Update! It's already been over 100 days of school.

If your just now reading. This is a blog about my experience about transferring my son into a dual language program. The class spends half their day being taught in English and Half their day being taught  in Spanish. I am not a native Spanish speaker or an educator or a writer. I'm just trying to share information with other parents considering a Dual Language Immersion Program for their child. 

Sorry for the delay in posts. The holidays were busy. We finished up road runners, I attended some parent meetings, saw the Christmas concert (it had Spanish and English songs) and I have also been trying to have lunch with my son and help out in the classroom some. It's just Kindergarten as usual.  So far, I play letter and number games in English with some of the Hispanic kids that need help with their English. This is important because the students are tested in English. Georgia is recognized as an English speaking state and that is why the standardized test are in English. They are also trying to incorporate more Science and Social Studies into Language Arts. So when a kid is learning to read they will be reading about how a seed turns into a plant for example. I get it. They have a new principle this year who came from a "School of Excellence" so I'm expecting great results in the years to come. I'm realizing this school is great the longer I'm here. The teachers really seem to care. They are always having meetings about how they can improve scores and parent involvement. Only problem. It's the same 5 parents that show up all the time. I don't understand how out of 500 students only 5 parents can make it to the most important events that make a difference in their child's education. They pack in for chorus concerts and free hot dog dinners but ask them to participate in the academic part of their child's development and you can hear crickets. I don't even want to hear the, "I work" excuse. They offer these meetings at all times to accommodate schedules. They spoon feed information to these parents constantly in two different languages so 5 parents showing up is quite a surprise. I can't imagine how that makes the teachers feel. They bring in speakers from other schools and prepare handouts for only 5 parents.


Oh, I went to the Latina Breakfast this time with my Hispanic neighbor. Glad I went. They handed out 200 flyers to Spanish moms and all that showed up was 2 Spanish moms and this Gringa! I wasn't even supposed to get the flyer. If was fine that I was there. They said I was welcome at any event. But I love going to these meetings...anything they will let me go to. Because I learn a lot. I think people don't show up because they don't think it applies to them or they won't learn anything new. This isn't true. I don't know how many times I almost don't go to things and then end up glad I did because I always learn something new about the school and how things operate. Teachers can't do everything. They need parent involvement. They care but they don't get paid enough and they are people too. Don't be one of those people who think that the school will just teach our kids everything and we don't need to be involved. At some point, your going to want to be involved. You may not agree with what public school is teaching your child. I'm not a fan of conformity so I want my hands in it. I want them to know who I am. Also, those 5 moms that show up to meetings....all transfers moms like me. And a mix of ethnicity and social class. Just in case those details interest you.

Just a side note. They also had us renew our transfer forms recently. I guess they like to get their ducks in a row for Spring. My spot is secure before they open up new transfers for next school year. This was a relief. For a moment I thought I was going to have to compete for my spot again. But it's not official till I get the letter.

As for Mason, the reason for this blog. WOW! What a huge difference from when he started till now. He is reading small words or at least trying to sound them out. He attempts to spell things on his own by sounding it out. His interest in art has increased. He actually reads his Spanish books and site words better in a way. I think this is because the Spanish letters just sound how they sound in a word. We've all heard English is complicated. He really enjoys the Eric Carlyle books in Spanish. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do you see?  He kept checking them out of the library in Spanish so I went ahead and bought him his own copy. He has a natural Spanish accent. He pronounces Spanish words better than I did back in high school. I think the kids feel less inhibited about sounding silly so they go for it. He "Rolls his R"s" constantly now. Even when he doesn't have to. Which makes me mad because I can't do it. I mean, I can make the sound just not with words....if that makes sense. He still continues to sing Spanish songs he learns and if we go eat Mexican food he will try out his Spanish with the servers. He doesn't like me to speak Spanish. I think my the time he gets home he's burned out it unless he's doing it himself. I love sitting in the classroom and hearing the teacher ask questions in Spanish and the kids answer her in Spanish. All that repetition makes a difference. It's been a fascinating process. If not for this program I think my son would be a little bored in class. Spanish time is when he is challenged.

Also, in case you haven't heard. Georgia has a new law being implemented this year. If your child is not 5 years old by August 1st. They can not start school until the next year. The current guideline is that they have to be 5 yrs old by Sept. 1st.  They are doing this because there is some argument about young 5 yr olds starting Kindergarten and not being ready and not being able to keep up with the class. I personally think this is a case by case situation. My son was ready. He had been in a church preschool since he was 2 yrs old. He is not behind at all. My best friend said she wished she had held her son back from Kindergarten till he was 6. All kids are different!!  Unfortunately,  a lot of parents just send their kids to school never thinking about this. They are thinking they need the childcare or maybe they don't know they have the option to hold their kid back. Either way, I think if they are ready they are just ready and should be able to test into it. My son turned 5 a week after school started. Thank goodness he started when he did. As far as he has come I can't imagine having to hold him back and make him repeat pre-school.

