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Yes, I´m selfishly using this space to get some advice from you.
I´m actually a bit nervous to even pose this question here because it almost seems obvious that my girl needs to attend a language immersion pre-school, but it´s not so black and white.
I´ve complained for years now that there are no viable language immersion pre-schools in the LA area. For sure, none close to me. So, when Camila turned 15 months I enrolled her in a family daycare where Spanish was spoken to her; she has been there since then and they have actually become like her second family.
In January of this year I enrolled her for three days a week in a small Montessori pre-school in the area. We all felt it would be good for her to have more of a schedule and structure to her day. I wasn´t ready, and neither was she, to leave the daycare that is like home to her and where she receives a great dose of daily Spanish, so she still goes two days per week.
My girl has been doing so well at the Montessori and I´ve seen how their system has helped her focus, have more patience in completing tasks and being more independent overall. She´s also opened up more in public where English is dominant because she can now easily communicate, and has the confidence, in both languages.
I was happy to have a great system going for us. The plan was to keep this going until the 2012 school year where she would hopefully be accepted to one of the dual-language immersion programs around town. We´re willing to move closer to whichever one she´s accepted into (most are a lottery system).
All of a sudden, our little plan has taken an unexpected twist. Last month I got a call from Franklin Elementary Magnet School–our local public school that just last year became a dual-language magnet with programs in German, Italian and Spanish. They finally, and due to popular demand, are offering a full-immersion Spanish preschool. I was ecstatic when I got the call and flew over to enroll her.
So, what´s my dilemma, you ask? Well, I am now hesitating because:
1) Camila just went through an adjustment period from the daycare to the Montessori
2) The preschool is taught 100% in Spanish and there is only a 5-days per week option. This means I would have to pull her out of the Montessori.
3) Camila gets 100% Spanish at home and throughout most of our interactions. Again, very little English.
4) The plan is that she will attend a dual-language school starting with kindergarten, no matter what.
I´m feeling I don´t want to take her out of a place where she´s thriving, growing, learning and feels really comfortable to take her to a completely new system only for her to get more Spanish. Consider that she already gets tons of exposure to Spanish and it is the language she prefers to speak, watch TV and movies in and be read. She will be well-prepared to enter a dual-language program regardless if she goes to an immersion pre-school or not, or so I think.
Another side of me feels that this Spanish preschool is something I´ve been requesting and wanting and now I can´t/shouldn´t back down. She will be at an advantage when she enters kindergarten because her Spanish reading and writing skills will be much higher. Does that even matter?
I would love to get your feedback because I am honestly stuck with this decision. What would you do?
I would definitely leave her in the Montessori program because she has adjusted so well. I have nothing but amazing things to say about the Montessori Method which can be an amazing building block for her early education. Because she will be doing dual-immersion in Kinder, I wouldn’t worry about the years in between. Montessori has as many fine gifts as an immersion preschool and she (and you) seem to be thriving with the new situation. My daughter did Montessori from 18 months to 3 years old, had a year off, and started dual-immersion in Kinder and she is an amazing student with beautiful Spanish (she is now in 1st grade). I do believe that Monetessori gave her the foundation that makes her a confident, independent language learner. Good luck with your decision. Either way, she will thrive!!
Thanks so much for this feedback! Your experience is exactly what I needed to hear. The Montessori Method is much more wonderful than I ever gave it credit for. I´m lucky to be able to have her there right now and do feel that it is definitely doing wonders for her self-esteem and learning abilities.
Does having better proficiency in Spanish matter when entering a dual language (DL) program at Kindergarten? Mmmm, in my opinion, not really. Why? Well because, and it depends on the model of DL the school is using, in some programs children receive literacy instruction in whichever language they are more proficient in AND really the goal is that by the time they reach the upper elementary grades they will, for the most part, all be pretty proficient in both languages (keep in mind that it takes 5-7 years to become fluent in a language). The other point I wanted to make is that I have noticed that in the dual language classroom (this is based off a mini-study I (and other studies my peers have done for course work) that being bilingual actually carries more status among the children than being strong monolingual (spanish or english speakers)!
Hope that helps chica.
You´re right about the proficiency level. I feel that since DL programs require a 50-50 mix of English and Spanish speakers that she will be able to fit in as a native Spanish speaker.
I´m really not too worried about her loosing her Spanish-language skills within the next year before she enters kinder.
I am more concerned about her not getting enough English if she goes to a full immersion Spanish preschool for a year.
Very interesting what you´ve noticed about bilinguals carrying more status in a DL classroom. Do you think it has to do with the fact that they can relate to both groups? They become sort of the connectors between the native Spanish and native English speakers?
