Planned Bilingualism: Five Questions to Consider by François Grosjean from Psychology Today — Another useful article from Prof. Grosjean perfect for those just about to embark in the journey of raising a bilingual child.

Surge in immersion programs spreads from the Star Tribune — In Minnesota, the number of dual language immersion programs has doubled since 2006 with a total of 85 at the elementary and middle school level, with some programs even in high school. Reading stories like this one is like music to my ears!

Stolz, Amerikaner zu sein (Proud to be an American) from The Economist — For all those who ask why Latinos can’t be like all other immigrant groups and just learn English and forget about Spanish, this is a MUST READ! The description of how how Germans used to live in small-town America decades ago, sounds eerily familiar to how Latinos live in not so small-town America today.

Speak Spanglish, Baby from Vida de Latinos — Check out the interview about bilingualism, SpanglishBaby and blogging, Ana did for this very cool website for and about Latinos in Singapore.

In December I got an email from Deepa Fernandes, early childhood development correspondent for 89.3 KPCC Public Radio in Southern California. She wanted to interview me and visit Camila’s elementary school because she was working on a series on bilingual education. The 3-part series finally airs this week and I got to listen to the first one live this morning. You can listen to it here or below.

The series called “Bilingual Learning: The science, options and dilemma of dual language education” started off today by showcasing the many dual language immersion early education and elementary options available for children in the Los Angeles area. California now has over 300 schools that offer this program, with Los Angeles being the county with the most offerings starting in kindergarten. What makes me happy is to know that these programs are increasing exponentially and there are just so many more options available at every level than we had even four years ago when we started exploring bilingual education on SpanglishBaby.

KPCC has also  put together a very comprehensive and impressive site at projects.scpr.org/bilinguallearning. I urge you to explore it even if you don’t live in Los Angeles because it’s full of information on language learning and the developing mind and stories of the bilingual education dilemma some immigrant families face.

If you do live in the Los Angeles area, then you must dig in and bookmark this site. There are profiles on the following schools and programs:

1. Academia Semillas del Pueblo

2. East Rio Vista YMCA

3. El Marino Language School

4. Bell Tower Trilingual School

5. Ceci’s Home Daycare

6. Long Beach New City School

7. Los Angeles Leadership Academy

8. Franklin Magnet School

Courtesy of 89.3 KPCC, a picture of my daughter hugging me after I finished reading a book in Spanish to her classroom at Franklin Language Magnet.

KPCC’s site also includes a comprehensive map of the state’s more than 300 bilingual schools that you can search by city and language of choice. This was so needed and I’m thankful for it! Check out the map here.

To culminate this fantastic coverage on bilingual education, on Saturday, January 26th, I will join KPCC’s Early Childhood Development correspondent Deepa Fernandes for “Should Kids’ Classrooms Be English-Only?”, a conversation about those and other questions surrounding bilingual education in Southern California.  A panel of professional- and parent guests will kick off this audience-inclusive discussion to be held at Los Angeles Leadership Primary Academy in Lincoln Heights. I would love to see many of you there. If you’re in the area and would like to join us, please RSVP here and/or help us spread the word.