Well, that's all I have for now. We just got progress reports. Mason is on track. Occasionally they say he misses recognition of a number or letter sound. I think he just has brain farts because when I show him at home he knows it. He likes to be shy and silly when put on the spot so no doubt that messes with his ability to answer questions properly. We have a parent-teacher conference next week. Just routine.

I've posted some photos below of some of his work. One of my favorites is the "Monsturo de figueros" not sure I spelled that right. It means shape monster. It eats shapes and is made of shapes. Learning about the shape monster has actually helped his drawing. His stick figures have started to fill out now that he realizes shapes are everywhere. The books I posted a pic of are from the book fair they had around Christmas time.

Grr...don't know how to fix this. Anyway, the print out and color their own books. They are repetitive and easy to read

Sorry this is upside down. It was for Thanksgiving. Things they were thankful for.

Shape Monster

Thanks for reading! I have started another blog about my journey officiating a wedding soon. So pardon me if I take a while to update my blog. Please excuse my typos.

The First Nine Weeks

We are 9 weeks into the school year. If you are just now reading. This is a blog I started about my own personal experience with a Spanish Dual Language program with the public school system. When I decided to transfer my son into this program for Kindergarten I couldn't find many stories on the net from other parents. I am not a professional educator, writer, or Spanish speaker. I'm just a mom sharing an experience. If you are from this school reading this blog know from the get go this is NOT a criticizing or negative blog. It's just my point of view and experiences thus far. I appreciate anyone who cares enough to read it.

Here we are at 9 weeks!  Mason has received 3 certificates of accomplishment. First, was Student of the Weeek, Second, he got one for Good Display of Character (something like that). And this past week he got one for Perfect Attendance for the first 9 weeks. I'm working hard to keep up with everything---homework, parent nights, PTO, academic nights, dress up days, and this months community donations. This month was "Sock-tober". We donated socks.....last month was a canned food drive. Now, none of that has to do with Spanish but it is part of starting Kindergarten so I like to include some of that for moms that are interested in Kindergarten in general. I know I was. This week is Drug Awareness. Every day they have a different dress up day. Today was crazy sock day.

Mason got his first report card. Which was graded by either a S, N, or a U. (Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, Unsatisfactory). He got all S's and 2 N's. Both N's fell in the Writing and Language Arts area. It's no surprise he needs to work on his writing. He doesn't like to do it and his letters are always backwards (just certain ones) and the teacher consistently comments on he needs to work on it. Which is fine. It's her job. They use AIMSweb and GKIDS as guidelines for their grading. In case your curious and want to Google the evaluating system. As for Language Arts he couldn't identify the "I" sound for English and the "ll" sound for Spanish. I asked him over the weekend what sound the "I" makes and he could tell me. Maybe he couldn't remember at the time he was asked. Of course I wanted to read one of his letter sound books to him. He was having nothing to do with it. I think they burn out on that stuff all day and he isn't interested when he is home. We had one of the academic nights that was Reading themed. We rotated through about 3 classrooms where we made site word games to take home. The only problem with that is finding time to do it. But they seem like good games. One was a board game with rolling dice and advancing forward if you could read the word. The other was flipping over letters and trying to make words, and the third game was writing site words on one end of a popsicle stick and pulling them out of a cup and guessing the site word. If you got it correct you got to keep the stick for points. If you got a stick that said "BOOM" then you had to put all your sticks back and start over. I think Mason will like that one. Mason is actually better at his Spanish site words than his English site words. I feel like I have to do something. I feel like we are just robotically doing homework and not getting anything from it. We are still doing worksheets, and reciting numbers and letter sounds. I don't think it's the content of the homework we just don't spend enough time with it. I think he is ready to be done with it like me. Which is all my fault. He hasn't been as interested in reading at night either. We've read to Mason since he was born and every night since he was 4 months old. Now that the pressure is put on him to read his attitude has altered a bit.

Anyway, every week we get a "Guided Reading" book in his back pack. One week it's an English Book and one week it's a Spanish book. Sometimes we have both. Not sure how the rotation works. But the teacher sent home a CD of a read-a-long for the Spanish books. I think this was to help out the English parents who didn't know how to say the words. It's an audio CD of one of the Dual Language teachers reading each of the Spanish books sent home. I thought that was very clever. I don't need it but it could be useful to Mason maybe. We were told to keep them and send them back the end of the year. I also recently asked the teacher to send me a list of web links to the songs they sing in class. Mason is always singing songs that I wish I knew the words to. Particularly the Spanish songs. She sent me a list. Most were on YouTube.

