I guess I’ll get the ball rolling.

My first grader is the kind of child who doesn’t easily volunteer what he’s done during the school day, so it can be kind of hard to figure out the impact of something like the Spanish language program which started in late March. We would see the worksheets come home, but he didn’t spontaneously start using his new vocabulary around the house.

But, as the weeks went by, he did (almost shyly) mention the Spanish words for various things, as if he were thinking aloud. He also started showing a much greater interest in shows on PBS where the characters are bilingual (Maya and Miguel, for example, which is about a brother and sister both school-aged, and thus also speaks to his condition).

For me, one benefit is aside from actually learning a language: several of his classmates this year were native speakers of Spanish, and some of them have needed to work hard to master English and keep up with their schoolwork. My son never commented on this directly, but I suspect that having started trying to learn their language has given him a little bit of perspective.

Steve Norton
parent of Jamie (2) and Alida (1)
PTO info tech co-chair

Well, most of you should have gotten a copy of the foreign language program’s spring newsletter which also includes a survey of parent and teacher reactions to the program. In case you didn’t, here are the links:

The online version of the survey is here:http://www.bpfli.org/survey.php

A downloadable verstion of the newsletter can be found here:
http://www.bpfli.org/documents/FLInewsletter6-06c.pdf

The program’s home page is http://www.bpfli.org/

They are very interested in getting feedback and encouraging awareness of the program. But don’t let that stop you from discussing it here!

Steve Norton
parent of Jamie (2) and Alida (1)
PTO info tech co-chair