Bilingual education.

[Phteven]

Does anyone else here send their children to a bilingual school?

If so do you speak their second language or not?
What language resources do you use to help them with their homework other than babel?

[krysalyss]

Interesting question! I hope you get some good answers. We are thinking of sending DS to a bilingual school if we get the opportunity to live overseas next year but were planning on speaking English at home as the native language where we hope to be will be different and the school teaches in both. So I will be interested in other people's answers.

[Cassius2]

a good friend of mine has her 5 year old son at a bilingual kindy and now prep school OS. they do not speak the second language, although Dad is learning it at an adults class. the kid is not only learning, but speaking fluently with his peers. but this could be an age thing (he started 1.5 years ago).

HTH

[Miss.September]

Are you asking because you want to send your kids to one, or are they already going?

I went to a bilingual primary school. There were classes for Macedonian kids, Greek kids and everyone that didn't fit into those nationalities were bundled in together. The school kept things very separate which meant that there was a massive focus on the bilingual classes (like they were picked for school positions - school captains, sports captains, etc) where the other kids were looked over, regardless of educational capabilities. Being an Aussie kid, I was very much the minority and as the years progressed, my parents wondered why the school was even open to kids that were non-bilingual. My brother ended up being pulled out, but I finished there. There was no encouragement to play with kids in the "other" classes and there were no language classes in the non-bilingual grades.

So I guess what I'm trying to show is that while it'd be great to send kids to an all-inclusive bilingual school, this particular one didn't work.

[Phteven]

We are thinking of sending DS to a bilingual school if we get the opportunity to live overseas next year but were planning on speaking English at home as the native language where we hope to be will be different and the school teaches in both. So I will be interested in other people's answers.

I think you should definitely enroll him if you have the opportunity. I think our boys gain so many benefits from going to a bi-lingual school. Not just the obvious and cognitive ones but also in terms of tolerance and awareness of different cultural norms. If I could make one change to our education system it would be to make bilingual education more available.
My main problem is that I'm having trouble with the homework. If they get sent home words to fill in I sometimes have a hard time figuring out what they are meant to be especially the grammar ones that DS1 is getting now.
I started doing lessons but I had to drop out because DH is away so often and I don't have reliable baby sitter. Even with the lessons I was learning totally different stuff. They do an immersion program so while I'm learning how to order a coffee in a course aimed at tourists they're learning how to ask to go to the toilet and do sums.
Also with the home readers I have issues with pronunciation but that is getting better because I'm getting more used to it and DS1 is learning the rules himself so he can figure out all but the long words by himself now and he helps his little brother.
Lots of the other parents are fluent and some of them are native speakers and so I guess they find the homework easier than I do.


ETA - Pak, my boys are already at a bi-lingual school. Most of the students are from English speaking families and at present there isn't an English stream (although there is pressure from some parents in the enrollment area to offer one). There is no expectation that they will know the second language or speak it at home.

[Butterfly Dawn]

I would love to send our kids to a bilingual school. They have english class once a week and its a joke really. DS1 tells me what they teach (his english is far better then the teachers) and its my old work doing the classes.
We have an international school here, but I havent heard anything about it.
Here most kids speak 2 languages. Local dialect until then go to school/kindy where mandarin is used.
Its really great for kids to learn another language. From everything I have read its 1 of the best things you can do for your kids.
As for helping them with homework- thats tricky. DH does their chinese stuff and I will do their english stuff. If the teacher is foloowing a programme perhaps you can find an english translation of the text? then you could help them with a dictionary too perhaps?
I have often wondered about this type of problem

[Jellyfish]

I'm not a parent in this situation but I did attend a school with a language immersion program and have classes (Science, Maths and Social Studies) in another language (German) as well as classes specifically for learning the language. Other classes were then in English. My parents didn't speak the language at all which I never found that to be an issue, if I had something I needed help with I could always translate things back to English etc but I was older and had already been learning the language for about 5yrs before. I only did it for 3yrs (middle schooling years) but continued learning the language stand alone for a few more years after that. I would have considered myself close to fluent then but I'm a little rusty now (this was hmm 10 or so years ago and the last time I was in Germany was 5ish years ago) although could definitely get by and such.

I think immersion programs are a really good concept although I kind of wish it had of been a different language as German isn't very useful to me these days! I don't think the school I attended even have this program anymore, curious to find out why that is now...

[Miss.September]

ETA - Pak, my boys are already at a bi-lingual school. Most of the students are from English speaking families and at present there isn't an English stream (although there is pressure from some parents in the enrollment area to offer one). There is no expectation that they will know the second language or speak it at home.

Ahh okay. I was off on my own tangent then

I know you can get CDs that teach you a language - is there such a thing as a CD that teaches it in relation to grammar? Could be a way you could teach yourself the skills now that you can't go to classes yourself.