This week is Math/Technology night. I'm interested to see what they send us home with. Being a Title 1 school they are very resourceful and they strive to be. It's the school goal to get parent input and get them involved and the provide parents with resources to help them help their kids. They offer resources in English and Spanish. Every flyer sent home, every message I get from the school is communicated in both languages. I think Mason is learning Spanish the same way we learn English. Through songs and play and just being around the language. His first Spanish words are the same as his first English words: Colors, numbers, shapes, animals. I once read somewhere that kids born into a bi-lingual home with take longer to speak. It's because they are processing two languages at once. I wonder how that same theory might play into his learning at school. Will it take him longer to read and write because he is trying to process the information twice in two different languages?  At what point do I panic if other kids his age is reading before him? Will his Math and Music abilities be more advanced than other kids because his brain is being challenged? All things that will be answered in time I suppose. I just wonder where his reading and writing would be if he had started a non-title 1 school that was primarily pushing English Reading  and Writing all day. I usually have good instincts and intuition. Mine tells me to be patient.

I'm going to the school Thursday to read some of my favorite Halloween/Fall books to the kids and give them a treat bag. :)   Can't help myself. I hope it goes well. I'm a little nervous to read in front of such a big group of kids. Mason loves his school and his teachers as do I. I'm still very happy about the decision I made. We are only 9 weeks in so I'm not going to be hard on myself. This is my only child. He and I are both learning things for the first time.

As always, thank you for reading and if you have anything you want to know that I'm not talking about please let me know. I may space out my blogs a bit so I don't run short on material.

Here are some links the teacher sent me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsRKoZGaoEM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L26jwqF9Zro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unbPV7l2_vI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99zPboqO3sw
you can search "EL ALFABETO" not sure which one she used. When I printed my email it cut half the websites off. :(  

7 weeks in dual immersion-Hispanic Appreciation Month

Dios Mio! (My God!) I have been busy. So I skipped I few weeks as I said I would from time to time. If you're just now reading please go back and see my first post. This is a blog about my experience as a parent enrolling my child in a Spanish Dual Immersion program. My son, Mason, is 5 yrs old and in Kindergarten. I am sharing this experience to help inform other parents of what it's like to be involved in a dual language program. I am not an educator or a native Spanish speaker.

We have been some "Busy Bee's". (school mascot).  Since my last post it has been: Parent teacher conference, Road Runners events, book fairs, Dr. apts, and a Parent Advisory Council meeting. Fwheeww! I'm tired.  Parent teacher conference was easy. It was just 20 minutes of the teacher going over how they test and how well your child is doing or not doing. Mason is meeting and exceeding standards. These are test that were given the first 2 weeks of school and they test again in December. They use a testing system called AIMSweb. It's new. They no longer do CRCT testing. Not sure this is it's replacement or not. I have received so much information the last few weeks no doubt it's all jumbled in my mind. I will try to post a pic of this evaluation for your viewing pleasure.  Parent Advisory Council was a meeting I signed up for and didn't really know what it was going to be about but since I'm so involved I didn't care. It is a group of parents who sit down with the principle and some faculty and come up with ideas to improve the school and get other parents involved. This council is a requirement by Title 1 (a school that has 70% or more students on free or reduced lunches) There are 13 schools in our district that are Title 1. So I was given a huge packet of statistics and scores and was told to submit ideas before the next meeting. Ideas such as---What can we do over the Summer to help students and parents continue education, How can we better inform parents about things going on at the school and get them involved, etc. It was kinda like a PTO meeting but different. It was like "Fight Club". The first rule is you don't talk about it. The principle said it takes a special group of people to look at this provided information and see it as a useful tool...something good. She said that some parents would look at it an find 50 things politically incorrect about it. I imagine it's because it had a break down of scores between all the different ethnicity groups. FYI, Caucasian at this school had some of the lowest scores. But this doesn't scare me. You have to consider the balance. I transferred here so I'm obviously an involved parent. I'm going to give my child special attention. The Hispanics at this school, some of them, are pulled from class and given individual instruction. So in the long run they had better scores. I'm happy that they have someone to do that for them. Plus, we were told that GA sees it's self as an English speaking state so they do not recognize dual language programs so all test are in English. So the Hispanics are still going to be at a disadvantage if they don't get extra help in the area.  That's all the time I'm going to spend on talking about that. You get the idea I hope.

Mason did 3 Road Runner races. He had fun. I recommend it. If you not ready for team sports and want to slowly get your child used to participation of a sport nature it's the way to go. Time wise it's not demanding. The book fair was good. Not sure if I mentioned it in the last post. Me and another parent donated a large amount of books to the classroom. Being a first year teacher, she was deeply appreciative. And just so you know; book fairs at dual language schools have Spanish books. So I bought a few. Mason doesn't' like me to read them to him he says they are "Too Spanish-y" I thought that was funny. Mason's 5 yr check up was good...a little late, but good. He's healthy!

