Kindergarten, Update!

It turns out that I have a lot of drafts on my Blogger dashboard (reaffirming my commitment to try and blog more rather than tweet), so I'll give a quick update on my Kindergarten Registration and Parlons Francais! posts on how my son is doing in school.

Yes, I applied to Early French Immersion, and we won the lottery (literally, the french immersion entrance lottery). The Kid's now been in school for over 5 months now, and he appears to be soaking it in. Although this kid isn't particularly shy, he's not a "singer and dancer", my term for his lack of artistic expressiveness. So determining if he has learned anything at all (remembering that a lot of kindergarten learning is done by rote and involves a lot of imitation through song), it was difficult to get him to sing anything, always given a "I forgot!" response.

Well, today, was one of the few times he actually offered to sing me a song, and a french song at that. Quite a feat, considering he doesn't even know many English songs (so much for beating Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star into him as a baby!). I had him repeat it several times on the ride over to my parents today, as all songs he does sing seem to begin from the back seat, and even though I couldn't understand most of it, it was very gratifying.

It's too bad they all can't stay kindergarteners forever.

Parlons Francais, Part Deux

So, we accepted the enrollment spot for french immersion in the Fall.

It took over a week to finally hash it out with my husband, the pros and cons. I was already set on it, having mulled it over while driving to and from work, during running, before drifting off to sleep each night, during commercials of Olympic coverage. I just needed to go through the formality of having actually having a discussion with the hubby before making a final decision.

Technically, we have until this Monday, Feb 22, 3pm, to inform them of our acceptance. I wanted to confirm before the weekend though, in case, through a slight oversight, should the school decide to rescind their offer, pulling a fast joke on us or having had placed their bets that we would never have called back in the first place.

Hubby was hesitant, of course, to agree with me, without so much of an argument, though. He's a brooding-kind of debater, if there was such a thing, and getting him to speak his mind succinctly is like arguing with the wall.

He was concerned with how he would learn to spell dog or cat if they weren't going to teach him that. We would have to help him, by continuing to read to him in English at home, I say. But we're so busy in the evenings as it is, he argues. We'll have to change that, I insist.

But, bottom-line, he just wants him to go to a good school, learn well, and be "more smarter than his father".

As I see it, since hubby hit the nail on the head by admitting out loud his education goals for his son, whatever decision we made is ultimately the best one.

Parlons Francais!

So, today, that long-awaited letter (ok, maybe it just felt like ages!) arrived today, informing us that my son has been guaranteed a space in French Immersion this Fall for kindergarten.

I'm so stoked!

Everyone who got accepted -- about 44 kids -- were to find out by this Friday, Feb 12, if we were accepted or put on a wait-list. We got the letter saying we got in! It was about a 1 in 2 chance of getting into the program, given the number of applicants for spaces.

So now my husband and I have about 10 or so days to talk it over and decide what we're going to do. If we accept the spot, we forfeit our spaces at the other schools we've applied to, which makes sense. We did, at the same time, also receive a letter from our default school that we've been accepted there too. We just haven't heard yet from the third school if there are spaces available and if we would fill one of those spots.

But, assuming we were accepted to all three schools, which school would I choose?

The dilemma in this is that whatever we decide will drastically impact my kids' (yes, BOTH kids) education AND life.

Option 1: Choose the French Immersion school

Pros:

• My younger son would be able to be automatically allowed admission into the program, as would any other siblings that follow (ahem, none yet!);
• My kids would automatically be allowed admission to the French Immersion high school, which happens to be a very good, well-respected school (great Fine Arts & Science programs, complete with IB program too, with grads going to Ivy League schools), a school we probably wouldn't have a chance to get into if he studied "in English" since we'd be out-of-catchment;
• kids in French Immersion grow up and "stay together" through the years, going through school, so they'll have a tight relationship (and I heard the parents are nice too!);
• it's a small school, with a lot of personalized attention and resources;
  
• he gets a chance at a bilingual future, unlike me, who missed the boat when I moved here from Montreal when I was 8 years old.
  

Cons:

• it's only half-day kindergarten next year, while most other schools will be full-day kindergarten. Possible daycare costs to be incurred;
• it's an Annex school, meaning after Grade 3, he'll have to go to the Main School, a little farther away, meaning I'll eventually have two kids in two different schools most of the time;
• until we move, the school is actually in the opposite direction from work, and across a major artery, so morning traffic will be a bitch;
• I still don't know how after-school care will be handled when he's a little older;
• will I still be able to help him out with homework, despite my limited French.
• his English reading and writing skills will likely lag for a few years, taking a while to catch up.
  

Option 2: Stick him in a regular English classroom

Pros:

• his reading and writing skills should develop at the usual rate.

Cons:

• he won't have the same level of French proficiency had he started in FI instead.

As you can see, there are not that many issues when dealing with the English-track curriculum. Not so in the case of the French route: possibly more pros and cons I haven't listed yet.

I'll be doing more research, but I'm leaning on sticking him French Immersion and hoping for the best!

Kindergarten Registration

I didn't think that kindergarten would come so fast!

Recently, I've had to really start thinking about where to send my son for kindergarten. I actually didn't about it early enough, since registrations began November 2nd of last year. Had I any smarts, I would've called my prospective schools and inquired about Information Sessions.

Case in point: one of my considerations was French Immersion. Apparently all the FI schools in the city have information nights in mid-November.

Mommy Fail #1: missed those.

Now, I've heard that boys, somewhat lag behind their female classmates in FI, and sometimes struggle severely enough to transfer out of the program. And, FI, in some sense, has been termed elitist in some circles. On the first point, of the kids I know who are in FI, one girl and two boys, all at different schools and different grades, are all enjoying themselves and excelling well. Perhaps, given the chance, my son will excel as well. On the second point, being in an FI program can be exclusive, given the lack of resources to have more schools in the city, but as for elitist, I beg to differ. It doesn't cost more to send kids to a public french immersion school, so family income isn't an issue. It's a matter of personal choice on the parents' part: anyone can apply, but a lottery is usually how most people get in, due, again, to the lack of supply-and-demand principles.

Throw in the curve ball that 60% of Vancouver elementary schools will be going full-day in 2010. The remaining 40% will assume full-day kindergarten (FDK) in 2011. FI schools will only have FDK in 2011, discouraging me from considering applying for any french schools: he's so ready for full-time school.

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See my 2011 Update here.