Professor noggin cards?

I would believe that. It has been a number of years since I looked at the research and I probably didn't look too closely on the exact turning point years since all our programs continue through the end of middle school. Sorry for the error. 😊

I've had three through immersion school and another soon to start. My oldest was in a program with the immersion percentages you describe except the program dropped to 50% for 3rd & 4th and goes back to 90% for 5th and 6th. She was right around the same level as your daughter when she started. Obviously it's all very individual, but I thought I'd respond and wish you the very best of luck in your exciting journey. 1. The first week was harder emotionally on my perfectionist than I expected. She was very excited to start school, but was quite stressed not understanding anything. When I brought her home, she actually cried as she described her confusion. The worst part was when they gave her a corn dog and she didn't know why (all the kids eat at school the first day even if they bring food so they learn how to do it). Lol. She was hardly alone. So many little people who had tears that week! Now the programs send a letter to the parents asking them to prepare their kids emotionally for the experience and to give it at least a few weeks before pulling kids out (some would panic on day one). With a little forwarning and discussion, the rest of my kids have been spared this. 2. We've been involved in 4 different programs and they are all so very different. The programs where at least half the kids are already bilingual or speak the target language, where the teachers were educated native speakers and speak no English, and where the children can only speak Spanish unless asking "Como se dice ---- en Español?" were much more successful. My daughter who was in 100% in kindergarten still shows the benefits of that high percentage at the start years later. 3. You will get to watch with fascination as your child's accent forms. Each year, my children had a totally different accent- eventually changing and matching their teacher for that year. At the end of elementary school, they seem to settle into their own and it changes less and less. I'd expect it to be mostly set by 14. I have loved watching this over the years. 4. Research shows that, at these percentages, immersion students should, on average, test below their english-only peers on English skills until third grade. they should start to even out by about third and surpass their peers by middle school. We saw a curve along these lines. Because our daughter was already ahead like yours, she didn't really lose much ground, but plateaud a bit compared to where I think she would have otherwise been while she built her Spanish vocabulary and reading skills. Her skills all across the board in English grew more slowly for the next few years, but grew all the same, and she was never below average in English even with almost no instruction. Book examples are all I can come up with. She read Harry Potter 1-4 at 7, loved the Warriors books at 8, finished Harry Potter and warriors books at 9 and launched into appropriate young adult and classic books thereafter. I think the last test put her near the end of high school in English reading and middle school (Percy Jackson books) in Spanish. Sometimes she would say phrases in English picked up from Spanish, which got a few chuckles here and there. No one ever translated these phrases for her. There were several, and I wish I could remember them all. The only one I remember offhand was that she would often say times as, "it's 4 o'clock on the dot." She seemed to sort out common phrases and cliches by 3rd or 4th, but even now one will come across now and then. She got annoyed with spelling in English, which is, according to her, much harder. But she kept reading, and once she really fell in love with more advanced books, I saw her start to take off again. I wish I hadn't stressed or worried as much k-3 wondering if I was crippling her English skills for life, because, even though her reading was great, her English spelling was not good and her writing and grammar wasnt the greatest either. She had been so far ahead and I was worried she was just stalling out for a while there. I was wrong. By 5th grade she was back up to the 99%tile in pretty much all areas except spelling, which was a little lower. I still feel like, at 11, she hasn't quite reached where she would have been without immersion, but is making rapid progress closing that gap in the near future. Best advice from our experience? Give them a little English work leeway for the first little while to give Spanish a little focus time, expect a slight drop/plateau for a few years and don't stress too much about it, and read read read in both languages. Your child sounds talented and she'll do great. My second daughter was above average by about a grade when she started, but her program was 50% starting in 1st and stayed at that percentage. Her English didn't plateau asthat but her Spanish didn't grow as much either. By 4th grade, I feel like she'll be where she otherwise would have been by middle school but don't feel she has gotten the same benefit from the program. 5. Skills learned in one language are surprisingly transferable. At least, I was surprised. 6. Even if they don't speak, they are picking things up, but the sooner you get them comfortable speaking even if they aren't sure they are right, the better. So hard to break that shyness later. 7. They seem to grow in sudden spurts rather than a steady increase. 8. Having a child complain that their sibling has stolen a toy -in their sleep- in another language- is somehow twice as funny as it would be in English. Good luck and HTH. Sorry for typos, tiny little phone screen.

Could anyone compare/comment on these? R&S spelling or Apples & Pears for 4th grade. R&S spelling 7 (latin/Greek roots) vs. Vocabulary workshop? (Or maybe there is another roots-based vocab you would recommend?) has to be relatively independent unfortunately.

How about a kids fit deck?

Wow! Thank you SO much for your thorough response! That definitely gives me a lot to look at and consider. Some of those sound like fantastic resources. Thank you also for the right-brained teaching links. I definitely need some more tools for teaching more effectively in that way. 😊