My favorite event last week was the Hispanic themed Fall Festival. It was the first one in years that the school had done. They usually do a Spring Festival. It was a success. Naturally, I volunteered my time to help set up. In the parking lot there was some games and crafts tables set up for the kids. Mostly tossing a bean bag in some sort of hole, Piñata's, Paper flag making (Papel Picado Banderitas), and homemade maracas. You take a paper plate and fold it in half, pour some beans in it to make the sound, staple it shut, and then decorate it with paint/marker/streamers...whatever. But what was going on inside was the fun part. A local Mexican Restaurant donated the food. There was a Mariachi Band, and many tables set up to eat at. My neighbors made a huge stand up frame that was used for photo ops. There was a table set up about Hispanic culture. The kids had a great time. At first I wondered were the bouncy house was but then I realized it was more of a Spanish heritage festival than a typical fall festival you would see at a school. I loved it! Mason spent most of his time anywhere they had candy. The director of the DL program came up to me at one point and said, "If you had asked me where I was going to be teaching 10 yrs ago I wouldn't have thought I would be here". This was a good statement. I've heard this women say several times how passionate she is about her job and how much she loves every single one of those students and I believe her. I get warm fuzzies knowing that the people that surround my child all day are passionate about what they do. I can only hope some of that will rub off on Mason. I loved the mix of cultures that night. Seeing people together appreciating one another. That's what it was for. I had mentioned in my last post about how I wasn't sure how involved I would get to be with this event because they had a Latina Breakfast. I later learned that the breakfast was necessary to help get the restaurant and mariachi involved with the festival. One of the main goals is to get the Hispanic parents more involved. They want to be but a lot of them feel discouraged because they don't know a lot of English. I think the feeling is mutual. I'm not fluent in Spanish. Half the school or more is Hispanic. So we are working on bringing the two cultures together on mutual ground and opening the lines of communication. 

Homework is our biggest obstacle right now. It hasn't changed since the last time I mentioned it. It's still cut and paste, and color the amount of stars that correspond to the number shown. Also, he has to write his site words and numbers. He hates to color. And he hates to write so this is a struggle. I wonder at what point I worry about dyslexia. He wants to write the numbers and letters backwards and I have to always remind him to read left to right. Right now I assume this is normal. Really, he's only been in Kindergarten 2 months. The verbal homework is easy. He will read me his site words and count to 100 in English AND Spanish. So I know the information is there he just doesn't like to write it. I also find the site words funny. In English right now he has words like: it, is, one, in, etc. In Spanish he has a site word that looks like: anaranjado (orange). Believe it or not, he does better with his Spanish site words!!!   Once a week she sends home graded work. In class it's the same mundane worksheets we do for homework and they have a different letter they write every week. We made the mistake of letting Mason play the Xbox One over the Summer and now that's all he wants to do. All his other activities have limited. I know...bad parent. So he wants to rush through everything with the goal in mind that he will get to play his Xbox. I won't blame this on the game playing husband because he reads this blog. Love you honey! Ultimately, I'm the one here all week with the kid so it falls on me. I thought limiting it to one hour a day would help but he still wants to hurry through things. I hate to keep saying, "You can't do this because you have school", "You can't play your game you have homework", "You have to turn it off you have Road Runners."  I feel like the bad guy and I don't want him to have resentment toward these things. But I'm trying different things. Trying to redirect his attention to educational games on the mobile devices but those get frustrating.  Also, the Spanish songs are no stop which make me happy. He still goes around singing songs he learns at school. I know this program is working. So far we are all very happy with it. Mason tells me he loves his school often. He tells me he likes Road Runners. So if a little homework motivation is all we need then I say we are doing pretty good.

So I want to post a video of Mason doing some of his Spanish site word sounds. It's not all of them. Oh, and the video is sideways...sorry about that. My poor iphone video recording skills. I am also going to post some pics of the festival and Mason's parent/teacher conference. I really want to post some of the pics from the festival.

Please let me know if you have a question or just want to know something I'm not covering in my blog. I hope the photos and videos help fill in the gaps. Thank you for reading!

 
 

 

 http://youtu.be/HiDkDObMO5k

 

View youtube link for Mason reciting Spanish Letter Sounds.

 

 

Till next time!

Dual language Kindergarten Week 3.

I always start by saying....This is a blog about our Spanish school immersion experience. My husband and I transferred our son to the elementary school that provided a dual language program. They do half their day in English and the other half in Spanish. To see how we got this far please back up and read my first post about our transfer decision and process. I am not a writer, educator, or native Spanish speaker. I'm just a parent who wanted the best school experience we could provide for son. It's a unique one and I want to share it!

