Today, was Spanish day for us. The Little Man (LM), went to his weekly Spanish school for 3 hours this morning. We joined this Spanish Immersion Preschool Program in February. It’s not specifically for homeschoolers but our teacher plans to integrate K for us and her daughter who’s skipping K for next year. This has been great for him. His dad has spoken to him in Spanish (he is fluent) since the day he was born without fail. Mom, on the other hand, is far from fluent, but the person he spends most the time with. We were hesitant about the cost. Dad was not convinced that just 3 hours per week with a small group of Spanish speaking peers (the dominant language of well over 1/2 the class of 8 is Spanish) would make a difference. You see, LM understands Spanish very well but his speaking ability has been delayed. He predominately gets his Spanish only from Dad. We did get an exchange student from Spain to help facilitate the growth of LM’s Spanish skills. We saw a little progress but she mostly speaks to him in English. The real benefit their has been the cultural exchange and experience of having an older sister. We love having her around.
Anyway, back to Spanish School. On Thursdays, when he has class, he often spends the rest of the day incorporating more Spanish and even declares it Spanish day when dad gets home.
Not long ago, I watched him and his dad play solely in Spanish for about 30 minutes straight. A new thing for us. Then last Thursday, my son grabbed his guitar and started singing a made up song in Spanish. This lasted about 30 minutes without a word of English until mom finally said to wrap it up because it was past bedtime. Amazing progress I say for a boy that would barely speak Spanish even though he understood it just a couple months ago.
Now to convince him to go to the summer camp at the school and sign up for next year. While the immersion has been great, he’s had separations issues. He just doesn’t trust people he doesn’t know really well and he still asks me stay parked outside during the class.
Tags: homeschool, preschool, Spanish, spanish immersion