French Immersion

[Bronwen]

For a long time I've been considering home schooling my kids. DH suggested French Immersion. I've found a few schools in my area. However I'm wondering do they need to be fluent in both French and English before they enter? They know their alphabet, numbers, colours and some animals in French. We have a lot to work on though.

Anyone who has resources for learning I'd appreciate if you shared. I did find this on Amazon: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00ALI39GI/r..._am_ca?ie=UTF8

[Natalka]

You will need to check with your local school division as to what they require for their individual programs.

Parent organization support

http://on.cpf.ca/

As for home schooling, that's a big decision to make. Depending upon where you are, there may be homeschooling organizations to contact for support, resources, etc. - as well as you being in contact with your local school and school division to get the curricula you need to follow, etc.

I was an elementary teacher who became a SAHM, and definitely chose to not do homeschooling. Just a personal choice. Our son went to a bilingual ( Ukrainian - English) school from K-8, and was also in a gifted program.

[ninna]

Your kids do NOT have to be fluent in both languages in order to attend french immersion schools in Ontario.

There are two ways to get an education in french: french immersion or french first language.

My kids attend french immersion and it's great. Neither started out with any knowledge of french prior to kindergarten (although that said, it's best if you start them as early as possible...as in, JK or SK). French immersion schools spend about 70-80% of their day learning in french; phys-ed, music, and language arts are usually taught in English.

If you want to send your kids to a "french first language" school where they spend 100% of the time learning in french you will need to ensure you have a solid understanding of the language yourself since the kids learn 100% of the day in french and even communication from the teacher comes home in french. We did try to get our kids in to a nearby french first language school but we didn't have a french heritage and our language skills weren't strong enough to support them in that venture...so we went with immersion instead.

I have absolutely no regrets about french immersion. It`s been fantastic and it opens so many doors for them!

Good luck with it. If you have any questions, PM me.

[Bronwen]

Thank you for your posts ladies. Tbh I'm nervous about school in general

I'm very happy to know they don't need to be fluent. I lived in France for 3 months on a grade 10 French exchange, and by the time I came home I was fluent. That was ten years ago and since then I've lost most of it. It's coming back to me as I teach the kids their basic French language skills but I'd like to be able to speak with them in both languages.

I've found a few Immersion schools in my area, and judging from what you've said that seems to be the way to go. However I guess I do have until DD is 5 to decide so maybe we will be mostly fluent by then.

[safielstar]

The kids don't need to be fluent to enter French Immersion, at least in most boards I'm familiar with (I teach in Hamilton).

I recommend you check out the immersion schools in your area before you decide, I know the ones in my board aren't impressive at all (for either the French of the English stream) and the kids don't graduate knowing anymore French than a motivated student in a regular core program. Hopefully the ones where you live are better though, try asking someone who's taught in them or have had kids go through them.

I hear you on the homeschooling too, I'm a teacher and seeing the state of schools nowadays makes me seriously consider homeschooling DD some days. It helps that I have enough materials at home to do the elementary curriculum with no problems, but I keep going back and forth when I think of the benefits a traditional school environment offers versus homeschooling (even with homeschooling groups and organizations).

[krysta lynne]

my daughter is in french immersion and has been for the last three years. she didnt speak any french and her father and i speak next to no french. We have decided however to take her out of french immersion next year as she has vocalized that she really does not like it. So in trying to keep her focused and interested in school we are letting her do all english. the program itself was great though.

[Bronwen]

my daughter is in french immersion and has been for the last three years. she didnt speak any french and her father and i speak next to no french. We have decided however to take her out of french immersion next year as she has vocalized that she really does not like it. So in trying to keep her focused and interested in school we are letting her do all english. the program itself was great though.

Does she speak any French because of her time in the Immersion school?

[CanadianCouponCollector]

My son knew how to count to 10 in French when I threw him in a French Immersion in Grade 1. Duet o moving around and ending up in a town that did not have the program until grade 5, he was in regular English from the 2nd half of grade 1 up until this year in Grade 5. I threw him back in as soon as we moved (yet again) and he quickly went to the top of his class. The whole class has been in FI since kindergarten. My son is above average and was both bored and interested in learning how to speak French. He is fantastic at speaking it and can have a full conversation in French- most (basically all) of it I don't understand. Sometimes in conversation with me he'll substitute a French word or two in place of an English word and will laugh at himself. I think it's great! While I tried to get my son into school a year early because he was ready at age 3, I will not be starting my daughter this year for JK but will wait until SK. (Another topic altogether!) I will be putting her in FI from day one, however, as even though I speak not a word of French, her brother now does and will be able to help her out should she need it.

[i_forget]

I received a letter today from my kids school and there is a pilot project coming to our school board where all kids will be given 200 minutes a week of French language studies starting in grade 1 starting in September.

[SmartConsumer]

French immersion is basically a private school inside of a public school. All of the disruptive or slow kids will be kicked out of the program, leaving only the brightest and most well behaved students. I highly recommend french immersion programs, just make sure you're ready to help your child along the way.

[Vani Dinesh]

Hi there I am also considering putting my daughter in FI. Can you tell me how does one determine what constitutes a good FI program or school?

The kids don't need to be fluent to enter French Immersion, at least in most boards I'm familiar with (I teach in Hamilton).

I recommend you check out the immersion schools in your area before you decide, I know the ones in my board aren't impressive at all (for either the French of the English stream) and the kids don't graduate knowing anymore French than a motivated student in a regular core program. Hopefully the ones where you live are better though, try asking someone who's taught in them or have had kids go through them.

I hear you on the homeschooling too, I'm a teacher and seeing the state of schools nowadays makes me seriously consider homeschooling DD some days. It helps that I have enough materials at home to do the elementary curriculum with no problems, but I keep going back and forth when I think of the benefits a traditional school environment offers versus homeschooling (even with homeschooling groups and organizations).

[nadiabreckon]

I know here in NS, you don't need to be fluent in French in order to attend French Immersion. The francophone school, however, at least one parent needs to have a French background (I believe the furthest they will go back is the child's grandparents, and even then I think at least 1 parent needs to have French as a first language). We were going to send our son to the francophone school, but he had a slight speech delay which we wanted to correct before even teaching him French. Now he is absolutely fine, and we will be starting him in FI for a few years before sending him to French school. I attended French-Catholic school from K-12 in Ontario. We are hoping to be out of NS before our son starts school next September, we don't really like the school curriculum here.

[Angela273]

French immersion is basically a private school inside of a public school. All of the disruptive or slow kids will be kicked out of the program, leaving only the brightest and most well behaved students. I highly recommend french immersion programs, just make sure you're ready to help your child along the way.

I am a teacher in Saskatchewan. Disruptive and struggling students are not "kicked out" of FI programs where I live. They have an equal opportunity to learn in these environments. Depending on the language difficulties that a student is experiencing or might experience, it is sometimes a good idea not to put that child in FI. It is better for a student to have a strong understanding in one language, rather than a mixed/struggling understanding of two languages.

[Sarah Jendrick]

For french immersion there is no need to speak french fluently before entering. If going to a french language school most will require some level of french prior to entering and a very strong commitment to having your child educated in french.

[Bronwen]

Yay!! I just found out the highschool near us is getting converted into a French Immersion public school next year. It's a 5 minute walk and right beside the school I just registered DD in for JK

Looks like I'll be taking the plunge to FI in Sept 2015 when she is entering SK.

Any and all tips from parents on how to prepare my children in advance would be great as we don't speak French in the home. I was fluent in high school but it's been a good ten ten years since I've spoken it fluently. They know basic stuff but not sentences.