Communication:
Wednesday there was a Latina Breakfast. I never received anything about this breakfast but my Latina neighbor did. She asked me if I was going. I was like, "I didn't get anything, is it just for the Spanish mom?" Which would be fine. She was making a dish.....I don't cook Spanish food and I'm not Latina why would I go? WELL, turns out it was a breakfast with Latina food so ALL was welcome. It was a parent meeting. The PTO moms were there. Now I was just irritated. This was not advertised very well at all. I'm flexible...If it was Latina only FINE! If not then I wanted to come. Because I'm a transfer mom I feel obligated to be at everything possible. Also, I just want to go. Another mom in class, who's daughter was in the same preschool as Mason, said she had a problem with the lack of communication. We felt the same about homework night last week. We had no clue what it was or if it was for us. (us meaning--moms who know how to do homework) The school has also sent home some fundraisers. One has vague info. Grandparents picture day is next Friday but we don't know what time. It's not on the brochure. The book fair is next week. I have no clue what day or if it's open to the pubic. The catalog said, "Come to our book fair". Okay great, I will.....but when is it?  I don't want to find out the day before. I assume I will have to send him with money. I want to go so I can buy some Spanish books. I sure they will have them. I attended the first PTO meeting (Parent Teacher Organization) and I read somewhere they meet the first Wednesday of every month. Latina breakfast would have been that day. So it made since the PTO president and others were there. My neighbor filled me in on what I missed. They are supposed to have another meeting for those who didn't make it. And they are planning a fall festival. The first one in 5 yrs! The neighbor has already got 3 local Mexican restaurants involved to make donations. She said it will be a very Spanish fall festival since most of the school has a large number of Hispanic students. It's going to be awesome, I'm so excited! I want to help and I want to be involved. I just need a little help. I have never done this before. Plus, me and the other mom came from a school that always made sure we knew everything and was up-to-date. So maybe I'm just spoiled.

Homework:
After this weeks homework. I'm bored. So far it's been name/number tracing. Reciting Spanish alphabet sounds, counting in both languages, and what I call 2yr old level worksheets. We were told they would have all year to count to 100. Done! We're there. And Mason can count to 40 in Spanish. In about 2 more weeks he will be able to count to 100 in Spanish. The worksheets are literally cut the number out and paste it on the matching amount of circles. Please! He's been doing this since his  2 yr old class preschool. Now, I know not every kid has the pleasure of private preschool for 3 yrs before Kindergarten but we did. And I'm bored. So yeah, I do feel like the traditional program kids are going to be ahead in reading. But I'm optimistic and patient. I expected this and I believe the benefit will out weigh the risk. After all, I have the option to supplement his learning at home. I think it's time. I asked the husband today to go ahead and wipe out the old computer to put in his room so I can get him started on the websites the teachers recommend (See these in and earlier post). I've already started my Pinterest board. They teach phonics and writing in English. Science, Math, and Social Studies are presented in Spanish. So most of my "Pins" are those subjects. I completely understand that the Hispanic kids are starting at the very bottom of it all--ABC123--and it's going to take some time for them to get where we are. FYI--if this blog is choppy it's because my son keeps coming in here needing help with something every 2 minutes and if you're wondering where I have time to blog this--I don't, I get disturbed--I just have to do it. Anyway, so I'm finding ways to supplement his education. I do feel that Spanish part of the program is challenging enough. He loves it! All week I hear him singing and chanting Spanish songs and alphabet. Being a Spanish enthusiast, I love it as well.

As far as other Kindergarten stuff goes....
Road Runners got rained out. Too bad, I had my shorts on ready to walk fast. Lol! So they spent half an hour in the gym learning procedures like "how to get in line quietly". Very exciting.

Mason was very excited about his trip to the school library this week. They got to check out a book and learn how to borrow a book and take care of it.

Questions? Comments? Anything you want to know that I haven' answered? See pics below! I took a picture of Mason's desk I cleaned off for him. I also provided a picture of some really cool cookies with English and Spanish on them.

I plan to post a video soon of him practicing his Spanish sounds. So come back and read me!

Thank you! Mandy

Two Weeks into it.

Welcome back and Happy Labor Day! If you just now joining me, this is my blog about the Dual Language/ Spanish Immersion program I transferred my son into when we didn't make the Charter School lottery and we didn't want to send him to his district school. This was my first choice anyway. Please see my early post about our decision to send Mason to school here. This blog is to provide info for other parents looking to try a DL program who wants to hear a personal experience. I am not an educator, writer, or native Spanish speaker. I'm just a parent who wants to give my child the best opportunity. So read and learn with me. Because this is all new to me too.

This was a busy week. First, the regular Kindergarten stuff.  We started Road Runners this week. It's a track/running program for the kids. At this age they don't do much. Emphasis is more put on exercise and healthy lifestyle. I believe that is what I read on the http://www.rrca.org website. I research everything. He said he liked it and wanted to do it again. They have a small paved track behind the school. They basically ran laps for 40 mins. The coach said that this week they will pass out sticks to keep count of laps. They are required to attend 3 running events of the season to be considered an active participant. I found it a little unorganized. But I won't get into all that. They are only 3 weeks into school and it was the first practice.

