to think language school on Saturday is too much for a 4 year old!

[letsflyaway]

Our son has a second language that we try to speak at home most of the time. My DH would like him to attend a language school in central London every Saturday morning for several hours. He is 4! I know it's important to develop language skills early on but I can't help feeling this is over the top.

We both work full time and I see the week ends as precious family time, not another day for school type activities/education which will cut down on time we can be out having fun.

Does anyone have young children that give up a large chunk of their week ends for a similar reason? Be it language school or perhaps coaching for a certain sport or similar. If so how do they cope with it?

what sort of language group is it? When my son was 2 I started taking him on Saturdays to a 'language nest'. This was more of a social group - not so much formal language lessons as it was singing, games, crafts, learning about the culture as well as the language. It was good for the parents too to meet.

I think that if this is something your husband wants to do with your child every Saturday, then that's a good thing too. It gives them something special together. And it isn't the whole weekend.

We raise our kids bilingual and do OPOL. They are 3 & 1 at the moment and I wouldn't send them to formal language school at a young age. Language should be fun and about commmunication and openess I feel and not formal and rigid. We put the time and effort in ourselves with books, tv, friends etc. Reading and writing can come later. I really think that even though each parent only speaks their own language that both should be actively present in the home. It's also important that the other partner can handle a minimum in the other language (over time, this can develop with your children).

I agree weekends should be for fun and we always make sure we spend the rest of the weekend all together.

My dcs (13 & 9) have been going to language school since they were 3. We send them mainly to learn the culture dancing not really to learn the language.
All their cousins go to the same language school so it's a good opportunity for them to see each other. Also they made lots if friends with the other children.
However if there is a birthday party or something else that they would like to do on a Saturday morning I let them otherwise they would have ended up hating me & dh!

My Dh hated going to Greek School on Saturday mornings so much that we never sent ours which is a shame as he and MIL were so bad at speaking Greek to them that they missed out on being bilingual. They're fairly fluent (understand more than they speak) but definitely not to the extent I wanted them to be. I would go by the school itself - as I said DHs one was truly horrible (rapped across the knuckles with the cane etc) but our local one is actually very nice and more aimed at having fun for the little ones (I went to the adult lessons for a while) and it is a very community based thing.

DS is in a nursery class at Farsi school (he is 4.5) and DD is in reception there (she is nearly 7 and in year 2 at school) so DD particularly is behind her peers at Farsi school, but at this level, for both of them it is play based and I don't worry about the extra mental exertion.
We really hope that they will grasp the language, but also get a real sense of the culture. Both of them have learned loads of Iranian nursery rhymes which they sing constantly.
While they are enjoying it for the most part we will continue and if the situation changes we will have to look at it again.

I speak French, DH doesn't, and I send DS1 to French class on Saturday mornings (so will DS2 from next year). It's very important to me, it's his only chance to hear someone else than me speaking the language apart from the odd grandparent visit. He understands very well but is reluctant to speak. DH is fully supportive and it's the only scheduled activity I have for DS1 all week. Of course this uses up the prime-time Saturday AM slot but I see it as a priority - besides his friends all seem to have something on Saturday mornings as well - ballet, football, swimming, whatever.

DS1 enjoys it, I'm conscious he could grow to resent it as he gets older - hope not - but really it's fairly lightweight, at his age (5) it's just about playing games and talking in French. From next year they will learn some reading and writing in French (e.g. the "oi" sound as in petit pois). The class is aimed at children from bilingual families but they all go to English school during the week. In fact I find it very useful to chat with the mums there about the local English schools and what to expect in the older years - but we do so in French .