Comments on: Why It Takes a Leap of Faith to Enroll Your Child in a Dual Language Immersion Program

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By: SpanglishBaby LIVE: Dual Language Immersion Programs | SpanglishBaby™

SpanglishBaby LIVE: Dual Language Immersion Programs | SpanglishBaby™ — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:03:31 +0000

[...] From the many DL options available to why sending your child to one of these programs is a bit of a leap of faith, we spent a good half an hour talking about this type of [...]

By: Sunocean18

Sunocean18 — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 05:47:54 +0000

Yes, we should really make it a point to get together and/or share resources!

Are you familiar with Central Language Academy in Ontario? My niece is enrolled there and so far my sister-in-law is happy with the school. I personally have never visited Central since it’s out of our way and we haven’t considered that as on option. The charter school we are looking at is in San Bernardino, which is also out of the way from where we live, but I work near the area so I would be able to drop off our son and pick him up.

By: Ana Flores

Ana Flores — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 06:07:52 +0000

Patricia, did we go to the same school in ES? i went to EA

It sounds like you’re in the perfect frame of mind for a DL immersion program! It’s definitely not about the test scores, although these schools eventually over index in those as well.

Do they give you priority if your child tests as fluent? That’s what helped us get an extra point, so to say, for the lottery.

Let us know how it goes!

By: Ana Flores

Ana Flores — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 06:04:02 +0000

Melissa, that’s normal for you to be questioning this. I think that to evaluate a DL program you need to think in the long run. In Kindergarten the teachers are definitey working on the Standards, but they do need to take into account that most children in the classroom are also learning the language.
It’s beautiful that your child is already reading and writing, but that’s not a requirement for K and the vast majority of children aren’t.
Ask the school how they deal with children with advanced skills because they might work with them in separate groups.
How I feel is that I really want my daughter to be fully bilingual and bicultural and I know I won’t be able to teach her the skills in Spanish on my own (she tunes off anytime I try to “teach” her anything!).
I’m happy to share more about our experience anytime!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 23:44:13 +0000

Most recently, as we consider sending our first to kinder in a dual language program next year, I always thought it would be the obvious choice because I have studied bilingual education and know that in the long run, the bilingual kids come out on top, but now that we are actually in the situation, I have other questions… We visited our closest Dual Language program and the kindergarten students were tracing letter F on a full- 8 1/2 x 11 paper, while my son is ALREADY reading, already writing short messages and is ALREADY bilingual. He is not as BIlingual as I would like, and I would like for him to have a larger community supporting bilingualism; however, how soon would the academic rigor of that community match his background and what we are hoping for?

SunOcean18… we live in the same area with a similar circumstances…we really have to get together!

By: Patricia Miller

Patricia Miller — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:11:29 +0000

I loved this post Ana. My kids are 1 and 3 and next year we can apply for the lottery at the bilingual immersion charter school in Northern Colorado. It is extremely tough to get in and our neighborhood’s elementary is top notch. However, I feel like I would be extremely disappointed if I had to send them to it. Although the neighborhood school scores higher in standardized tests, none of those scores would mean anything to me if my kids lost the spanish language skills that I’ve worked so hard to give them. I grew up attending a private bilingual school in El Salvador and my transition to life in the US was 100% easier due to that. I know that the method works, but where we live our chances of getting into an immersion school are very low. However, reding your article just re-asserted how important it is to me. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

By: Ana Flores

Ana Flores — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 06:58:22 +0000

You´re doing everything as you should and I think that the answer will come to you and it will be clear. It´s a lot about your gut as of what is more important to your family. I made the decision to enroll my daughter in an all-English Montessori preschool because the immersion options I had were not great ones and the Montessori approach was great for her. I had to sacrifice her learning Spanish at a critical age, but I knew she would go to a dual immersion elementary even if it meant we would need to move.
What I can tell you is that the charters end up having tons of parental involvement and that´s key. APIs will follow

By: Ana Flores

Ana Flores — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 06:54:18 +0000

So thrilled you shared this with us. We definitely need parents with success stories to share them and scream them out to the world.
So thrilled for you and your children. What a beautiful journey! And congrats to you for taking this leap of faith, even more so 8 years ago when dual immersion programs were a novelty.
BTW, we toured Edison in Santa Monica and loved it, but we live too far.

By: JF Estrada

JF Estrada — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:55:22 +0000

I am the father of two boys of Irish Guatemalan and Mexican heritage. My oldest completed a dual immersion program for 8 years in Santa Monica, CA and it was a wonderful program. Not only did he get a solid education and achieve high scores in classes and those ridiculous standardized tests, but the pot at the end of the rainbow is that he is bilingual, and is now in the highest language class for an incoming freshman at a private high school. He can now qualify for AP classes in two years, thereby helping his GPA and making him a strong candidate for numerous universities. I also have my six year old now in his 2nd year of the immersion program, and the future is incredibly bright. I have told many parents of his classmates that in 8 years, their children will be way ahead of the curve and can parlay language skills beyond education. Especially since the future of this part of the USA will be Spanish speaking…