A few days ago, a letter came to the house from my sons' school. They were writing to inform me of their intention to introduce a Language Immersion program at the Kindergarten level. The five-year-olds will be taught entirely in Chinese for half of the school day.
Needless to say, I was very excited; my baby Isaiah will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall. Here in Florida the Fall semester begins in late August. We are the first elementary school in the entire state to offer Chinese as an Immersion language.
Why Immersion?
"Immersion programs are the fastest growing and most effective type of foreign language program currently available in U.S schools. Most immersion students can be expected to reach higher levels of second language proficiency than students in other school-based language programs.
Becoming bilingual opens the door to communication with more people in more places, and more parents want to provide children with skills to interact competently in an increasingly interdependent world community." -Eric Digest
Why Chinese?
"Earlier this year Rep.Rush Holt of New Jersey introduced legislation calling for increased funding of programs for less commonly taught languages. "For reasons of economics, culture and security we should have much better facility with Chinese languages and dialect," he says.
The State Department has designated Chinese a "critical language" but the most recent data show that only 24,000 students in grades 7 to 12 study Chinese, a language spoken by 1.3 billion people worldwide. -Newsweek...World News
The school administration held an informational meeting last Thursday for parents interested in enrolling their kids in either program. As the program requirements were laid out to us, I heard disheartened groans and looked around the room at a sea of disappointed faces.
You see, the program requires a family commitment. We the parents have to become fully involved and learn the language also! How else will be able to help our children with their homework? This was something none of us had taken into consideration.
The vast majority of parents in attendance are two income families working outside of the home and cannot possibly take advantage of the awesome opportunity of free lessons offered by the school twice per week.
Even as their faces clouded over, I felt a huge smile burst upon mine. Because of my decision to start building a home based business and the action steps I took to fully automate said business I enjoy total freedom in my personal life.
I enjoy the FLEXIBILITY that 95% of parents cannot. I can sit in my son's classroom all day if I so desire. My business affords me the FREEDOM to do everything with my sons... including learning Mandarin Chinese!
Sharon Mayers is an online entrepreneur and home based business coach who has taught hundreds of people nationally how to create a successful network marketing business online. She is available to speak to groups and associations and will work with private clients on an individual basis to tailor a marketing strategy for your home based business. Learn more, get free resources and contact her at http://www.purplecowhome.com, 321-574-0466
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