school

I’ve been doing some serious thinking about what will happen next year when Vanessa goes to kindergarten because there are basically no options when it comes to dual language education in Denver. Well, that’s not totally true, but the options that do exist are really not feasible for our family. Let’s see, there’s the private school she went to for the French immersion camp this summer. While I’d love for her to go there, unfortunately, it’s out of our leagueRead More ...

Although we know it’s never too late to learn a new language, we are firm believers that the earlier you start, the better it is. Did you know that for the most part U.S. students begin studying a second language at age 14? Meanwhile the majority of the top 25 industrialized nations begin the study of world languages in grades K-5. It’s not surprising then that 80% of students in Europe speak at least two languages while only 14% ofRead More ...

When my husband and I met our daughter’s preschool teachers during orientation last year, we made sure we let both of them know we were raising her bilingual using the mL@H method. We explained that although, at first, it would seem as if Vanessa was not very verbal, the truth was that her vocabulary was much more extensive in Spanish than in English, since we only speak to her in the former. We just wanted to make sure that theyRead More ...

Playgroups, I can’t praise them enough. Not only has ours been a great way to expose Vanessa to Spanish spoken by her peers, but it’s also become like a second family for me. I’ve become really good friends with some of the other mamás and we rely on each other for anything from babysitting to accountant recommendations. And, just the other day, it was through one of the mothers, actually through the founder of our group, that I found outRead More ...

Some interesting links to share with you, especially the announcement at the end… Check it out! 1) The New York Times: Supreme Court Sides with Arizona in Language Case – “The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with Arizona officials who said the federal government should not be supervising the state’s spending for teaching non-English-speaking students. The 5-to-4 decision reversed a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which said the state was still violating aRead More ...