Second Language Programs

My son really enjoys learning Mandarin while watching Kai-Lan. Have any of you used a program to teach a second language to a young child? I would think it would be easy to do while he is young (he's 5), but I have no idea what kind of program to use. Not really interested in one of those ones that cost hundreds of dollars though.

Is there anything available through your library? (I think I remember seeing some of the language programs available for check out at my library.) If so, you could start with that and try a few to see if any would be good for a child.

i think exposing kids to a language early is SUCH a good idea! we are actually a bi-lingual family (french and english) and my kids go to a spanish immersion preschool - so we are doing three languages at once. they are much more fluent in french and english b/c that's what my DH and I speak, but their spanish comprehension is pretty good, and they can speak quite a bit too. (my BIL's family is completely trilingual b/c he is from france, his wife from argentina and they live in the US - the kids speak all three languages fluently and have not problems/language delays/etc).

when we lived in chicago, my kids went to a little language school once/week - they have a link to a place that sells language videos, etc:
http://www.littlepim.com/
(i've never used it myself - so i can't speak to how good it is ...)
the school we went to also gives a code for a 10% discount there:
http://www.languagestars.com/products/products-mandarin.html

i would also suggest looking into a babysitter/mother's helper type person that speaks chinese (or whichever foreign language you want to him to learn)- we found a spanish speaker that leads a two-hour playdate for my two kids and two of our friends each week. in addition, i have my kids watch movies in foreign languages, listen to music and i read stories to them. we are we also had an au-pair last year from france living with us, and i would totally do that again if i needed childcare, but now that both of my kids are in school three days/week it doesn't make sense. my non-french speaking SIL also used french speaking babysitters for years to supplement her husband speaking french to the kids.

good luck! if you are interested in french, i have a recommendation for that - it's a program that was created by the director of the french preschool here in our town.

Thanks, girls. Rachel, we do have some at the library and I will probably rent it again just to make sure he wants to learn, but I am terrible about returning things on time with the DVDs only be able to rent for a week.

Dana, thanks, the reviews I read on Little Pim seem mostly positive and its much more afforable then a lot of the other ones. Chinese is what he tells me he is interested in and there are very, very few Chinese people where we live. It would be awesome to have someone for him to talk to though. I know it would have helped me stay much more fluent in my German, I have lost tons of that. I try to randomly speak it though even now, but its only phrases here and there.

Dana has some really good advice about the personal aspect of language learning -- it really is crucial. I am very interested in second language acquisition for my children since I studied both Spanish and French in addition to English. My mother-in-law recently retired after many years as principal of a Spanish immersion elementary school and also spent time as the director of a Mandarin immersion school. As it turns out, there are not currently any good Spanish or French immersion programs available in our area, so that's not a route we can take with our two older children. Maybe for #3 and #4.

How about a summer camp? I know my brother and cousin spent couple of summers going to the Concordia Language Village near Bemidji, MN for Swedish. Looking at their website they do have a program for preschoolers in Norwegian, Spanish & Chinese! Though it looks like it's only for the Twin Cities...which might not work for you (but might work for you Kara!)

Here's their website:
http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/index.php

I never head of that, Erin. That could be really cool for when he's older for the summer camps. Since the college that does the program is in Moorhead, I wish the pre-K stuff was in Fargo, not Minneapolis.

We actually found Little Pim at the library. He's currently listening to the Playing one and has already said a few things in Chinese.

It is a bummer that the pre-k isn't in Moorhead. I know that when my brother and cousin went they had a lot of fun! I would love to go to their adult camp & learn Swedish