Spanish classes (or other options) for the 2nd Grader

[Anonymous]

My child is already bilingual, but his second language is not Spanish. In his school he has Spanish twice a week. Me and my husband can't really help him with his Spanish homework. I also suspect he needs help in it (even though they don't grade them yet). How could I help him?
We live in NoVA.

[Anonymous]

I would just find him a tutor. Sounds like an hour a week or so to go over the homework would be plenty. Perhaps you know someone with a Spanish-speaking nanny who could come over help him. Or you probably could find a high-schooler to do it -- even a non-native speaker who is at the intermediate level or above in high school Spanish would be able to help a 2nd-grader with Spanish homework.

(I am not fluent in Spanish, but I am proficient enough that I'm able to handle my 4th and 2nd graders' Spanish homework; they do an extracurricular class at school. My 4-yr old, though, is already much more advanced than the rest of our family - fortunately the nanny speaks to him all day long!)

[Anonymous]

Make him do his homework himself.

[Anonymous]

Make him do his homework himself.

So you don't believe in helping a child with his homework? Apparently the OP does, so your response is not helpful.

[Anonymous]

General homework planning help would help him with this even if you can't help him directly with the questions. So helping him figure out what the task is (fill in the blanks? write a sentence? multiple choice?) would help, and you can probably do that just looking at a worksheet without understanding the language. If he can verbalize to you, in English, what he is supposed to do, then he'll have an easier time with it. Especially if he needs some help buckling down and focusing on the task.

Also you might ask his Spanish teacher. Does the teacher think he's having trouble? What would s/he suggest?

[Anonymous]

I would ask his Spanish teacher. Surely there are other families where no one speaks Spanish. Homework is not always supposed to involve the parent, even at Second Grade. Yes parents should oversee homework, make sure it's done, check feedback, etc. (Homework without regular, timely feedback is worthless.) If the child cannot do it without parents' help, perhaps the homework should be rethought by the teacher. If your child welcomes working with a tutor, why not. But it doesn't seem necessary for a twice-weekly class. Anyway, good luck!