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[quote=Anonymous]We're raising our children bilingual in a language not taught in a DC immersion program.

One of us speaks no English to the kids, and we send them to a heritage language school on weekends during the school year as well as summer camp abroad (not a camp for expats, one for ordinary local children who speak little English).  We don't allow them to watch TV in English (they watch DVDs in the target language).  My in-laws, whose English isn't the best are very involved, and we host au pairs who speak the target language year after year.  Our kids don't need English to get through the day.  They attend a high-performing DCPS elementary school, where they score high in English.

Few of the parents we know who choose language immersion in DC seem very serious about the exercise to us.  The schools don't seem terribly serious about it either - some lack target-language speaking admins and fully bilingual children, policies and practices many parents in the school communities defend to the hilt.

I mention all this because I've become skeptical about how language immersion programs work in this city.  I'd be surprised if most of these kids speak the target language well as adults.  Things are different in the burbs and other US cities.

If I couldn't support target language learning at home consistently, I'd pass on having my kids learn a second (or 3rd) language until the upper elementary grades, at the earliest.  Little kids learn languages easily, and all but forget them just as easily if they aren't reinforced into the teen years.

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