent's at home. I did a lot of research before I enrolled him and found that the kids excel in academics later when they are in a dual language program in the early elementary years.
If you have access to this, take it -- it builds intelligence, intercultural understanding, it opens all kinds of doors. I can see only pros. My son was in a lottery for a dual language program, but he didn't get in.....
Yay! My (heart) son from Moldova learned Russian in kindergarten, French in middle school and Turkish and English simultaneously in high school (immersion). (His native language is Romanian.) He is fluent in four languages and speaks English without an accent. The earlier the better. The earlier the easier. Go for it.
One of the kids from church is in the Chinese program at her school and loves it. One of the kids that my daughter went to preschool with is in the same program (she's has chinese parents so she had prefered placement) and loves it too.
Our district is starting it for Spanish next year's incoming K but not at my daughter's school (not that it would matter because she will be in 1st grade next year). I would have loved for her to have been in a program like this.
If your child does not have any learning disability that would cause her to struggle in school anyway, I would sign her up (ask her first but most kids would say yes).
We moved into a district that does that. I think it is a great idea. But unfortunately my kids were in middle school when we moved, so they were too old to start. But I think it is a good idea, and will probably help the kids that participate in the program, into their adult years.
Yay!
My kids didn't do this, but everyone I know whose kids did a dual language program was happy with it.
If I had the opportunity to do this with my kids I would jump at it. It is so much easier for them to learn a second language while they are young! I would see if I could find an at home program and try to learn along with them.
My school district uses it more as a crutch for the Spanish speakers to have less English requirements. I am not impressed and my son is not in the program although he attends one of the schools that are dual language. One of the reasons we agreed he would not be in the program is that it is not spoken in the home, and we do not think it wise to have him speaking a language we do not know. Along with other reasons we agreed to keep our son out of the program. I will tell you however that attending this school (it's our homeschool little choice otherwise) is not welcoming as we are part of the 10% that is not hispanic and not in the program. In fact the school's informational "all call" and email was sent with out the English translation tonight - SERIOUSLY how rude!
I think it is a personal choice you have to make for your child and family - ours was no.
