05 August 2009

To immerse or not to immerse?For the past few months we have been seriously considering registering Piper for Chinese Immersion Kindergarten and Elementary School. Of course she wont be going to Kindergarten until Sept 2010 but registration is at the end of this year and we need to make decisions now. Every single person I have spoken with is 100% for immersion programs, we've done some research and spoken with the school and we are ready to make our decision. I'd love to hear others experiences with similar programs so feel free to leave a comment or email me! We also signed Piper up for one of the Summer Camp Immersion programs, it's just one week long, 3 hours a day and she LOVES it! The other AWESOME side effect...she falls asleep immediately once she goes to bed which is nothing short of amazing. This leads us to believe that she is being challenged in a positive way! Quite honestly, I was fearing our other more mainstream choices...this one seems to be just the ticket!

6 comments:

Tracy said...

Good you are looking into it now! I'm not really for or against immersion. I've heard of some kiddo's having a hard time learning writing and reading of the English language because Chinese comes first, but I think eventually those hurdles are overcome too.

I'd consider it too if it didn't mean I'd be even later for work every day. For us, my top choice right now is a public elementary school with Chinese as the language taught.

Good luck with your search.

Patricia said...

Sounds PERFECT!!! We are looking into a similar afterschool program here...speaking as a teacher, I am all for immersion!! :)

Amazing how they conk out when they are challenged, isn't it? We are finally having 11 straight hours of sleep every night thanks to gymnastics camp!

Debra said...

Keeva attends a French immersion. I wouldn't go any other way than immersion. I am about to feed baby and run out to a play date but I will email you all our thoughts later.....

Jen said...

I sometimes check your blog and I read that you are considering immersion. My kids are in Japanese immersion at their elementary school and they LOVE it. It is just so different from anything they have ever studied and, because of that, it teaches them to think in ways "outside of the box". It is amazing how quickly they learn it and how much learing a little bit makes them want to learn more. I would HIGHLY recommend immersion to anyone. I wish we had a Chinese immersion program (as I have adopted kids as well) but our local school is the Japanese immersion school so that is what we did. I have no regrets.

JMCS said...

Sounds exciting, can't wait to hear more about it.

Hugs,
Jonni

Yoli said...

I have no immersion school in the area. I have to take both children to classes once a week, miles away. This is an amazing opportunity and a gift you would be giving them of culture and connectedness to their birthland. I wish I had an immersion school. I would be pounding on their door. Right now my children speak English and Spanish but I am fully committed to returning them their birth language.