How to help SO son.

[Dean Hall]

Our son spoke very little English beyond the basic greetings,ect.

 

In Virginia, before being allowed into school, two things had to happen.

 

First, he had to have proof of the basic inoculations. If you do not come from China, you need to allow enough weeks to get all of the series done. The school will absolutely not allow him in regardless of anything else until you have satisfied them on the inoculations issue.

 

Second, he had to be tested on English proficiency and comprehension so that the school would know at what ESL level to place him.

Allow enough time for scheduling the pretest, ect. I thought that 6 weeks before start of school would be plenty of time, and we barely made it in.

 

As others have stated, they start out heavy with reading, writing, and spoken English. All other classes are "fluff", or electives such as PE, Art, ect. They started our son in Algebra, but he had to quit after a few months. He easily understood the algebra, and in fact did all of it in his head while the rest used calculators. However, the phrasing and so on of the questions in the text book threw him for a loop.

 

He took it again this year, and is at the top of his class.

 

In his first school, he was the only Chinese in his class, all the rest were Spanish. He came home with a fair split of Spanish and English.

 

We had to move after his first month, and his fellow classmates are Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Albanian and French. A real good mix.

 

In 1.5 years, he has gone from practically no English, to very good English with jokes, slang, and very good comprehension.

 

He absolutely loves high school. And the ESL teachers love working with these kids because their classroom attitudes are so refreshing.

 

What can your little guy do for now?

Jake had no interest in English while in China. (Kids !)

 

However, once in the States, a big help was watching DVDs in English with Chinese subtitles, and regular US programing with English subtitles.

 

Your boy can start doing the first now as DVDs in English with Chinese subtitles are available on every corner in China.

 

Dean

[Dean Hall]

OOP's !! Sorry

 

 

If you do not come from China,

 

I should have said, "If you do not come from China with legal innoculation documents"