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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it's hard on the parents.  My husband had a difficult time because he didn't speak the second language and often felt excluded at family nights.  If you don't speak the language, consider whether you will enjoy trying to help your child with science homework in another language starting in 4th grade.

My kids are pretty young, but my observation is that the classes in the bilingual charters (and maybe the DCPS bilinguals?) seem to shrink significantly at the upper grades as kids drop out (I don't think LAMB even has a 5th grade class this year because there's no one left from the original cohort) and of course, it's hard to fill those slots with other kids at the same level of language attainment.  So, you need to think about whether there will be sufficient resources to devote to your child's needs once they need assistance in how to write a history paper in another language.  As the classes shrink, the number of kids your child will play with will decrease as well, and you may find yourself having to work harder to make appointments for play dates with kids that have left the school.

Also, [b]many of the bilingual programs seem to be in charters, which may not have "specials" teachers (i.e., PE, Art, Music, Science, etc.)[/b].  This can limit the amount of specialized teaching your child receives.  Believe it or not, there actually IS an art to teaching kids how to hop on one foot or throw & catch a ball, and you only get that specialized PE teacher at schools large enough to support the "specials" teachers in the upper grades.[/quote]

Good point.[/quote]

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