Naomi's school is offering a Duel Immersion program in French starting next year. It is only available to the new incoming Kindergarteners and Naomi's first grade class. We put in her application yesterday. It looked like there might be a ton of applications, but I am not sure if there really are. They are only taking about 50 kids in her grade. Half of her day she will have a teacher that talks to her entirely in French, if she gets in. We asked her if it was something she would like to do, and she said yes.
Some days I feel very excited about this opportunity! How cool will it be if she is speaking fluent French by 3rd grade? And I get excited about the fact that if her brain learns to learn new languages, she can pick up more starting as early as high school. THey say that in 8th or 9th grade they take the AP French exam. I know I would love to be able to know languages.
Other days I feel almost sick to my stomach thinking about how hard next year is going to be for her should she get this chance. I couldn't imagine going into my first grade class and not understanding my teacher. I would have died. So I am trying to prepare her for that possibility. I have told her if she does the Duel Immersion that it will be really really hard. She said she feels a bit nervous, but that she really wants to learn French so she can go to Paris (which will really help her if she becomes a Fashion Designer like on Project Runway, her favorite show) and today she told me that France has a lot of bleu cheese and she can't wait to try more. She is cute!
This program is something we have to really commit to. They want us to stay here until she leaves the 6th grade at least and if Naomi does it, Gwen will get first priority to do it when she enters Kindergarten so that is another 3 years, then add on Bianca's 3 years. So we'd be stuck in UT for the long haul! We probably are stuck in UT anyway because Brian's job is pretty wonderful! And we love the area we are in now. Davis county is pretty nice! I like everyone I have met that is from Davis county. We just wanted to experience living in other parts of the country. We'll just have to travel a lot to make up for it.
So I am wondering what others opinions are of something like this. Do you think its a good idea? Would you put your child in a duel immersion program?
7 comments:
My aunt has 2 of her kids in a duel immersion program in California (but it's Spanish and not French). Her kids do GREAT in it and really love it! Although their oldest won't speak Spanish at home! Crazy huh? They have never heard him speak... but his teacher says that he speaks fluently and has a great accent (he's in 5th grade now).
I don't know if I'd put my kids in... I don't think William would do well in that environment. But my other boys might do great! I guess it really depends on the kid!
What a great opportunity though. I'm excited to see if she gets accepted!
I can't wait to see if she gets in or not! I've never heard of doing French immersion around here, but I think anytime you can teach your kid more stuff, it's good. Right? She'd probably do great being the school-loving kid she is. :D
Shane and I have talked about this alot...and I think we will do it (when the time comes)! I wish it was Spanish, but any exposure to language is good!
i think it sounds like a fantastic thing. i would definitely put my kids in it, the earlier they learn a second language the easier it's supposed to be on them right?
btw, i don't think i've ever told you but your girls are the most beautiful little girls i've ever seen. they all have such pretty faces and features.
i was in a duel immersion program when i was in the 2nd grade in california...it was spanish though. there were good and bad things for me. i was a perfectionist and really wanted to do well in school so on the days that all the teacher spoke was spanish and ALL the worksheets and instructions were in spanish i had a hard time. i cried a few times and my mom said i was pretty stressed out. but at the same time i really liked learning a new language and i felt good about myself when i started to understand more. i STILL remember a lot of the stuff i learned there and languages have always been easy for me to understand...i don't know if it has to do with that exposure or not. I totally think it depends on your child. i think my brothers could have done it and not been stressed at all. it's all about your kiddos as individuals i think.
My youngest sister did french immersion until high school. I wished my parents had done it with me, but it was new and only a few schools in my city offered it (it was easiest for her to just send us all to the school 4 blocks away). I think it was great for my sister, and the bonus is that the kids in her classes were all really nice kids with normal families. I think the classes were harder than normal, but I don't think that was necessarily bad. She pulled out in high school because it was getting to be too much with trying to get in all the classes she needed and wanted to take, and the classes were harder. But switching out was no big deal. I say do it, and if it doesn't go well she can always go back to the normal program at any point (soon or years in the future).
Carrie,
Funny thing I just stumbled across your blog tonight. Do your kids go to Foxboro? I just accepted the job as the kindergarten French Immersion teacher at Foxboro, so my vote is yes! I know the teacher for the 1st grade Immersion class, and she will be great! I've observed a few classes in another immersion school in Kaysville, and the 2nd graders were able to understand and speak amazingly well. I am very impressed with this program!
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