I went to Japanese school as a kid on Saturdays, and my DH went to Chinese school. We'll probably enroll DS when he's 5.
Did you go to Saturday school as a kid? Are you planning to enroll your child?
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I would love to do language immersion school for the first years ... I think it would be amazing for baby's brain/development.
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We will. We are already a bilingual household living in a country where we don't speak the language. Our child goes to a bilingual daycare and will go to a bilingual school when the time comes. If we stay here for a long time, I can't imagine DS in a school where they primarily speak the local language. I want to know what my kid is learning/be able to help with homework and have an understanding of the school system.
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I want to send her to Japanese and Chinese but maybe that will be overkill? I guess I should pick one...maybe Japanese because she can practice with family nearby.
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I don't know of any around here but I would like her to have extra French lessons. French is my husband's first language but his spelling and reading are terrible since he never had any formal schooling.
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DD goes to Mandarin classes on Sundays.
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Our goal is to send him to Japanese immersion school and speak spanglish at home as well. My mom only speaks Spanish to my nephew and she will do the same with our son, but she lives so far. I would just love for him to know 3 languages.
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I didn't know Saturday school existed but I'm definitely going to look into it for LO! I'd love for him to know a second language; and unfortunately, my Italian is much too rusty to be of service.
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Since Mr. Hedgie is Jewish our kids will be enrolled in Hebrew school around 13... does that count? They do learn some of the language and how to read it.
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We're in immersion pre-school, but they are probably going to do Filipino dance at minimum and school for Tagolag if they have it here. (Our youngest is Filipina).
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Plan to enroll here in Mandarin School probably around 2-3 depending on what age the local ones start?
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Yes, because we're a bilingual family and it only makes sense for our son to properly learn to write and read the language.
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LO will go to Hebrew school. But it's not on the weekend, for us it was on a Tuesday evening.
@Mrs Hedgehog: Our temple starts us earlier, in 3rd grade, so you can prep for your Bar/Bat Mitzvah at 13.
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LO will go to an English public school but enroll in the French Immersion program. I went through the same system and being able to speak two languages has been very beneficial for me as we live in a bilingual community .
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There's a pre-school near us that does class in Italian and we would love to do something like that. It would probably be more useful for her to learn Spanish, but her heritage is Italian and we thought this could be great for her development.
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There are Spanish and French immersion programs at the public elementary school in my area. We would love to enroll a future child in one. Our nephew is starting it in the fall.
I'm planning on teaching our future little ones sign language and hubby wants to speak Spanish as much as he can.
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Yes, I want our future LOs to be bilingual. DH's first language is Spanish, and mine is English, and I want them to be able to read/write both fluently. From working in an ESL program at a high school, I realized that many of the kids spoke two languages fluently, but were only literate in the language they attended school in (English). I want any future LOs to be able to read/write/speak both!
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We are starting Chinese school in the fall with DD. I was in Chinese school for a good number of years.
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Yes! We have a Chinese school that I think is every Sunday. I think he has to be 5 to start though.
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Bumping up this old post to see if anyone's doing weekend language school...we're starting in January. I finally feel like my son is ready, we should have started him in K last year, but I didn't. He's able to read and write above grade level in English, and he's beginning to show interest in reading texts in his second language, so we enrolled.
Not sure what to expect, I never went to Saturday school to learn a language or culture, and this isn't my native language either, should be interesting!
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@looch: we're on the fence. DS has gotten really good at reading and writing in English, but his literacy in our second language is lagging and I'm not sure I can motivate him at home. Maybe a school environment would work better. We'll see if he starts reading better over the summer when I'm able to work with him more... if not, he may get some weekend classes.
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My friend put her DD in this Chinese immersion school where it's mostly play base but there is no English spoken. I would love to do that except I have no money for it! I have a love/hate relationship with Chinese school.... Most people I know hated Chinese school and took it for granted when they were kids. Soo I am still totally on the fence. DD1 is only 3 so I think I have some time...
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Not weekend school, but we’re planning to start B in French immersion in grade 1.
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I enrolled my kids in Chinese school this past semester, and I’m so glad I went for it! They’re learning a lot, picking things up quickly, and eager to show off their Chinese and speak it at home.
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@Mama Bird: yeah, that's the issue we have...my son is interested in the second language, but he doesn't have enough at home to motivate him. Part of it is that we don't have a lot of written texts and my husband didn't really read to him in the second language...I did all the night time reading as my husband doesn't like reading aloud.
@snowjewelz: I am volunteering in order to help defray the cost. I didn't realize that was an option, but I signed up and they waived some of the fees.
@erinbaderin: There's an immersion school (via lottery) in town and I made the decision not to enroll based on the learning of the second language, which was a mistake, I think. If I could do it all over again from purely a language standpoint, I should have done the immersion program.
@Mrs. High Heels: that's what I am hoping, that he'll gain more confidence in speaking and that he'll learn that actual reading and writing, as opposed to just the dialect.
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@looch: Oo, that's a nice option!
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My DS is in his second year of Japanese school. He likes it, and he's picking up words here and there. Even my younger son is picking up words since we need to practice a set of words every week. He's not learning full on sentences yet, but he is working on proper greetings and writing characters. The only thing my son dreads is the weekly homework.
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When we moved this fall we were suddenly in a situation where we dropped the 3rd language that both kids spoke like natives (German) but picked up a 4th (Thai). My 1st grader is in the French system but now has English classes 6 hours a week and has been making great strides in reading and writing. He has one hour of Thai per week but is picking up vocabulary.
My little one is in preschool and we opted for the more intensive Thai option (and no English for now), and one semester in she already has a decent vocabulary. We try to maintain the German with music and videos in German.
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We’re still doing Chinese school. Now for both kids. It’s a struggle and every year we debate stopping, but the kids don’t complain too much so everyone tells us to keep going until they hate it. Lol.
They are learning their 3rd language, German, and that’s completely different. It’s not a struggle at all. They are immersed, Monday thru Friday, and they’ll learn more in a few months there than in a whole year of weekend language school.
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@DisneyBee: Do you speak Japanese at home? My son has the basis of spoken language, my goal is for him to learn to read and write.
@lamariniere: Is there any option for a Saturday language program in German?
@Andrea: Ha, I agree. My son didn't want to go at all, now he's warming up to the idea. I hope he likes it, it's part of his heritage and he's a dual citizen, so it's important he learn to read and write in the second language. I never had the opportunity as a child and I kind of regret it (but I will NEVER admit that to my parents). I kind of wish we did the German school from the beginning (immersion)!
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@looch: No...we don't speak it regularly at home. However, my DH and DS go to school together. My DH goes to the adult class, and my DS is in the 1st grade class. My parents speak primarily Japanese, so it's nice to see both my DH and DS starting to understand them. In addition, I'm hoping it'll be a lot easier for us when we go to Japan, so I don't have to translate all of the time.
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We have two Chinese after school care/learning centers in town that I’m considering. They offer an hour of Chinese a day in addition to other classes. I’m considering sending my non-Chinese DD once a week when she starts Kindergarten.
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@looch: I haven’t found anything for kids yet. There’s the Goethe institute, but I only see programs for teens. I’m going to have to make an effort to find some German-speakers for playdates. There are a few in our complex, but the ones I have run into have babies or young toddlers who don’t talk yet!
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