Chinese And A Home Based Business

A few days ago, a letter came to the house from my sons’nschool. They were writing to inform me of their intentionnto introduce a Language Immersion program at thenKindergarten level. The five-year-olds will be taughtnentirely in Chinese for half of the school day.

Needless to say, I was very excited; my baby Isaiah willnbe starting Kindergarten in the Fall. Here in Florida the
Fall semester begins in late August. We are the first nelementary school in the entire state to offer Chinese as nan Immersion language.

Why Immersion?

“Immersion programs are the fastest growing and mostneffective type of foreign language program currentlynavailable in U.S schools. Most immersion students can nbe expected to reach higher levels of second languagenproficiency than students in other school-based languagenprograms.

Becoming bilingual opens the door to communication withnmore people in more places, and more parents want to nprovide children with skills to interact competently in annincreasingly interdependent world community.”n-Eric Digest

Why Chinese?

“Earlier this year Rep.Rush Holt of New Jersey introducednlegislation calling for increased funding of programs for lessncommonly taught languages. “For reasons of economics,nculture and security we should have much better facilitynwith Chinese languages and dialect,” he says.

The State Department has designated Chinese a “criticalnlanguage” but the most recent data show that only
24,000 students in grades 7 to 12 study Chinese, a nlanguage spoken by 1.3 billion people worldwide.
-Newsweek…World News

The school administration held an informational meetingnlast Thursday for parents interested in enrolling their kidsnin either program. As the program requirements were laidnout to us, I heard disheartened groans and looked aroundnthe room at a sea of disappointed faces.

You see, the program requires a family commitment. We thenparents have to become fully involved and learn the languagenalso! How else will be able to help our children with their nhomework? This was something none of us had taken intonconsideration.

The vast majority of parents in attendance are two incomenfamilies working outside of the home and cannot possiblyntake advantage of the awesome opportunity of free lessonsnoffered by the school twice per week.

Even as their faces clouded over, I felt a huge smile burstnupon mine. Because of my decision to start building a homenbased business and the action steps I took to fully automatensaid business I enjoy total freedom in my personal life.

I enjoy the FLEXIBILITY that 95% of parents cannot. I cannsit in my son’s classroom all day if I so desire. My businessnaffords me the FREEDOM to do everything with my sons…nincluding learning Mandarin Chinese!