Summer language experience

[Anonymous]

Aside from typical bilingual camp offerings, is there anything someone can recommend for a more immersive experience? I worry that our kids who are in bilingual schools might find bilingual camps too basic, or too full of English speakers to be very useful for improving their Spanish.

I am very aware that we live in a region with a high proportion of immigrants from Latin America, and therefore, would like to find ways to join in activities that might have mostly immigrant and ELL children, not the pricey DC type camps. Not sure anyone on this board has any ideas about this but asking anyways.

[Anonymous]

Good idea - but extremely likely those kids will still all speak English to each other except for maybe a few that have been here less than 6 months. The best you can hope for is 100% immersion from the teachers/counselors.

[Anonymous]

Also you probably want them to have real language instruction...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good idea - but extremely likely those kids will still all speak English to each other except for maybe a few that have been here less than 6 months. The best you can hope for is 100% immersion from the teachers/counselors.

+1. I teach in an dual language program in NOVA with majority Spanish speaking families (between 70 and 90% depending on the grade). The kids speak to each other in English unless they are in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good idea - but extremely likely those kids will still all speak English to each other except for maybe a few that have been here less than 6 months. The best you can hope for is 100% immersion from the teachers/counselors.

+1. I teach in an dual language program in NOVA with majority Spanish speaking families (between 70 and 90% depending on the grade). The kids speak to each other in English unless they are in class.

Hmm. Well maybe a summer program in VA or MD then with these kids plus a teacher keeping them oriented to Spanish?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good idea - but extremely likely those kids will still all speak English to each other except for maybe a few that have been here less than 6 months. The best you can hope for is 100% immersion from the teachers/counselors.

+1. I teach in an dual language program in NOVA with majority Spanish speaking families (between 70 and 90% depending on the grade). The kids speak to each other in English unless they are in class.

My kids are bilingual, we only speak Spanish at home since English isnt our first language, and the kids talk to each other in English when they play .. so yeah. I think it's because English is easier/more direct

[Anonymous]

But I know there are recent immigrant families here.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been wondering about this too, for next summer. My kids are also in a bilingual school. I can work from anywhere so I have vague ideas of moving to a Spanish speaking country or Puerto Rico for part of the summer so they could go to day camp or something like that in Spanish. Has anyone here ever done that?

I don’t want to just travel; I want some kind of sustained interaction with other kids. (My kids will be 6 and 7 next summer.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been wondering about this too, for next summer. My kids are also in a bilingual school. I can work from anywhere so I have vague ideas of moving to a Spanish speaking country or Puerto Rico for part of the summer so they could go to day camp or something like that in Spanish. Has anyone here ever done that?

I don’t want to just travel; I want some kind of sustained interaction with other kids. (My kids will be 6 and 7 next summer.)

This is a cool idea! Also interested. Has anyone done this and signed kids up for a day camp?

[Anonymous]

Yeah - I've heard Guatemala can be good for that. I am interested as well as we are a bilingual family (OPOL) and my son has very good Spanish, but only ever speaks it with adults! I am dying for him to have interactions with kids in Spanish! We will probably go to my husband's home country and sign him up for day camps or do play dates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been wondering about this too, for next summer. My kids are also in a bilingual school. I can work from anywhere so I have vague ideas of moving to a Spanish speaking country or Puerto Rico for part of the summer so they could go to day camp or something like that in Spanish. Has anyone here ever done that?

I don’t want to just travel; I want some kind of sustained interaction with other kids. (My kids will be 6 and 7 next summer.)

This is a cool idea! Also interested. Has anyone done this and signed kids up for a day camp?

I had friends do this in Mexico City.