I'm looking for a school who will be open to working with our 6 year old daughter who does not yet speak English. We are in the process of adopting her from Haiti. We need to find a school to send her to once she comes home. We think she'll be ready to start 1st grade. Any suggestions would be very appreciated.
Thank you all for your great suggestions. I was feeling really overwhelmed with the idea of trying to find our daughter a school. It's so helpful to have a place to start.
My husband and I have also hired a "school scout" to help us with this task. We are not only looking for a school that can handle her lacking English skills but also a school that is very diverse.
Edison Elementary School (in Santa Monica, California) teaches grades Kindergarten through 2nd/3rd grade in Spanish. From 3rd/4th through 5th grade they educate the students in English (& some Spanish); this is a bilingual school.
Congratulations on your new daughter! As far as school, any public school will take your child. They are used to having students that do not speak English and have programs (ELD for English Language Development or ESL for English Second Language). Be sure to discuss this with the principal to be sure that your child is placed in a classroom with a teacher qualified to teach her (CLAD is the qualification) or that she will be pulled out for daily English language development instruction. Additionally, she will learn a lot from just being exposed to it by you and other children. Kids are very adaptable. A way to help your daughter at home, take index cards and walk around the house with her to identify common household words/things that are important for her to know. Write the word on the card and practice saying it with her. If you know the word in her language, make the connection in her native language to the English word. Then tape the index card to the item. This way she will see the english words all the time. For example, label the clock, door, wall, chair, bed, etc. You can then do walks through the house and practice the words. She'll probably soon start pointing to things and asking you to label them in English. Keep these up for a while until she can master using the word on her own. I do this in my classroom and it really helps these students. Best wishes!
A child will learn a new language extremely fast. It's amazing how well they adapt. My friend came from France with her 6 years old and her 4 years old and they became bilingual within 2 months! It was incredible! They just went to a regular public school.
However, if you want something where you daughter will still hear some French, I know of "Clairefontaine" school on Abbot Kinney (it might not go up to 1st grade though) and the Lycee Francais. Finally, you might ask the French Consulate if you want to go that route. They would have more info.
Congratulations!
F.
What is her 'home' language now? If it is French, there is the Lycee school on the Westwide. For Spanish, there is an immersion elemetary school in Culver City, El Marino. Check it out. Mybe they would have some other resources, too. Good luck.
L., Congratulations! How exciting. I am wondering who will be able to speak with her and I trust that she will learn English quickly. You may find ESL (English as a Second Language) programs at your public school of course and I know there is at least one language emmersion charter school. I also know of a very non-traditional private school called Play Mountain Place that is child-led education, where she wouldn't have to dive right into strigent academics, testing etc. I don't know what language support they would need for her, but it is an amazing place! playmountain.org
Best of luck! J. J
Hey there Loraine,
Your daughter speaks French right? Well, at her age any school will do. She will be really quiet at first until she picks up the language but in three - six months she will be almost completely fluent in English. A friend of ours who came from France, put his child in the French school here in West LA and she picked up English within months, EVEN though it is a French school. They have an English program for native French speaking kids. If you want to put her in the French School so she will not feel so out of place in her new country it is called "Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles" http://www.lyceeonline.org/ Our 3 year old goes there and is completley fluent in French and English. But even if you decide to just put her in a public school. She will pick it up without a problem. Maybe even get her a tutor on the side if you feel she needs extra help.
Anyway good luck, and congratulations on your new daughter.
:o)
Schools don't have a choice, they have to work with her. I used to teach in LAUSD and one year I was teaching 5th grade and had a student who just arrived from China and didn't speak one word of English (please know that I don't speak ANY Chinese!) We both just sort of worked w/eachother (made up sign language and did a lot of pointing to objects); At first I wondered how on Earth I was going to teach this kid, but and within several months he was fully functioning in the classroom. His mother had been in the US for several years, knew English, and was intent on having him learn so she worked a lot w/him him at home and made no excuses. All I can say is that since your daughter is young, if she is just immersed, she'll get it, especially if she has a lot of support from home which it sounds like she will. On a side note, at that same school I referred to, I also had several students who were born in the US but had parents who were were from a foreign country. No English was spoken at home, nor was there any value placed on education or being fluent in English; Those kids had a much tougher time. I just add this to say that I really think what we do at home penetrates to the bones of our kids, what/how they do in school and elsewhere. Your adopted daughter is fortunate to have parents wanting to give her opportunity for success. If you are getting her in the summer, then you'll also have several weeks to get her used to English and our "ways" here in the US which is good :) Best of luck; sounds like you have an exciting time ahead!
My son goes to public school on the westside and is in third grade. At the beginning of the year there were 2 new students in his class- 1 from Korea and 1 from Sweden. Both had very little English and their classmates found it very exciting. After about a week the child from Sweden asked to be moved to second grade and is performing wonderfully. The child from Korea is still in our class and is also doing amazing- he has recieved 100 on every spelling test this year. My son enjoys this new student and enjoys when he shares stories from Korea.
It seems children adapt quite well and the LAUSD work to help them adjust. Your daughters new classmates also will be helpful and enthusiastic. Age doesn't matter when it comes to which grade your daughter will be ready for(kinder or 1st), my son is 9 and the oldest in his class, but there are some 7 year olds. Go to your public school now, meet the principal, learn your options. I know at our school we have many families from all over the world, and many of the children speak another language at home- there may be some French families at your school to ease your daughtrers transition, your principal could help you to find them. Good Luck!