Thursday night was a "Homework Workshop". Now, at first I had no clue what that meant and if it was even for us. The information given out wasn't detailed at all so I emailed the teacher. Turned out it was a beneficial workshop. Both Spanish Immersion teachers gave a power point presentation about how much homework we should do per night. The lecture was given in English and Spanish. We were also given a packet of English and Spanish site words that also included counting to 100 and pronunciation sheets to help us parents. They also gave us a list of usuful websites for English and Spanish. The presentation ended with all of us standing up and reciting Spanish pronunciation. For example: The kids touch their hands to their heads saying "Oso, Oso, Oh, Oh, Oso". Oso is bear in Spanish. Each letter had a hand movement to accompany it. They didn't seem to follow any particular order. Not like the military style Spanish alphabet that I learned in my highschool Spanish class. You can YouTube the military version. Mason and I use this at home. I let him tell me the version he learns in school. It makes him feel like he's teaching me. Which I think is one of the best ways to learn something....teaching someone else.  We also filled out a survey on how useful we thought the workshop was. We were given parent cards to keep track of our involvement. Every time we participate in activities such as this we get a hole punch. When the card is full, we get something. This is where I say I don't need and incentive to participate in my child's education. But this is a title 1 school and they don't have a lot of parent involvement so I understand why they offer it. I also realize not everyone can participate in their child's education due to jobs and other commitments. So, I'm not judging. I just consider myself lucky. Mason's Kindergarten class had the largest turn out of parents for "Homework Workshop" and they won the certificate for frozen yogurt.

Friday! I got the best news I could have ever been greeted with when picking up my son: "Momma, I got Student of the Week"  I thought this was awesome! He was so excited. He was also given a coupon sponsored by McDonald's for a FREE 4-piece chicken nugget. I really want to post a pic but the certificate of achievement has the school name on it which I don't wish share.

So the week was good! Homework was the usual so far. Tracing his name and lunch number. Reciting Spanish letter sounds, counting to 40 in Spanish/English. They have sent home handouts on how to do this if you don't know already.  Mason continued his chanting and singing Spanish songs around the house this week. So far he is staying engaged.

Look below! I've posted some of the handouts for you to view. If I were you I would find these interesting so that's why I'm sharing them with you. So you can see the sort of stuff that they have sent home.

 

I'm trying to keep up with this blog weekly/bi-weekly. Please ask if you have any questions for want to know something I haven't covered. Thank you for reading! Mandy

How does it work? Well from what I know so far.....

I was one of the first people to question the accountability of such a program. And of course, family members and friends are skeptical to the idea. I had to educate my husband on the matter to get him on board. I hear it all...How will it affect his ability to learn? Will he learn as much as traditional track kids?  Will he fall behind in his studies? I've gotten all the questions. I have done my homework. Short answer, No learning another languages opens a part of your brain you don't use everyday. Statistically, the kids don't fall behind .  Yeah, it's different but when I read about how the US is the only country that doesn't learn another language it disturbs me. I'm patriotic. I love America, my country. My father fought for our freedom. I understand the melting pot and what this nation was built on and I understand that a long time ago people who migrated here were required to learn English. Well times they are a'changing. It doesn't matter how I or you feel about that. But I would rather grow with my America if I can or at least give my child the opportunity I was never given.  This program is becoming so popular that faculty members are taking their kids there. If it's good enough for the faculty it's good enough for me.  There are approx.. 1165 schools in GA and only 9 of them are Dual Language.


The school offers both traditional and Dual Language Option. Some terms seem to be used interchangeably...Dual Language, Dual Immersion, Bi-lingual immersion. Take you pick. If you are an expert in this area feel free to correct me. I am learning too so as I catch my mistakes I will correct them.  I think the term used depends on how the program is formatted. First of all, you have to know they are NOT teaching my son Spanish. Nor are they teaching the native Spanish speakers English. The language is acquired out of necessity. The brains natural survival kicks in and these kids supposedly just pick up on the language. Very much the same way we learn to speak our native language. The only difference really is at the end of the day they go home to speak their native language. They are still learning so much about their own language it is the perfect to insert a foreign language. All stuff I have read about. His class is divided into half native English Speakers and half native Spanish speakers. This way no one group had advantage over the other. The children are taught the same material as any other Kindergarten class. The first half of the day the teacher speaks English while teaching Reading, Writing, and Phonics. She will also teach Spanish alphabet and sounds during this time The other half of the day the teacher speaks in Spanish while teaching Math, Social Studies, and Science. From what I understand the teacher switches with the other class so they are in a Spanish classroom. I have told Mason to listen and use his other senses to understand. Watch what the other kids do when given commands. I spent a lot of time preparing him for Kindergarten but not this. I read that there isn't anything you need to do to prepare them for a DL program. Only support them once in it. I mostly just try to inform him what to expect. And that seems to work for him. The kids are not restricted to speak English and ask questions during the Spanish half of the day. From what I understand they still have to say things in English till the English speakers get the hang of things and vice versa. All of the standardized state test are given in English. So what happens after Elementary school? Well the first group of kids to participate in the DL program just finished the 5th grade and are moving on to middle school. Just for them, the county has decided to dedicate one of the near by middle schools as a continuation. I read in the news paper that due to the nature of middle school and how they have to change classes so much that they are unable to implement a full DL program but they will offer advanced Spanish instruction to them at a Sophomore level. The point is to keep it going. I believe the old saying is, "If you don't use it you loose it". 

