How much would you pay per month for one 85-minute class a week for your child that's total language immersion? Here it's $176 and I realize that's high. And it's 20 minutes a way so a bit of gas. But easy drive.
He's doing dual-language at his public school (free) and gets the language 5 days in school (only half-day kinder) but it's just a 50/50 model. So that's the limitation.
And I am fluent (not native) so I can totally speak to him in it. But, that's easier said than done. I have good intentions and somehow we always end up doing a lot of English, like 100%. I feel bad. I think we could do better. Sigh.
He is also doing an hour of 90% immersion in the evening at the school (once a week) for $250 for the whole YEAR.
So, if I think about all the probably useless expenses I probably make or unsmart food choice (pricey) I'd easily have $176 a month. What gets me is that it's just 85 minutes a week. But it would be fun to take him there, I KNOW he'd benefit. And I'd do it just for the first 2 years of his immersion school because I want to JUMPSTART him. After 2 years I honestly feel he'd be too advanced for the language school with kids who come in knowing nothing. But now, I want him challenged. Can you tell I really want to do this but just feel like it's not a good value? It's not that I don't have the money, exactly. I really need all the community support and help I can get, and I feel the pricey language school is what I want to do right now, lol.
I like the structure and the program and curriculum, so I'm not into just hiring a tutor or babysitter who speaks it. My son actually does well in class type situations and one on one isn't always as attentive or engaged.
And taking him would force me to bring the little sibs with and hang out at the local library next door...not bad. It'll be winter and the library is good for all of us, and I KNOW I'd go if I paid for him to do this! :) I don't see it as money wasted. I know it's not cheap, but surely it's not a waste to get full immersion from a native for 85 minutes a week when his whole schooling is going to support him with this (and me at home). It it were just a class a week and no support at home/school, sure it'd be a waste.
UPDATE: And because he's getting Spanish at school each day in a true immersion environment, and from me at home, this 85 minutes a week IS immersion as it's added into the ton of it he already gets. If I were just wanting him to learn a language and doing 85 minutes a week of something I didn't know (like Chinese), once a week would be a waste. But the class supports him so well with what he's doing!
I've been speaking to him in Spanish for a few days. That's ALL I speak now. The younger ones cry; they don't understand. The kindergarten student keeps asking me for English. It's really miserable. I keep talking Spanish and they talk back in English or cry.
It's $176 a month, note, not $700. :)
I'm really frustrated and want this support for him. I know if I keep doing the Spanish they will get it, but it's pretty awful around here right now. And I'm kind or rusty. Fluent, yes, but I'm pretty basic so he doesn't get the rich vocabulary he'd get from someone not rusty or a native. And it's pretty much all present tense with me. I am trying...but I'm not the best teacher given my fluency is so basic. Life doesn't always happen in present tense, lol. I have to THINK about verb tense a lot.
How old is this child?
In any event, call me crazy, but if a parent in the home already speaks a foreign language, why wouldn't you just immerse him at home, rather at an overpriced, trendy "immersion" class? I think the 176.00 a week is highway robbery, and playing parents for suckers, personally. Somehow kids learned other languages in the olden days, and it wasn't through any fancy classes.
Once a week? That isn't immersion.
Find out if they send home homework or practice lessons/cards so you will know how to review it with him.
I'm not fluent in anything accept English but with translation sites and workbooks, I was able to figure out common phrases (let's go upstairs, where is my phone, its time to go) and I can ask my son pretty much anything in Spanish, some French, German and Mandarin Chinese. And that's all for free 24/7.
if you are fluent, it's a waste of money, time and gas. If you have it to waste - then do.
That's 340 minutes a month NOT INCLUDING the drive.
Only you can decide if it's worth it. I know that if I was still fluent in German and French, I'd be teaching it to my kids myself. I give them the words I know and remember.
I think that sounds like of money...$700 a month for your 5 year old to learn Spanish? I would save that money for college. You could get more than 85 minutes at home if you spoke only Spanish say... until dinner time every day.
Well... piano lessons usually run about $20-25 per half hour. If you were to take an 85 minute piano lesson, that would cost about $70. So, at $45, I'd say that it isn't bad.
It's not apples and apples, but at least there is some comparison there.... What do they DO for 85 minutes? Just talk?
If you are fluent don't speak in English to him at all. He will get it. THe calss is a waste of your money.
Get Rosetta Stone. It's an excellent program, you can do it at home on the computer. Get it online or at Barnes/Noble. For what you're looking at paying per month, RS pays off a lot faster. Just pays for itself. Very high rating. I have one myself, my son in the air force got one, and NASA and other gov't offices use it extensively.
And I wouldn't worry about the age. It's been shown that the younger a human is, their brain soaks stuff up unbelievably. So decide on A language, and let him/her learn naturally at home, you save gas, you save the headache of schlepping the younger ones along, and it's learned in a very natural way.
It sounds like a lot of money to me. Especially since you said you were fluent, so you could do it yourself at home. Take the time that you would spend driving there and waiting for class to be over to talk to him in the language.
