Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He can’t read at all and it’s February of Kindergarten? That would concern me. I wouldn’t be rushing to immersion.

+1. Your kid isn’t reading English yet. You want to put him in an immersion program in one of the hardest languages to learn in 1st? Don’t the programs start in K so he would already be behind? Lastly, the teacher doesn’t recommend him for the program.

I think it’s a bad idea.

Sorry to be obtuse, are kids reading in kindergarten? What they seem to be covering in school now is sight words. They have covered 20 - I don’t get a book like another parent mentioned (that would be awesome lol), I had to go through all the class newsletters and compile a list. DS can read 10 of the 20 words. To me that seems normal because memorizing site words is boring. I just started working on those when the teacher told me she wouldn’t recommend him this week, I’m sure I can get him up to speed in a few weeks. As far as I l know they haven’t covered phonics other than letter sounds, which he knew before he went to kindergarten.

Kids in immersion programs ate getting 50% less ELA/English than a traditional program. The kids who do the best in these immersion programs are kids who pick things up easily, so usually the higher performing kids. Everything else is easy for the kids so they have more time to focus on the language. Of course there are exceptions.

Learning another language is hard to begin with and you are choosing Japanese’ which has no similarity to English at all.

I think you are too optimistic and setting your child up to fail.

He will already be behind in the language coming in 1st, won’t understand much of the other subjects taught in the language and will likely be further behind in core subjects like English reading.

I say this as an immersion parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He can’t read at all and it’s February of Kindergarten? That would concern me. I wouldn’t be rushing to immersion.

+1. Your kid isn’t reading English yet. You want to put him in an immersion program in one of the hardest languages to learn in 1st? Don’t the programs start in K so he would already be behind? Lastly, the teacher doesn’t recommend him for the program.

I think it’s a bad idea.

Sorry to be obtuse, are kids reading in kindergarten? What they seem to be covering in school now is sight words. They have covered 20 - I don’t get a book like another parent mentioned (that would be awesome lol), I had to go through all the class newsletters and compile a list. DS can read 10 of the 20 words. To me that seems normal because memorizing site words is boring. I just started working on those when the teacher told me she wouldn’t recommend him this week, I’m sure I can get him up to speed in a few weeks. As far as I l know they haven’t covered phonics other than letter sounds, which he knew before he went to kindergarten.

That is a huge red flag to me. Kids are supposed to be at a DRA 3 or 4 by the end of K in FCPS. You should be having your child practicing reading every night at this age. You can get BOB books at the library.

Your child is absolutely not a good candidate for immersion, I’m sorry. Immersion kids are typically high achieving kids and self motivators.

Half the kids at our school are in immersion. I seriously doubt that the parents knew that their kid was high achieving or self motivated at 6. It is more that the parents liked the idea of the program and we were willing to accept the additional work that the kids needed to do, DS had homework for LA and Japanese in first grade.

Kids that were not a great fit, because they were struggling with concentration or one of the core subjects, left for Gen Ed. It wasn’t a big deal for the kids to switch groups.

We used the Bob books for reading, we started in Pre School because DS was interested. He was reading by the end of K and he happens to love math. I think the K Teachers tend to have a good idea about what kids will be successful in immersion and who might struggle but there are always exceptions to the rule.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He can’t read at all and it’s February of Kindergarten? That would concern me. I wouldn’t be rushing to immersion.

+1. Your kid isn’t reading English yet. You want to put him in an immersion program in one of the hardest languages to learn in 1st? Don’t the programs start in K so he would already be behind? Lastly, the teacher doesn’t recommend him for the program.

I think it’s a bad idea.

Sorry to be obtuse, are kids reading in kindergarten? What they seem to be covering in school now is sight words. They have covered 20 - I don’t get a book like another parent mentioned (that would be awesome lol), I had to go through all the class newsletters and compile a list. DS can read 10 of the 20 words. To me that seems normal because memorizing site words is boring. I just started working on those when the teacher told me she wouldn’t recommend him this week, I’m sure I can get him up to speed in a few weeks. As far as I l know they haven’t covered phonics other than letter sounds, which he knew before he went to kindergarten.

That is a huge red flag to me. Kids are supposed to be at a DRA 3 or 4 by the end of K in FCPS. You should be having your child practicing reading every night at this age. You can get BOB books at the library.