So far Mason's teacher is new this year. However, she was a student teacher at his school, in the DL program, so she is familiar with it. She is a native English Speaker with a degree in education and a minor in Spanish. Which amazes me that she picked up on it so fast. Of course I don't know all of her history so I'm just speculating. The other DL teacher for Kindergarten is of Latina decent so I speculate that she is fully bi-lingual. All of her emails to the parents have been in English and Spanish. Any flyers or forms the school gives out is in both languages. From what we were told in a recent newsletter, Homework will involve writing letters in both languages. The family doesn't have to know any Spanish. The children will know how to do their homework. And parents will be told what the children need to do in their native language. When I get better at this blogging thing I will post brochures and newsletters so you guys can see examples of the stuff we receive. I'm trying to avoid naming the school for privacy purposes and will block out that info on anything I upload. I'm still learning how to use this Blogger site.

School stared August 6th. So they have been learning a lot of procedures this week and routine. Tomorrow August 18th they begin their immersion. I will keep you updated on Mason's progress. And things I learn. How I feel. How he feels. I will post what I can. Feel free to ask me questions about anything. I am trying to stay on subject. Please, do not comment on my religious or political views it's not what's important about this blog. Any glimpse of personal information I reveal is to help support my perception on the experience. If there is anything I am not covering about this topic or you would like me to include let me know and I will do my best. Some of you may want to know about Kindergarten in general without the Spanish information. I'm hoping to update this about every two weeks or at least monthly.

How did we get here? It's long!

First want to get the boring stuff out of the way. I'm a new blogger so bare with me. I'm not extremely articulate and I don't consider myself a writer. I'm just gonna give it to you they way I get it. Blah, blah, blah.

I grew up in GA. I have an associate degree in Applied Science for Radiologic Technologies. I have additional certification in Computed Tomography. I currently work as a PRN for a small, local hospital. My husband is a Commercial Truck Driver. Therefore, he is only home a couple of days per week. My mother lives with us in our mother-n-law suite. In 2009, my one and only child was born. And we named him "Mason". I named him this because my dad was in construction. Particularly Masonry work so that inspired the name. We currently have no plans to have anymore children. I am 35 yrs old and my husband is 44. We devote a lot of time and energy to one son.


We live outside of Atlanta. I grew up in the country. And over the years things have developed around me a lot. Like most areas, our home has gone down in value. The area we live in has many foreclosures. Most of the schools in our county are Title 1 schools. A Title 1 school is a school that has a high percentage of kids on free or reduced lunches. We had always hoped to move to the other side of town by the time Mason was school age but moving is a big deal. We have room for our 3 dogs, my mom, and all of our stuff. Plus, owing more than the value of home means that we would have to pay out of pocket to move. We refinanced recently which has dramatically reduced our monthly payment. There is no way we would find a comparable amount of space for what we pay now. So like any parent I started exploring and researching all of our options. What I have learned from that is that there a lot of options. Not like when I was in school. Back then, you either go to school or get a spanking. I feel fortunate to be living in a day and age that allows us to have options for our children. We just have to open our minds to it. Every child is special and will thrive in different atmospheres.

When Mason turned two years old I decided to enroll him a 2yr old preschool program at Methodist Church around the corner. I've never regret this decision. He learned to talk, play, and be part of a class. It was only a half day program. We watched him learn, grow, and thrive. I immediately learned that Mason would always thrive in a classroom. He needed that structure and routine. We kept in this program for age 3. We switched him to a different church at age 4. Just to change it up a bit for him. I started to feel pressure to move. When the time came to register Mason for Kindergarten. I had already educated myself on homeschool, GA cyber academy, Montessori Education, Christian School (we aren't religious), and Public Schools in our area. I did that through the personal testimonies of other parents, friends that are teachers, online blogs, YouTube videos; anything I could watch or read that would help be find the best learning environment for my child. Moving would be so drastic and burdening.

I asked myself what I wanted for my kid. I wanted him to learn and thrive. I wanted him to experience people and independence. I wanted him to be safe. I wanted him to be happy. And in all that I had to consider what was best for us as a family. Because you have to take into consideration, all families are different and know what is best for them. So, I wasn't going to let the opinions of others affect my ability to make the best decision though all advice was welcomed when I solicited it.
Most of all I wanted to be the parent that was fueled by the vibes of my child because I believe a mother's instinct is strong.

