Is Language Stars Worth It?

We went for a year and my daughter ended up not liking it so we didn't go back. Like you said, it is very expensive and as much as I thought it would benefit my kids to learn another language early, I wasn't going to pay for something she hated. I can say this much - she certainly didn't become "fluent" in a year - nor did I expect her to - but my point is that it would cost that much times how many years for her to actually speak it? We don't speak spanish so she wasn't using it at home (unless she was talking to Dora!!) so she really didn't retain anything she learned in that year. So here's what I'm trying to say -- I think it's a really well run program and I thought the teachers and directors were great. But in your case, I would probably skip it.. you can teach her the language at home for free and sign her up for quite a few other classes in its place for socialization.

If you are worried about socialization there are park district classes you could do that would probably be less money. I don't have any experience with Language Stars.

I took my daughter to a couple of free Language Stars classes when she was two. She seemed to enjoy it, but she was a little overwhelmed by all the other kids. (Despite the fact that it was a small class.) I was pregnant with #2 at the time, and I must say that it was exhausting for me to help my daughter participate in the class. And now that #2 is here, I wouldn't want to bring him to the class too. Since you are pretty fluent in the language, I would suggest that you just try to speak it to your daughter at home. She won't get much social interaction at a 45 minute Language Stars class. You can always send her to My Gym or join a mommy group (maybe even a bilingual one!) to give her exposure to other kids.

My own solution has been to hire a bilingual babysitter. We just started, but it has been wonderful for me. She speaks only Chinese to my daughter for 2 1/2 hours one day a week. She comes to my house, and I can get chores done while she's here. It's much cheaper than Language Stars, and more tailored to your needs. My kids love her too. Good luck!

My oldest child took Mandarin Chinese at Language Stars in Hinsdale a couple of years ago when she was 2-3. I thought it was a great class, but too expensive for us. At my daughter's age, it was merely exposure, as I do not know any Mandarin to follow up at home. If I had been able to follow up at home, I think it would have been more worth while-or if we could have afforded to send her there 3 days a week.

I found that Language Stars is a great program, but way too expensive. I can think of so many other classes in the city that would be great for socialization and much cheaper. I tell people that if you have money to burn than Language Stars would be perfect, but if money is tight than it is not worth it. You are your daughters best teacher, most of the kids that I know that took the classes are far from fluent and really only saw it as a fun class.