Are finances a factor? If you do send her to the public school (bilingual-TRI lingual!!) her (and your) presence and involvement will enrich the very program itself… If people don’t sign up, the program will adapt itself without your needs as input… It takes a village chica, and you and your daughter may be one of the best things that ever happened to them! You have already seen how readily she adapts to a new environment, so that should bring you some measure of comfort and confidence in whatever you decide! Buena Suerte! Let us know what you decide and how it goes
Finances are not really a factor because this preschool is a paid program from the school. It costs only a tiny bit less than the Montessori/Day care combo we have going on now.
I totally hear what you say about being involved in a public school system to help enrich it, but I´m sure we´ll be doing plenty of that starting kindergarten. I am adamant about Camila attending a DL program in a public school and plan to be as involved as possible.
She did adapt rapidly into the Montessori system because it was a great fit for her personality. Doesn´t necessarily mean this change will suit her. One of those you-just-never-know moments…
Since Spanish is already her dominant language, the full day of Spanish at school seems unnecessary?
It’s hard for me to imagine being in your situation – I have the opposite problem. My children’s dominant language is English and I would love a full immersion Spanish school – I would love even a partial Spanish program – but I don’t have either of those options. The closest programs are an hour or two away and they’re in areas we can’t afford to live.
With that in mind – you’re in a very fortunate situation even though it might not feel like a blessing. Either way you choose, Camila is going to be fully bilingual with excellent fluency – no doubt. She’s still so young. Even if you sent her to the full day of Spanish and her English fell behind, she will catch up easily in Kindergarten.
Maybe you should take Camila to tour the new preschool and get her opinion before deciding?
I so wished everyone had the option of a dual language education for their kids! At least the option.
The options in LA have always been very scarce. This is actually a new trend because the schools that have opted for DL programs are doing very well academically and parents are the ones requesting it.
I can take Camila to tour the school, but she will only be able to see the class, but no action since it opens in August for the first time.
Hi Ana,
We just went through a very similar decision process with our son!!! We could a.) put him in a structured dual-language preschool in the fall (5 days), or b.) put him in a less structured 2-day-per week mother’s day out all in English, or c.) keep him with his beloved Tia full time all in Spanish.
Here are the priorities that guided our decision:
1. a loving, challenging-you-to-be-the-best-you-can-be environment
2. academic and social readiness for kindergarten
3. equal 50/50 bilingualism day in and day out
Well, although we are like missionaries for bilingualism and it is really very important to us– after long discussions we realized that developing #1 and #2 are the most essential, and #3 cannot actually happen neither in the future nor in the present, without them. His current environment with a little tweaking is getting the job done really, really well for #1 and #2. I believe #3 is not essential at this young age. English will come into his life in force, soon enough. Mostly, having gone through the school years with my daughter now 19 years old, I know how special it is to have a good situation, and I hesitate to jump to an unknown.
And yes, I feel strange, having been so excited to find a truly bilingual preschool, to then turn it away…
In the end we decided that Mommy’s gut feeling is the biggest thing to be trusted. I feel that he’s blossoming as a person in the situation where he is now. He is not falling behind at all in academic readiness for “real” school, in fact is ahead of the game. Socially— he’s a very nice little boy and that’s important! Yes he needs more exposure to being with kids that aren’t his cousins. So we have become regulars at church and at the local gym, which is really for our ulterior motive of him being in the childcare (total about 8 hours per week — the same as he’d get with a part-time preschool or mother’s day out type program).
I think being ready for reading / math / science is just being ready, irrespective of language. I think it’s like if you teach the child to build a tower with rectangular purple wooden blocks, until she can do it really well by herself– then if somebody presents her with a pile of square red foam blocks, she’ll figure it out pretty easily. But if she had never got much of a chance to play with any blocks purple or otherwise much before, that’s when it would be difficult.
I was quite motivated to learn Spanish as an adult but I really do think I also had an advantage. We went to a very strict, stick-to-the-basics, old-fashioned Catholic school; we went to Mass every day and we diagrammed sentences every day. EVERY DAY. Nouns, verbs, auxiliary verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc. etc. etc. It’s as natural as breathing at some point. Sometimes when I’m trying to explain a phrase in English to my husband I accidentally say something like “this is just the past-tense verb form of the word as a noun that you already know” and he has no earthly idea what I’m talking about, even though I’m saying it to him all in Spanish. He’s younger and more intelligent than me, but has more difficulty learning a new language because of not fully grasping the grammar/structure of the language he already knows. I’m just telling you this as an example. I’m convinced that we learn languages like this, like building blocks.
