We had had the same attitude. Then we had a special needs child who needed to get evals and therapy. We panicked a little as we thought he would be totally left hanging if he could not make use of all the opportunities which p. s. offers with regards to therapy and resource teachers etc etc. He spent kindergarten in public school. It was a mixed experience which left us actually with a better opinion about p. s., but it still was absolutely not a fit for him and for many many reasons we pulled him back out of p. s. and continue to h/s him. What we took away from it for ourselves: never say never. And yes, a brick and mortar school is not a fit for our child, but a long stretch. "Not an option" might very well one day become a necessity. Ya never know where life takes you.

Durham, NC :001_smile:

Deanna, yes I found this, too. We h/s bilingually in Amrc. English and German (my mother tongue). German school textbooks are not very suited for home education, and there is no market for German homeschooling books as h/s is still illegal in Germany. We use a German textbook for LA (grammar and text comprehension and orthography) and a German textbook for Latin. A little brag here: I think German textbooks for Latin are the best. (I'm just a little bit biased :blush: ...) But what I've seen in the US and what is offered as Latin textbooks for h/s, it is just not really cutting it. Too little practice, too few real good translation exercises, too little reading, too little repetition. But I digress. Lissande wrote: I was also a bit confused when I saw the threads in this sub-forum. I think it is a bit mislabeled. It should be something like "Language Acquisition Board". I speak German to my children most of the time. They might not answer in G, and I don't push it either. All our textbooks are in English, except (as mentioned above) German LA and Latin. We talk about math, science, geography, etc. in German and all the other subjects, too, but we read everything in E. I used to put a lot of terminology (science for instance) on flashcards with the E word on one side and the G on the other. It has become too much work really. I have gradually come to the conclusion that the minority language will always suffer to a certain extent. There is no way to attempt a double duty in both languages. :sad: There are only so many hours in a day, and you still want the children to have time to play and decompress. To keep up with German we have one German LA session per day. Reading, listening, or watching a German video online, or doing some grammar work or writing of some sort. As they get older they will read more on their own. I think a good goal is to have them bi-literate. But not completely bi-cultural. It has happened in a different way with each child in this family. It really depends on their natural inclinations and gifts. I taught my first and second child to read and write in German first, and taught them English later, so they they acquired a good graphemic pronunciation background before attempting phonics. Going back and forth between English and German LA with regards to reading and spelling and grammar back to back in one day or in one sitting even has been very helpful and there are a lot of inferences that can be drawn from one lang. to the other. I don't think spacing it apart over months makes much sense. I had to ease off with German writing and reading with my second child because he has special needs and all the other subjects take a lot of bandwidth away from our bilingual pursuits. But once we get a better grip on English LA, and he becomes more secure and proficient in handwriting, I will teach him more German spelling and reading. For now he will be read to will watch German movies and cartoons. The youngest has picked up reading English first. I didn't even bug him at all, he just picked up a book and wanted to know what this or that is pronounces, and off we went. I will "do" German with him later. I don't think it will be very difficult with him at all. Both lang. have to be kept going at the same time. At different rates, yes, because of the majority/minority language disparity. But still at the same time. Adding a third language (which is neither parent's mother tongue) can happen at any time. I'm not sure if there are any precautions. If it causes too much confusion and it is too much of a burden for the child, well, then just back off a bit for a while and keep the regular scheduled program going until the child seems more ready to tackle something new. Have fun!