First, an introduction: Long-time lurker here. I rarely post--my questions are often answered in old threads--but have gotten such good information from these forums over the years. That said, this time I'm a little stuck and could really use some opinions before I part with any cash. This is going to be long. I'm sorry. :). Family: DD11, DD9, DS7 & DS3 (nothing formal with him yet). Due to my work situation, my children attend our local Spanish immersion PS (100% immersion for the oldest, 50% for the younger ones). Academically, the school is good but not amazing. OTOH, it is a very supportive environment for growth and well-being. We came from a school that was the opposite, so they are much happier now. That said, the step down in their education level was a little sad. I would like to provide a slightly better foundation than they are getting and share the love for learning I enjoyed growing up. Some gaps might form from having less (or no) English instruction & we will probably move a few times in the next decade, so I would also like to have a foot in the door with their education. I afterschool/summerschool, so time is a precious commodity and I'm careful to protect their free/being a kid time. Their school doesn't usually give homework, but when it does, I reduce the amount done at home to compensate. Here is what we currently squeeze in: Religion- daily scriptures & weekly family night History & Geography- SOTW audiobook in the car. A few historical fiction books in the summer. Open to ideas. Life Skills- Always working on something. Short daily typing practice. Foreign Language-PS is Spanish immersion; reading Sports- various Music- instruments through school. Hoping to budget for some lessons later on. Math- daily internet fact drill, daily exercise in Singapore math if they don't have other math homework (while waiting in the pickup line after school). Art- PS/A few fun projects in the summer. Science- We are a science family and are always talking about and including science in our lives. I do some BFSU1 (I know it's young for my kids, but we just go a little deeper and enjoy it) in the summers and incorporate media, experiments & fun resources. Reading/Phonics- I taught them each to read using Phonics Pathways as a spine all the way through. Went through ETC4. Each finished in first grade. Maybe it was the heavy time commitment, but each session dragged a little painfully for me. Regardless, I tried to keep it fun for the kids and it was worth it. The older 2 are avid readers. The younger is just starter to enjoy it. Penmanship- DD11 is done. DD9 does a little cursive in the summer for fun. I help DS7 work on it when he is writing for any other activity. Supplementary- We have about 25 great apps they love doing when they get a little screen time (not a regular thing). Ningenius for fingering, stack the states, aliens vs presidents, etc. Any critique of the above would be welcomed. But what about English instruction? I'm at a loss here. We have always just focused on building a love of books. I acquired most of my skills through reading exposure until high school and didn't realize it doesn't work that way for everyone. Grammar & Writing- All of my kids could improve their written grammar. The older two are at grade level. The younger is a little behind and might have some learning issues but is the sweetest kid and has a great sense of humor about his challenges. All could improve their writing. I'm planning on keeping them reading and giving more feedback with school assignments, but I wasn't planning on any overt writing/grammar instruction unless I still felt they were falling short by the end of middle school. Is this a mistake? Is there something I should be doing better now other than giving them good books to help with grammar or writing? Spelling & Vocabulary - this is where I need feedback the most. DD11 is a shy, responsible perfectionist and performs well. her spelling is at an appropriate level but not necessarily advanced. Reading transfers well to her spelling. I would still like her to continue to improve it, but should we work explicitly on spelling or just start vocab and have her pick it up that way (or do both)? I want to pick one or two things she could work in on the side. These would need to be mostly independent. Brainstorming after days of research here-Main two I'm looking at: Vocabulary Workshop Rod & Staff 7 (Starts into word roots so it would help with both vocab and spelling)(any pros/cons between these?) Another word roots program? Spelling Power? Supplementary ideas: SAT words app, Word girl, work our way down the 500 commonly misspelled words DD9 is a great reader but could use extra spelling help. Her dad and grandpa read late and had some reading/spelling/writing troubles. We suspected auditory processing issues or ADD but have been told by the district that she is normal. They explained she is a few grade levels up in most areas but happens to be below average in just spelling so it only "looks" like she has an issue but "it isn't actually an issue unless she is a two full grades behind." ??? The older she gets, the more she seems to get a handle on everything, so maybe I'm jumping the gun. She has to really study the words the school gives her several times each week to get them right. I'm looking at: Apples & Pears - I took her through the placement test today and she missed two on every level until book B, at which point she missed a lot. Rod & Staff - Nice that it is more independent. It might be sufficient for her. I haven't heard a lot of comparison between these two if anyone has tried both . Thoughts? DS7 struggles a little. He is smart, has amazing spatial reasoning skills, has the attention span of a goldfish, and spelling seems to be...well...impossible. His handwriting is awful. His math is fantastic though. He grows more slowly because of a congenital defect (but is mentally normal), so it could be that his maturity is just lagging with his actual growth. He is starting to take off in reading, but is below his grade level and it has been a LOT of work to get here. He tends to forget rules and spends more time distracted at school than paying attention, but not intentionally. I might switch him out of the immersion program, but he enjoys Spanish and finds it easier to read nd spell. I plan to keep working on his reading for another year and then am considering starting Apples and Pears with him. Any other advice? He can't be tested for learning issues, or so I'm told, until he turns 7, so we have been kind of struggling along. He likes to read books upside down and sideways sometimes. If I am sitting in front of him, rather than write something and turn it around for me, he writes it upside down and backwards so that it is correct from my direction. He's got some little quirks like that. lol. Thank you all! Edit: typo

Thank you!

When everyone here talks about Singapore math, which one, specifically, is being referred too? I've noticed several different publishers/books. Thanks!

life just got more confusing....

Awwww! Congrats! (and Happy Anniversary)

Make a "hunt" with clues? (Just read and realized you'd already done that). Puzzle box? Pick something related to the concert (little plastic violin or microphone or whatever) and tie it to it. Fill a whole bunch of balloons and put the tickets inside. They have to pop them until they find the envelope with their own name.

I'm in a similar circumstance with one of my kids. I'd focus on reading skills (and just reading) as much as possible, do review math problems/questions every now and then, and let everything else be about experiences (museums, etc).

On occasion, but not all the time. Would help if the other party reciprocated on occasion too.

:( was so hoping for a positive update. That poor family.