Home Hot Topics Articles Directors' Choice Awards About Us / Contact Us Activities & Curriculum Activities for Outcome-Based Learning Arts & Crafts Music for Learning Recommended Reading Sharing Boards: What Do YOU Think? NEWSlink Current National News Conference Calendar Topics In Early Childhood Education Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education Job Sharing Board State Licensing Requirements Stay Connected! Each month we'll send you an email filled with articles and ideas for your classroom. Subscribe Now Date: 2/2/2007 11:47:00 PM Author: Kim (kvakoc@aol.com) Subject: Non-english speaking I work in a Head Start Program where I have only 5 children out of forty whose first language is English. The majority speak Spanish. I speak very little Spanish and the other 3 teachers in the classroom speak no Spanish. I tell all my Spanish families (usually through a translator) that it is great if they learn to speak English themselves but that while they are in their own homes they should speak only their native language. I have seen many, many children of bilingual parents who either don't know how to speak or refuse to speak in their native tongue because their parents always spoke English to them for fear that their children would not learn English. Children are very quick learners. We, the teachers, speak to all the children in English fromt he first day of school and with in just a few months they are able to understand what we are saying and usually by the end of the first year of preschool they are speaking a lot of English, some are almost completely bilingual. We have all learned to communicate with each other and have a wonderful program. Name: Email: Subject

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