Spanish Immersion Montessori?

[elkaen]

I'm researching different Montessori schools in my area to send DS to next year. He'll be 3 then. There's a Spanish immersion M school pretty close by. The teachers are from S. America and M certified. Neither DH nor I speak Spanish. Do you think that the lack of Spanish at home would be hard on DS, especially understanding M concepts in the home? If anyone has immersion school experience, how would the kids go about learning how to read? Would they learn in both Spanish and English (a huge plus, I think)?

[sapphire_chan]

Immersion schools are a classic way to become strongly bilingual.

The school should explain what they do. Typically, the school will use the minority language exclusively for the first few years (allowing the majority language at breaks) and then will add a subject area or two in the majority language.

Really though, once you've learned to read one language, decoding a language you already speak is just a matter of learning the writing system and Spanish and English aren't different enough for that to be any sort of challenge. Particularly since you'll be reading to her in English at home.

My guess is that shortly after learning to read in Spanish your dd will spontaneously start reading in English--no special work. Ask the school about it, tell me if I'm right that that happens to kids a lot.

[3 little birds]

My son went to Montessori for 3 years of primary. During the last year his class became spanish immersion and it was wonderful. If he had continued there (we couldn't afford to send him) he would have attended more Spanish classes at school even thoough they weren't immersion. My twins who also went, but not to the immersion class, have far less Spanish than their brother. I don't realize how much he has retained (3 years later) until he meets a Spanish speaker and is able to converse.

[MattBronsil]

Shouldn't have any problem understanding Montessori lifestyle at home at all.

[nanette0269]

Our school has a spanish immersion class. Everything is in spanish, except for reading and writing, which are english. kids have a decent understanding of hearing spanish by the time they leave the class.

keep in mind that these classes fill up fast, and usually existing students at the school have priority in the registration. we were the first family to register for this class on open registration day, and still did not get into the class. i'm thrilled with our current teacher though, so i have no issues with that. we are still considering switching one of our kids next year to the spanish class, but for now, i wouldnt want to change a thing...even if an opening occurred right now.

That being said, all the non-immersion classes do get a lot of spanish as well, and by the time they enter the elementary 1 program, all of them have a solid grasp of basic terms so they all dive into spanish together. some simply have a better foundation during the 3-6 years.

[flightgoddess]

I did not work in a montessori school, but I have worked in an immersion school. Their goals were 90% spanish for kindergarden, 80%-90% for first grade, 75-80% for second grade, and about 60-50% third grade, because of the state mandated tests in english! All the kids are taught to read and write in spanish first. Depending on their level, home help, etc, some first graders could read english though. Reading and writing more in english was not emphasized as much until second grade, and third grade of course to prep for the state tests. (that is the only drawback! but that depends on each state)

Like PP said, once they start reading spanish, they will start decoding english. They will probably pronounce things in a 'spanish' way, just correct them 'this is how you say that word" and spelling is probably the hardest, as spanish spelling is mostly phonetic and english spelling is crazy, so that will take the most time to master later in life.