Your child is absolutely not a good candidate for immersion, I’m sorry. Immersion kids are typically high achieving kids and self motivators.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey All,

My DS is in kindergarten. He seems to be doing pretty well, mostly 3’s in school. I go over his worksheets with him and haven’t noticed any issues (except sight word memorization, trying to work on that at home). He can’t read yet, plan to work on this too. I had hoped to put him in Japanese immersion next year for 1st grade. When I touched base with his kindergarten teacher about it, she said she would not recommend him for the program because a) he’s not a self-starter, b) he tends to talk a lot and needs redirection, and 3) he spends too much time socializing at school. I’d like to try and work on this stuff rather than passing up on the program all together. I’ve reached out to some FCPS teachers on the tutoring list, but I’m not getting much availability. Any ideas on the best way to help him?

I would think a kid who is naturally extroverted and talks a lot would do particularly well in immersion since they'd be motivated to try out the language which builds skills.

I think that you have a teacher who doesn't really get immersion, or thinks it's just for high performing kids. If you want to work on solving the issues at school, I think maybe you should, although I'm not sure tutoring is the solution for those issues, but I don't think it should make you reconsider immersion.

Fox Mill JI Parent here. The K Teachers know the immersion program well, almost all of them have been at the school for a good period of time and they have a good grasp of the skills needed to succeed in the program. There are kids whose parents put their kids in the immersion program anyway and it works out fine. Many of the parents who choose to skip immersion do so because their kid is not catching onto reading or math in K. Math and Science are taught in Japanese so a kid who is struggling in math in K is going to be learning math in a new language. Also, the math and science in Japanese means less time practicing reading and writing in English.

The classes are pretty tightly run because the kids have to work in Japanese as well as all the regular material. It is not the easiest environment for a super active kid because there is more of a need to concentrate and listen. The JI English Teachers have a reputation for being strict and parents are warned about this at the information sessions and then again at the Open House.

JI tends to start with 30 kids in each group (60 total) in first grade and drops down to between 15-20 by sixth grade. Part of that is attrition, kids moving out of the area or moving to the Center for AAP, but part of that is kids moving to Gen Ed because the JI program isn’t working for them. The kids start memorizing the Hiragana in first grade and have weekly quizzes on 5 characters that they bring home. By the end of second grade they have memorized the Hiragana and Katakana and start working on Kanji.

We love the program but it is not easy. One of the reasons we like it is because it is challenging and we think that learning a second language is a good thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you mean he can’t read well, or he can’t read at all? It would be strange if he can’t at least read simple cvc words like cat or sight words. Don’t they have a list of sight words they are memorizing? I have a kindergartener and he has a set of sight words and brings a small book home every day to read. It’s really simple… maybe 5-7 pages with a short sentence each and with lots of repeated words.

This response is making me mad (jk). All we get is a newsletter every 2 weeks. In the newsletter it says the sight words they have covered among all the other things. Nothing about helping them learn it. They’ve covered about 20, he can read 10. I want a book! I’ve been thinking about buying Dick and Jane or a similar reader to reinforce the sight words because it seems like DS isn’t paying attention to the sight words specifically. Everything else he seems to do well (the teacher also criticizes his handwriting but it seems fine to me, he’s able to write all his letters legibly and on command.)

I would do two things:

- Buy an easy set of readers. Maybe little science readers or readers that shows pictures of kids… whatever you kid is interested in.

-buy and play reading games. I bought a “sight words” flyswatter game on Amazon. You spread words out and swat the words (flies) with swatters. At this age, keep things light and fun! Try not to pressure him tot memorize the sight words. Just keep exposing and repeating in fun ways if you can.

And I don’t know if this is helpful to you, but my school has kids write one sight word per index card and punches a hole. All the sight words are put on a binder ring so kids can flip through and practice daily. Because of the ring aspect and because my son wrote and decorated the words himself, he actually likes practicing.

I'm the one who said that I don't know that tutoring would help with the specific issues. I do think that reading tutoring can be helpful in general. It might give you more information about how he is doing in general, and resources to guide what you do with him at home, and it might increase his skills. I'm not sure that it's needed specifically for him to go to immersion.
I think the only way to know if immersion will work for him and for you is to try it, but I do think tutoring could help the reading, regardless of what kind of program he goes to in First Grade.

