Countdown to Kindergarten
Our daughter has now been accepted into our first choice kindergarten – the fine arts program at Nootka school. Even though this program was listed as our third choice in my blog Choosing a Kindergarten Program back in November, after visiting a few schools and talking it over we decided to put it down as first choice – and she got in!
What about French?
After much discussion about French immersion we decided that we would continue French at home and as an extra-curricular activity and if she is interested our daughter can enter late immersion in grade 6. When I first wrote about this topic in my post Thoughts About French Immersion, many of my friends commented about it on Facebook. Most of those who commented said that we should put her in French Immersion and that it would create opportunities for her. She wants to learn French and I know that she will learn to speak it but we were not convinced that French immersion would be the only way for her to learn.
It will probably be more work for us at home to maintain three languages however her interest in fine arts seems to be stronger now than her interest in learning a third language. French Immersion can be great for many children and of course I believe that being multilingual is an amazing gift, but right now we are not entirely convinced that full time French from kindergarten is the best option for our daughter.
Why Fine Arts?
Our daughter’s learning style is very visual, she is extremely creative – but not so good at following the rules. When we went to visit Nootka she felt very comfortable, and she was quite excited about the possibility of learning through visual and performing arts. A Fine Arts focused school will give her more exposure to different types of art than we would be able to fit in as extra-curricular activities and I hope that she will flourish in such a creative environment.
We will continue to read in Spanish and French at home and she will keep taking French class once a week. We hope to maintain fluency in her first language while slowly increasing her knowledge of her third language…
Wish us luck!
