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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] the SD rule at Oyster (google it—the definition for SD at Oyster does exist), [/quote]

Is this the OA rule for Spanish dominant?  It's what I found, and looks right.

"A child is considered "Spanish-dominant" if his or her native tongue is Spanish,
meaning that Spanish is the principal language spoken in the child's home and the child is
demonstrably more comfortable speaking Spanish than speaking any other language. In
addition, to be considered "Spanish-dominant" a child must demonstrate age-appropriate
language and linguistic development in Spanish.”[/quote]

This is very interesting to me, because we come from a mixed family (parents both fluent in Spanish, only one native speaker), but deliberately only had Spanish speaking (no English) nannies because we wanted our kids to be bilingual.  So Spanish was NOT the principal language spoken in our home when we were home, although certainly our child had "age-appropriate and linguistic development in Spanish".  What made me so happy was that Early Intervention (child was a preemie, no lasting problems) identified dc2 as Spanish dominant.  Once my kids started their English only schools, they continued to understand Spanish but would answer in English unless corrected.  Including to the nanny and me (and we both continued to speak to them exclusively in Spanish). Then they started to forget it once they moved on to K and full time school and we let go of our child care.  Had they started Oyster early that would not have happened, just not an option for us.

But my oldest dc, who has now completed two years of Latin first at Washington Latin and then Basis this year, will be taking Spanish next year as a non-native speaker (at BASIS they also have a track for native speakers who don't know how to read and write Spanish or Chinese, which was the case with my dh who grew up partially in his native Latin American country, with Spanish as a first language, but you would never know it now.)

And even after two years of Latin, dc1's Spanish has come back and is more grammatically correct.  We have high hopes because it was basically the first language, and the only one spoken by dcs caretakers until they all went to preschool.  I really admire you all who had the wherewithal to get your kids into bilingual schools.  We did what we could, and the studies show that if a child speaks any two languages before a certain age (6?7?) it alters the neurotransmitters in their brains so that they can pick up the old native language they lost, or that one and another easier than monolingual children.  My dc did really well in Mandarin when it was offered as an extracurric at her DCPS, and Latin (the language) has been a breeze, I think partially because of her prior Spanish.

So I just wanted to say that definitions aren't everything.  Had we started at Oyster, we would not have qualified technically as Spanish dominant, even though that is what our kids were at that time.

I know nothing about the principal and her possible ulterior motives or whatever.  I just wanted to say that technical definitions are not everything. [/quote]

If I understand your post correctly, you mostly spoke English at home with your kid. Which explains why he/ she spoke English by default. That means your kid is English-dominant. The rest of you message explains why fluency in Spanish came easier than for other kids in the same school environment...but does not alter the basic fact that someone who doesn't live in Spanish and doesn't speak Spanish by default is NOT Spanish-dominant.[/quote]

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