Anonymous wrote:Do you mean he can’t read well, or he can’t read at all? It would be strange if he can’t at least read simple cvc words like cat or sight words. Don’t they have a list of sight words they are memorizing? I have a kindergartener and he has a set of sight words and brings a small book home every day to read. It’s really simple… maybe 5-7 pages with a short sentence each and with lots of repeated words.

This response is making me mad (jk). All we get is a newsletter every 2 weeks. In the newsletter it says the sight words they have covered among all the other things. Nothing about helping them learn it. They’ve covered about 20, he can read 10. I want a book! I’ve been thinking about buying Dick and Jane or a similar reader to reinforce the sight words because it seems like DS isn’t paying attention to the sight words specifically. Everything else he seems to do well (the teacher also criticizes his handwriting but it seems fine to me, he’s able to write all his letters legibly and on command.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He can’t read at all and it’s February of Kindergarten? That would concern me. I wouldn’t be rushing to immersion.

+1. Your kid isn’t reading English yet. You want to put him in an immersion program in one of the hardest languages to learn in 1st? Don’t the programs start in K so he would already be behind? Lastly, the teacher doesn’t recommend him for the program.

I think it’s a bad idea.

Sorry to be obtuse, are kids reading in kindergarten? What they seem to be covering in school now is sight words. They have covered 20 - I don’t get a book like another parent mentioned (that would be awesome lol), I had to go through all the class newsletters and compile a list. DS can read 10 of the 20 words. To me that seems normal because memorizing site words is boring. I just started working on those when the teacher told me she wouldn’t recommend him this week, I’m sure I can get him up to speed in a few weeks. As far as I l know they haven’t covered phonics other than letter sounds, which he knew before he went to kindergarten.

Anonymous wrote:Hey All,

My DS is in kindergarten. He seems to be doing pretty well, mostly 3’s in school. I go over his worksheets with him and haven’t noticed any issues (except sight word memorization, trying to work on that at home). He can’t read yet, plan to work on this too. I had hoped to put him in Japanese immersion next year for 1st grade. When I touched base with his kindergarten teacher about it, she said she would not recommend him for the program because a) he’s not a self-starter, b) he tends to talk a lot and needs redirection, and 3) he spends too much time socializing at school. I’d like to try and work on this stuff rather than passing up on the program all together. I’ve reached out to some FCPS teachers on the tutoring list, but I’m not getting much availability. Any ideas on the best way to help him?

I would think a kid who is naturally extroverted and talks a lot would do particularly well in immersion since they'd be motivated to try out the language which builds skills.

I think that you have a teacher who doesn't really get immersion, or thinks it's just for high performing kids. If you want to work on solving the issues at school, I think maybe you should, although I'm not sure tutoring is the solution for those issues, but I don't think it should make you reconsider immersion.

Do you mean he can’t read well, or he can’t read at all? It would be strange if he can’t at least read simple cvc words like cat or sight words. Don’t they have a list of sight words they are memorizing? I have a kindergartener and he has a set of sight words and brings a small book home every day to read. It’s really simple… maybe 5-7 pages with a short sentence each and with lots of repeated words.

Anonymous wrote:He can’t read at all and it’s February of Kindergarten? That would concern me. I wouldn’t be rushing to immersion.

+1. Your kid isn’t reading English yet. You want to put him in an immersion program in one of the hardest languages to learn in 1st? Don’t the programs start in K so he would already be behind? Lastly, the teacher doesn’t recommend him for the program.

I think it’s a bad idea.

Oh god

He can’t read at all and it’s February of Kindergarten? That would concern me. I wouldn’t be rushing to immersion.

You can enroll him and if he struggles he can move to the other class. It happens every year and isn’t a big deal. We are at Fox Mill in the JI program. Some kids who were not recommended to join have thrived. Some who you would think would do great struggled. The first grade teachers in JI tend to be strict, just something to consider.

Hey All,

My DS is in kindergarten. He seems to be doing pretty well, mostly 3’s in school. I go over his worksheets with him and haven’t noticed any issues (except sight word memorization, trying to work on that at home). He can’t read yet, plan to work on this too. I had hoped to put him in Japanese immersion next year for 1st grade. When I touched base with his kindergarten teacher about it, she said she would not recommend him for the program because a) he’s not a self-starter, b) he tends to talk a lot and needs redirection, and 3) he spends too much time socializing at school. I’d like to try and work on this stuff rather than passing up on the program all together. I’ve reached out to some FCPS teachers on the tutoring list, but I’m not getting much availability. Any ideas on the best way to help him?