To move my son to a bilingual nursery

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Please help us decide if this is a good or bad idea. My ds is 2 years 8 months and we are moving to an area that has a bilingual primary and bilingual nursery in the local area (both of them are Spanish/English)
We are thinking of putting him into the bilingual nursery but my DH is unsure which is making me unsure.
He was a late talker and has rapidly caught up and is now about average for his age and progressing well.
He thinks it will knock his confidence as the staff talk almost exclusively in Spanish (they will repeat in English if he's confused). I think it's a great opportunity especially seeing as we would like to send him to the bilingual school afterwards and that he's the perfect age to adapt. But I don't want to knock his confidence and maybe we should stick with a normal nursery/childminder and let him start Spanish when he goes to school and understands more what's going on.
Any thoughts?!

Do it. I worked in one of these. Fantastic for the children.

In our place you had to have a bilingual parent or plans to move to another country in order to get in but if you can just sign up then go for it!

Why wouldn't you want to give children the gift of another language..fluently?! It will not confuse your child.
While it's true bilingual children can be a little bit later to speak, this is children who have had 2 languages in the home from birth. Your child is already 2.5 and understands many words in his own language.

I think it would be wonderful for them

We had only English speaking children come into our place at 3 years old and it was absolutely fine. As you say, things will be repeated in English.

I was also a nanny abroad for two families at the same time. I took care of one child from each family, 3 years old. One fluent in both languages, one could only speak their own language. This little boy picked up English so so quickly having only 4 hours per day with me and other child ( we spoke completely in English to each other). After about 2 weeks of singing "Twinkle Twinkle " every day , this little boy knew all the words plus a few phrases.
It will shock amd amaze you how quickly they pick it up.

The biligual 3 year old would translate everything for the other child and me for the first few months. Extremely impressive.

Thanks @Notimeforaname very useful, and what I was hoping to hear!

This is a brilliant opportunity, go for it!

Start him now, the earlier the better

This was my dream! It is an amazing opportunity, I would 100% do it.

My DS goes to a bilingual nursery but half the staff only speak English and half only speak the other language. I understood that this was the 'best' way to do it rather than switching between languages but I'm not an expert by any means. DS is pretty quiet and slow at talking but I don't think that's anything to do with being in a bilingual environment. He generally only talks in English (although can count and knows the odd word in the other language) but seems to understand the staff equally no matter what language they use.

Ok sorry to drip feed but I just think I should offer my DH's point of view. The other alternative is a childminder who employs assistants so has 12-15 kids in total age 1 to 5. They go out every day to parks and libraries and farms etc. They have a very homely feel to their setting and do tons of creative fun things, messy play, it's all very lovely.
The bilingual nursery is a traditional nursery, a baby room, a toddler room and a preschool room. There is a small outside space, and they rarely go out, but do occasionally ( 34 kids in total at the setting).

He thinks the language doesn't make up for what he thinks is an inferior setting. I'm not sure trips to the park and messy play make up for losing the opportunity to acquire a language.

Really interesting to hear your thoughts.

I personally would choose the childminder in that case. I don't think going to a bilingual nursery has made a massive difference to DS at all. What has made the difference to him is that it's a wonderful setting with brilliant staff.

My son started a bilingual nursery this year. I was not keen on the idea. As he's very vocal, much more than his siblings were and I was afraid he might be afraid to speak, or lose confidence.
After 6 weeks, he is teaching me words. He is getting along swimmingly. Funnily enough, when we hear 2nd language bring spoken now, he says, "that's how my teacher talks". He recognises it already. The new vocabulary just slips into English phrases and gradually builds up.
All songs in 2nd language too which is another way to learn by singing without necessarily knowing the meaning.
One issue we had at the start, which I suspect was language related was that he didn't use the loo for weeks and held it until home. Maybe didn't know or wasn't explained in English. All fine now though.

