Landon is in the Chinese Duel Immersion

A week before school we heard from a friend that Syracuse Elementary had a few seats open in the Chinese duel immersion program and the principle would except transfers to fill these seats. 

When I heard this from her I reflected back on my own immersion experience. I called my mother, my sister, and my cousin to talk with them about it.  My cousin has kids that are in the program at Syracuse Elementary and my sister has a child doing the program where she lives.  Don and I talked about it with all the information I had gathered and we decided that we wouldn't put him in the program.  

I hesitated mostly because of my own insecurities. Would I be able to help him keep up with his reading and math at home like he needed.  Would he be too stressed out about it and shut down.  Would he still develop relationships with his brothers even going to a different school.

As school began I just kept thinking back to it. Had I made a mistake? When I would take Landon to school at Cook I just felt like this wasn't were he was suppose to be.  Not because of anything negative that was happening at school or anything like that. He loved his teacher and his class.  It just felt like there was more for him.

I was visiting a friend that had chosen to transfer her son to the program and I just thought, Landon needs to be in the program. So the next day we transferred him to Syracuse Elementary. 

He has been there for almost two weeks and is doing well.  He hasn't become fluent in Chinese yet, but that will come in time. He is doing great with reading at home and hasn't been bothered at all by the fact he can't even understand one of his teachers.

I am hoping that this will develop something in Landon that he wouldn't have had otherwise.  He is such a bright child that loves to learn and this will push him a little and hopefully let him know that he can do hard things.  I believe knowing a second language will help his brain function.  It is proven to do so, that is valuable in life. I also think that if he can keep the language up he will be able to benefit from it as he tries to seek employment.