Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chinese mom here.

I'd suggest you check out local hinese schools, which are usually held in weekends. There are actually many in this area. For example, hope chinese school offered at various locations in northern virginia and the nearest one for you may be at fairfax. Mandarin lessons are offered at different levels for both native speakers and those as second language. The tuition is cheap like <200 dollar per semester plus you can register other classes such as math, writing, public speaking, tennis, basketball, chess, violin, drawing etc.

Good luck.

This. Find a good Chinese school that fits with your kids (and your) learning level and abilities.

There are tons in the close in Maryland suburbs (Rockville, Gaithersburg, etc.) and there are a number in Fairfax county. I've found that the MD ones are older, more developed and have fractured into serving different demographics while the VA ones are more recently established schools that serve a narrower demographic.

That is to say in MD you can find schools that teach Taiwanese chinese (!) to ones that cater to native speakers (or those who speak Chinese in the home) to ones that cater to children of ABC parents (who have pretty low levels of Chinese themselves) and children who come from non-Chinese American households.

Our kids go to Rockville Chinese School and I would put it into the ABC/Non-Chinese American demographic as its raison d'etre. About 1/3 of the kids in the first level class (kindergarten) come from non-Chinese American households.

We also attended Hope Chinese School in Annandale and sensed that it catered to native Chinese speakers and more recent mainlander immigrants - the skill level was way to high for our kids to keep up with.

Anonymous wrote:Chinese mom here.

I'd suggest you check out local hinese schools, which are usually held in weekends. There are actually many in this area. For example, hope chinese school offered at various locations in northern virginia and the nearest one for you may be at fairfax. Mandarin lessons are offered at different levels for both native speakers and those as second language. The tuition is cheap like <200 dollar per semester plus you can register other classes such as math, writing, public speaking, tennis, basketball, chess, violin, drawing etc.

Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

yonster wrote:Hello helpful moms and dads,

We are heading to VA this summer in time for next school year in Fall 2015.
We have children who have been learning Mandarin regularly for the last few years and we would like to continue after we move.
I have 3 kiddos who will in the upper elementary grades. 3,5,6 grades.
My two younger ones are currently in a advance math "track"

My main question is...

Is mandarin offered in Chesterbrook or Shrevewood and the middle school enough? Did the school test the students to put them in a proper level?
Do you have supplemental outside lessons to keep up with the language?

Currenly our school has 2 - 30minutes lessons so we supplement it with 2-1 hour lessons 1:2 private lesson.

I just feel with laguage you need a lot of exposure... (ps we, the parents, do not speak mandarin)

If you are supplementing, can you let me knwo where you are taking them or who you are using?

Thanks!!!!!

Are you Chinese? What's the point of learning Mandarin in elementary schools, otherwise? It's not a very useful language unless you think your children will some day live in China...

yonster wrote:Hello helpful moms and dads,

We are heading to VA this summer in time for next school year in Fall 2015.
We have children who have been learning Mandarin regularly for the last few years and we would like to continue after we move.
I have 3 kiddos who will in the upper elementary grades. 3,5,6 grades.
My two younger ones are currently in a advance math "track"

My main question is...

Is mandarin offered in Chesterbrook or Shrevewood and the middle school enough? Did the school test the students to put them in a proper level?
Do you have supplemental outside lessons to keep up with the language?

Currenly our school has 2 - 30minutes lessons so we supplement it with 2-1 hour lessons 1:2 private lesson.

I just feel with laguage you need a lot of exposure... (ps we, the parents, do not speak mandarin)

If you are supplementing, can you let me knwo where you are taking them or who you are using?

Thanks!!!!!

Anonymous wrote:I had a child in Mandarin FLES. It's only a couple days a week so they don't learn that much. It sounds like your child might be ahead if you've had outside tutoring. I'm not positive, but I don't think our school had anything extra for the kids that were ahead (which one of my child's friends was). You might call the school before you make a decision based on Mandarin being at the school. It might be easier to have your child just learn Mandarin outside of school.