Do it. Kids figure all sorts out really quickly. It's a brilliant opportunity for him. In my opinion all children should be exposed to this at as a young an age as possible.

He'll be fine.
My twins were due to go to a local
Spanish nursery but then lockdown came
So they never went, and just went to the local Spanish school at 3 and were fine. But all my friends here have had younger ones go to the local nurseries and all been fine. They don't take long to adapt to the language.

Meh, messy play at home. Definitely give him this opportunity that will be a fantastic addition to his skills for later in life.

What's the long term plan on the Spanish? I think it's likely that if he were fluent age 4, and then goes to primary and cannot speak Spanish anywhere, he will lose this ability. So for me it's whether you are happy for him to gain these skills and potentially not use them (still benefits here though) or whether you have future Spanish plans for him.

@once

Do it. It is a fantastic opportunity.

@Onceinnever the plan would be for him to go to the local Bilingual primary school. They do half of their lessons in Spanish and half in English. I personally speak a bit of Spanish but not fluently. There is a small chance he wouldn't get into that school but 90% chance he would and I could always add him to the waiting list if he didn't.

In which case I'd totally go for it. What an excellent opportunity!

Our situation is a little different in that we live in a German speaking country. However, DS has been at a bilingual nursery (English/German) since 6 months for nearly 2 years. He understands everything in German but very very rarely speaks any German, even when spoken to one to one in German. He speaks in full sentences in English. He is the only child in his class with English at home yet English is very much the dominant playground language between the children. I am sure it will develop but I am starting to feel nervous with how he will cope when he starts Kindergarten which is 100% German at 4.

I just want to be realistic that he will be unlikely to become fully bilingual just from a couple of years at nursery if that is your dream. You would need to continue to immerse him in it for much longer. I think it is a fab opportunity to get a head start in a language but I would probably chose a better setting over the language. That’s just me though!

He is the only child in his class with English at home yet English is very much the dominant playground language between the children. I am sure it will develop but I am starting to feel nervous with how he will cope when he starts Kindergarten which is 100% German at 4.

he will be fine. We do ML@Home and my DCs all went to German kindergarten. They took time to get confidence, but it is only good for them. Thee were things when they were younger that they could only talk about in German because they'd learned them at school. We just explained the vocabulary as needed and carried on speaking English.

At one point - and all bilingual kids seem to do this - they refused to speak English because it made them feel different. We carried on speaking English, they answered in German and after a few months it went back to normal. Now in their 20s Germans don't realise they're English and English speaking people don't realise they're German. They speak other languages too

I think dropping him into a bilingual school cold would be worse for his confidence and a harder learning curve (at a time when it would interfere with his more structured learning).

I also wouldn't class 12-15 children with multiple assistants as "homely", just a home-based nursery. How many children in his nursery room? How many staff?

Long term he would need to be using both languages to maintain them, otherwise it's a wasted exercise. What's the plan beyond primary?

I wish I could send my son to a bilingual nursery. We're starting Spanish lessons as a family next year and so hope he can learn the language well as a young child 🤞🏻

Yes, if they aren’t doing one person one language it makes me wonder a lot about the quality of the concept behind it.

@Brefugee Thank you that’s reassuring!

@tickticksnooze so most of the kids at the bilingual school wont be bilingual to start with, I think about 10% come from Spanish speaking homes.
In the nursery he will start in the toddler room where there are 7 other toddlers, he will then move to the preschool in about 6 months where there will be 20 preschoolers, but both rooms share a garden.

I know what you mean about the childminders not being particularly homely, but it is based in her home (she no longer lives there) which has been turned into a cbeebies looking house which is such a happy looking place. Her and her husband and 2 or 3 other staff work each day, and it has a very home from home feel. He is a chef and cooks, low staff turnover etc. My only slight concern there is they don't really do any structure learning at all, very play based, slightly hippy vibe, all about being outside in all weathers and exploring.

In terms of Spanish, no plans beyond primary except for doing Spanish at secondary school as a GCSE.