Well you are probably asking yourself, "Don't you have a public school in your district?". Well yes, we do. But I don't think I should be limited to that. If I'm willing to drive my son to school everyday then I should get to take him where I want. There is another school just as close to us but we are over the district line. It's a better school. So why wouldn't I want that one? It's just as close and I'm driving him anyway. I don't care for the neighborhood I live in. Lots of break in's. I see a lot of things in this neighborhood I disapprove of. I only live here because my husband owned this home as a bachelor. It's not an area I would've moved to with the intent to start a family. My child would be going to school with the children of these families. I know that that's not the children's fault but it's not my son's fault either. I hate to be that person but it's just how it is. And I'm not using my son to start a movement or a revolution. There are smarter ways to do that. In my daily life with my child I promote diversity, equality, and culture. I teach him we are the same people, we deserve love and respect and must give that to others even when they don't reciprocate. Being this open also opens us to vulnerability and there are people who will take advantage of that. So the protective mother part of me decided to that our district school wasn't even up for debate. Unless we could find the right fit for Mason I was preparing myself to homeschool until we could move. Besides, it's just Kindergarten it's not rocket science. None the less, I had spent 3 yrs of preschool preparing him for this and I didn't want to stop now because he was ready! He is a young  5 yr old so even the option of holding him back crossed my mind. That didn't feel right to me. He's not a genius but the kid can keep up, so why hold him back? 

Fortunately, our community offers a Charter school. Charter schools have no limits on where you live as long as you are county resident. They are free, and part of the public school system. They are different in how they are funded and have the flexibility to teach how they want. This school in particular was implanting a new method of teaching called Expeditionary Learning that appealed to me. It's a more project based type of learning that isn't taught in many schools in the US but has a great reputation.  This was perfect! Something different and new that he could be a part of. A school full of diversity and parents that were required to volunteer their time. So that gave some quality to the student base. Unfortunately, they are on a lottery system due the high application rate. The charter school was relocating this year allowing them to take a larger number of students this upcoming school year. I was so excited, I could feel it all happening for us. It was meant to be, the year we apply to the lottery is the same year that they happen to be taking more students. Our problems solved! This lottery took place in the month of March so we would know early on if he got in. Because in May they opened the House Bill 251 to allow people to apply for transfers in the public school system. Which was going to be our Plan B. Mason got number 69 on the waiting list. By April I was stressed I got a flood of Migraines (which I'm diagnosed with and it's not fun) and I also got a flare up of Rosacea and Seborriheic Dermititis. This waiting period was awful. Waiting for the House Bill 251 Transfer in May to come along and in the mean time having to hear about all these parents talking about their kids starting Kindergarten because they live in a good area and their kid can ride a bus, etc.


Being the proactive parent that I am I had been talking to the director of the Dual Language Program at the other nearby public school I mentioned earlier. I had heard about the school's program and my neighbors, who are Hispanic, have children that go there. One of the teacher aides at Mason's preschool had a Kindergartener there in the program. I was primarily interested because I had taken 3 yrs of Spanish in highschool and did pretty well at it. Over the years I had Mexican friends that I had spent Christmas with and gone to their Quinceanera's, learned to Bachata, and witness first hand how the culture celebrated birthdays and other life events. I had jobs where I practiced Spanish speaking with Hispanic co-workers. I loved the language. My eyes were already open to how much GA's Latin groups were growing. Something like this would be amazing to be a part of. So I researched Dual Language Immersion programs and spoke with other mother's who had children at the school. However, I couldn't find a whole lot of the information I was looking for. Yes, I found on the internet that DL programs promote better test scores and allow children to develop cultural sensitivity but I couldn't find a lot of experiences out there about what happens in the program and how parents liked it. So that's why I wanted to start this blog. So that I could tell you why I chose this school and how it is going so far. I want to tell you how Mason likes it and how material is presented.

In May of 2013 I applied for a transfer within our school district. This came with another flood of stress. For whatever reason, budget cuts, I don't know I heard lots of excuses, transfers are frowned upon it seems unless you have an emergency that requires a transfer and then they call it a permissive transfer. I learned that the transfer process was going to be a lottery. The schools posted how many spots they had in what grades and that was how they were going to fill them. It didn't matter that I was nearly first inline and had done all this communicating. I was at the mercy of a lottery system that had already failed me once this year. I was getting nervous. I had to wait 3 weeks after applying for that transfer. And then I got the phone call that brought me to tears. Tears of relief. All my perseverance had paid off. My son got a spot in the program. All the things I wanted for my son was awaiting him. This school is still a Title 1 school. But like I said before it wasn't about that. I looked at several schools that offered the perfect poster child of what you want. I didn't want those. They weren't real to me. My son has the chance to participate in something unique and special. It's going to require a lot of my support and involvement. He's going to have bad days. I talk to him all Summer about what to expect when he started Kindergarten at his new school. "The Spanish School" so he calls it. School already started August 6th. We are one week and half into it. The first week has been policies and procedures and routine. This upcoming week of August 18th they start the actual immersion process.  I can't wait to hear how his first day goes! I will share it with you if you come back.