I love your list of priorities! I´m happy for you that you found a situation that suits your family well. You are right that a Mommy´s gut feeling is the biggest thing to trust.
My gut feeling is telling me to let her continue with the system that´s working for her right now. But, I keep going back and forth with all the pros and cons.
Ugh..decisions!
thanks for your advice and story
I speak Spanish and I only ever learned it at home. Spanish was the only language spoken at home and I was educated in English. I think she will be fine. You are already giving her a great foundation.
Thanks for that! Your parents really must have done a great job and they gave you a huge gift!
Regardless of the decision I make now, my girl will go to a dual language school. I really believe it´s a great system and I want her to be academically comfortable in both languages. Also, I´ll need the bilingual support!!!
If I was to use only logic, I would keep her in the Montessori school. But at the end you’re going to do what your heart feels more comfortable with.
I recently went thru something similar. I has decided to enroll my daughter in an all-girl Catholic school very close to our house. I was sure this is what I wanted, we went on a school tour and loved it. Then my heart started telling me that maybe an all-girl environment was not the best thing for her. This is the best school academically speaking in our area, at the end I decided against it. Logically she should be there because of the high academic standards, but I wasn’t comfortable confining her to a same same school (pre-K to HS).
My gut feeling also tells me to keep her where she´s at now. You´re right.
I guess that the best way to know if the decision you took for your daughter was the “correct” one is if you were at ease once you took it.
Congratulations!
I am gonna be in the minority here, but I say put her in the Spanish preschool. She is at a critical age for language development, and though she gets so much Spanish, the pull to English will be stronger than you can imagine. And once she gets fully comfortable in both, it is likley the Spanish will start to slip away UNLESS she has an schooling environment and friends who speak Spanish as a part of her daily school life. I have personally seen this happen with numerous children of my friends.
We also have a Spanish-only home and my children get alot of Spanish (only Spanish books, only Spanish movies, etc). We passed up other options to keep my son in a Spanish-immersion preschool which was inconvenient, far from home, and required a lot of parent participation because because the LANGUAGE OF PLAY was Spanish, and we saw this slip with our friends’ kids when the kids speak to each other in English.
You are so right about the language of play being very, very important. I’ve actually been noticing her interactions a lot lately and noticed that she is switching right away to whichever language her friends speak in.
Most of our playdates are with Spanish speakers. We’re lucky to have lots of Spanish-speaking friends around and they are kids she loves to play with.
In any case, she will be in a DL program starting 2012, so any Spanish she looses the next year, she will gain right back as soon as she starts Kindergarten. That’s what makes me confident it’ll be OK
She’s thriving where she is, it’s a huge jump from a few days a week to full days, and she already knows Spanish fluently. She’ll continue to get good Spanish from Kindergarten on – and the Montessori method adds something that I don’t think she will get in public education. She’s already well-poised – the pace will pick up once Kindergarten starts (believe me, I have one in 6.5 hour day long Spanish Immersion). My thought is to let her stay where she is, get all the good you can from it, enjoy this season…it passes too quickly.
Thanks for this advice!! It really resonated with me, especially about the Montessori method vs public education.
This public school is actually quite great, but the Montessori method is seriously special.
Hi, Ana. This is a topic I know about because I worked for more than ten years in child care resource and referral agencies and five years in the state department of education preschool office as the specialist in dual language learners. I can really understand your dilemma and you are asking all the right questions! So – here is my advice. 1. An immersion program that uses 100% Spanish is not a dual language program. It is a one language program. Either they are misleading the public or maybe there’s some misunderstanding? 2. The research is very strong in supporting the national experts at http://www.tesol.org, http://www.naeyc.org, http://www.dec-sped.org and eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/ who ALL say that the best support for long term success in literacy and school in general is to support literacy development in the child’s home language. If you are giving her plenty of reading, conversations about books, exploring her world, singing and dancing in Spanish at home – then she would be fine in her English only Montessori and that is her second language immersion program. But, if you decide to send her to the magnet program, learning her early literacy skills in Spanish will probably be a good thing for her long term success in Spanish and English and you can then build her language/literacy experiences in English at home. But – according to the research – if she learns all her literacy skills in Spanish in preschool and K, she is likely to transfer them easily to English later.
3. But – I’m pretty concerned because the research and expert opinion available to us today would advise against any preschool program that is 100% in a child’s second language. I don’t know why that magnet school is planning such a program. But – for your daughter it would be more like an English speaking child just attending their neighborhood English only preschool. It won’t hurt her – but it won’t help her grow up bilingual.
