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FutureChief88
11-21-2007, 01:10 PM
I am definately puttin my daughter in French Immersion.. But am looking for people's experiences .. Who did it late.. Who did it early.. ??
Im thinking i want her in early.. Cause she can make the friends she makes.. and stay there.. Also i have heard that when they start immersion in grade 6, they expect quite a bit from the student.. Am i right or wrong.. I know the argument my grandmother has is that she wont be learning her english basis if i put her in early immersion.. Whats your opinions/experiences?

magoosmomma
11-21-2007, 01:25 PM
I started my oldest son in late immersion.. and i didnt feel they expected anymore from them then if they were in an English Program.. he brought home excellent grades last year(first year in immersion.. Mainly A's a few B's) I do wish sometimes he was in earlier however

FutureChief88
11-21-2007, 01:28 PM
Do you notice anything differnt.. Did they start off full french or to they sort of wean them into it.. There is no french in my Family.. so i dont know how to help her..

t_s_cb
11-21-2007, 01:31 PM
Well I did early immersion. I loved it. You build such a strong bond with the ones you meet. I honestly had no problems with it. And to be honest with you I didn't find too much difference as far as talking it goes between late and early immersion. I'm now working as a bilingual rep. With others who were late immersion and they understand just as much as I do. I'm not sure how their spelling and reading are though.

Another thing is when I went to highschool, I agree we did not learn the basics for english. In grade 9 we had to start writing essays and our class had no idea what to do. Though it didn't take long to get that down.

Anyway having said, that I will be putting my daughter in early french immersion. IT's really whether or not your child enjoys the different language that will determine their success in it. Good luck:)

magoosmomma
11-21-2007, 01:46 PM
Do you notice anything differnt.. Did they start off full french or to they sort of wean them into it.. There is no french in my Family.. so i dont know how to help her..

It was more or less gradually introduced.. they were spoken to in French and were able to speak english for about a month .. then after that.. it was all french.. we were told that math was the hardest for them to be able to translate so if need be we could have an english math text book at home to help out..(we have very basic french understanding)

Honestly it was the best thing for our son ..to put him in immersion.. We did decide to keep our middle son in english and again make the decision when he is older..(he is stuggling with reading in english so for him we made the right decision) .

FutureChief88
11-21-2007, 02:02 PM
Thats what i worry about.. she is very smart..but i just dont want her to be left behind in the english skills...

MichelleM
11-21-2007, 02:09 PM
My daughter is in early immersion and is now in grade 4. She did Kindergarten in english so learned the very basics there and started taking english in grade 3. Her english is above level with the english children and most of the parents I speak to would say the same. It comes very quickly. I am really glad that I put her in itand will be putting my son in when he starts school. We are a billingual province and it can only open doors.

FutureChief88
11-21-2007, 02:17 PM
Thanks for you input everyone!

MichelleM
11-21-2007, 02:22 PM
I think that the worst that could happen is you would have to pull him out. If they are having trouble they will let you know by Christmas(I think) and they say that the only time that they really run into problems is when the have parents that won't listen and keep them in it.

sj_mr2
11-21-2007, 04:46 PM
I made my own decision to go into late immersion, so I started in the 6th grade. I was in it faithfully until the 11th grade, and then I got tired of it. Getting out of french immersion was the best thing I've ever done. Learning a new language is a great idea, but the problem is, you learn all your math, sciences and history in french as well, and it isn't that easy to translate into english, especially math I found.

P.S: Starting in the 6th grade wasn't hard, one of my life long friends started in the 1st grade, and 1 year into french immersion I was able to speak and understand just as fluently as he could.

sarahnb
11-21-2007, 05:18 PM
My dd is in gr 5 and has always been top of her class. No problems at all.
Ds was in FI last year and we made the decision to move him to english which also meant a new school.

The school WILL NOT and is not allowed to advise you if your child should be in english or french. FI is great if you aren't having any issues but there is NO resource help for FI students. There is early literacy and tutoring but no resource available in district 8. We found out in Sept that dds has one and possibly two learning disabilities. Something that could have been caught in kindergarten had he had a different teacher.

Rekcus
11-27-2007, 03:00 PM
I started french immersion in grade 4 and gradually quit in High School when I was no longer forced to take it. I had also felt I didn't have as good of a grasp on English as English students. Terminology for social studies, math and science, I had no idea what the English words were. In part I'm glad I had the experience and sometimes I'm not. I had a hard time carrying on an intellectual conversation in English sometimes because I just didn't learn the terminology. I also didn't like the fact that the teachers didn't allow us to speak English during recess or lunch. We were always to be speaking French at school. At this point I have lost most of my ability to speak French, but still understand some of it. I was never really comfortable speaking it to begin with though. If you put her in immersion, I would suggest late immersion and make it partly her decision.

babydollbrat
11-27-2007, 07:11 PM
My son was in FI from grade 1 until this year (grade 11) when he chose to change to English.
If I had to do it all again, I would not have put him in the early FI.

FutureChief88
11-28-2007, 08:33 AM
My son was in FI from grade 1 until this year (grade 11) when he chose to change to English.
If I had to do it all again, I would not have put him in the early FI.

any specific reason why you wish you would have waited?