4. And you what the bottom line is? A child with great interest in language and a literate and supportive family will probably turn out fine in any of these circumstances!
so – Keep being an awesome parent and pick whichever option makes you both happy!
Karen
Karen, this is amazing advice!! Thanks for taking the time to explain this.
I just need to clarify point #1 because the preschool is 100% in Spanish, but K-5th is definitely a typical DL program that starts with a 90-10 model. The school just became a magnet and is doing very well and has amazing parent involvement.
You hit it on the nail with point #3 that she really doesn’t need 100% Spanish right now since it is basically her first language and the one she’s most comfortable in. At least that’s what I get to see.
The teachers at the Montessori tell me her English is really blooming and she’s a lot more comfortable using it.
however, at home she’s all Spanish, all the time.
Wow, this is truly very detailed and professional advice. Thanks Karen, and thanks for the great resource links, I have bookmarked them for further readings.
Ana, I think that if you and Camila are comfortable where she currently is attending, then there is no need to take her out. Because she is lucky that you, her papi, friends and family teach her Spanish she is getting more than enough exposure in Spanish and the fact that she prefers to speak Spanish I think says a lot. Her being in a monolingual preschool, I think, will not harm her when she begins a dual immersion program, on the contrary being fluent in both will strengthen her learning skills.
I agree with Tracy %100- you are very lucky to be going through such a dilemma. How I wish I had the same problem. I am the only (ONLY!) exposure to Spanish my kids get and there for (even though they understand everything in Spanish) they choose to speak English. To top it all off there are no dual immersion programs anywhere I live. The only Spanish summer camp is over two hours away.
Ultimately you need to follow your gut. I know what ever you choose will be the best choice for Camila.
Thanks, Lisa Renata!
Like I told Tracy above, I really wished there were dual language options for all! It must be hard to be the only exposure to Spanish.
You need to come to LA more!!
You’ve gotten some great advice here! Wow! My dos centavitos is to go with your gut. My one question is: how supportive is the Montessori school of Camila’s Spanish? That would be the one thing that would sway me if they weren’t supportive.
Buena suerte!
I agree, excellent advice!!
The Montessori is actually very supportive of Camila’s Spanish. There’s teacher from India, one from Korea and the owner is Armenian, so they all know how important multilingualism is and support it. Although no one speaks Spanish, they have been very patient with her.
Ay que dificil! But you do have some great advice already. It’s hard for me to think because I don’t have the same situation but I like what Kelly said: It takes a Village. And it will only be for Pre-K, it goes by so quick! She will have a great foundation that maybe you wont have this opportunity again. You could always have a little more English at home sometimes!? Or get English playdates if you think she needs them during the course of the year.
At the end, you should go with your corazonada but it is an excellent opportunity so well given to you guys! Right were you live, qué más se puede pedir! Ah, and if she doesn’t adjust for a long time, you can always go back to Montesori!
Gracias, Dari! A difficult decision indeed!
forget the preschool choices and give her more of you-time. no one else can offer her more! no one else cares about her as much. this time is fleeting.
You’re right, time is fleeting.
Unfortunately, this mamá has to work. I was lucky enough to spend her first two years of life primarily with her, but things had to change.
She actually really enjoys and thrives around other people. Since we have no family nearby, her family daycare has become a sorts for second family where they care for her and she has babies and other kids around her in a homey environment.
Ana, what a wonderful dilemma to have! How I wish I had this problem. You have gotten the best advice and I think you have already made your decision. I just want to add that you are a good mama to worry over this. And it is always better to take care of her emotional needs first. Language comes second. I don’t think you need to be concerned, though, about her losing her Spanish. She is firmly grounded.
xo
As the daughter of Cuban parents, I was born and raised in Los Angeles. My parents spoke exclusively to me in Spanish at home but all my schooling was in English. BTW – I learned English initially from watching TV and playing. I speak and read Spanish almost fluently and write it ok – but it’s not easy for me, I really have to make an effort to speak in one language at a time (not Spanglish). I never studied Spanish until I was in college, when I moved to Miami, FL and attended U of M – Latin American Studies). That being said, it would have been wonderful to have been given the opportunity to study in a dual language program for at least part of my schooling – I think it would have helped me quite a bit. However, I don’t think it’s going to make any kind of significant difference whether she goes to a Spanish speaking preschool or not. Don’t worry too much about it
As above, I think the preschool choice is better made on based on the fit for the child, not your language concerns, especially when that is easily overcome. Th flexibility of young children, especially linguistically, should overcome these concerns, anyway.
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