to challenge anyone to better this example of the heights of pushy parenting?

[BonsoirAnna]

Yesterday I was chatting to another mother from DD's French-English bilingual school on the bus. She has two daughters, one in DD's year, who will soon be 5, and another one three years above, who is 7.

This mother told me that during the summer holidays her 7 year old, who has been having private Chinese lessons for the past year (in addition to having an American nanny to teach her English), is being sent to stay, alone, for a fortnight with a Chinese family in China in order to practise the language.

No, I don't think that is the purpose - this family never smiles and enjoying itself doesn't seem to be on the agenda!

does that sort of language immersion for very short tims not work anyway? i seem to remember reading something about it. not that i was considering doing it. ebven f it would give me 2 weeks off.

I would have thought it would make a difference to language acquisition (providing the child is not so unhappy that he/she shuts down).

I would have thought that the possible cost to the child's long-term mental welfare would not have been worth the risk, however.

IME it made a big difference to me Eccentrica. My French improved hugely after 3 weeks with a French family, especially my accent. Irish college also improved my Irish, although to a much lesser extent because it was more of a school environment and the students spoke English to each other when we were out of earshot of the teachers.

I wouldn't even consider it for my children, but two weeks isn't a very long time and I presume the child wants to go too. It may not be as bad as it sounds.

One of my friends has her mum staying with her for six months of the year and every day she appoints an educational task for the grandma to do with the grandchild (9) after school. When we visited the day's activity was playing scrabble. Neither of them seemed to want to do it. Poor kid and poor grandma.

maybe i dreamt it? possible.

It could be true Eccentrica, I'm often a bit of a tail-ender on the normal curve so my experience isn't necessarily indicative of anything. I do think it would be practically impossible to get anything approaching a good accent without living in the country concerned though as very often teachers are not native speakers of the language that they teach.

Could there be a reason for them wanting the child to learn chinese? From what i understand it is a very hard language to learn as it goes against all the rules. My chinese friend tried to teach me, gave up! But maybe they might go and live/work in china one day?

efinately very pushy though.

I did see something similar in a local community centre - "baby phonics" Teaching babies to read from 7 months FFS, people will do anything to make money - and we all nknow what they say about a fool and his money!

nah! Here are the most pushy of parents.

www.iahp.org/

Still pushy parents are better than negletful parents.

Is the Chinese family friend of the pushy family?

I remember receiving the tiniest Russian children at a residential summer school- 5 and 6 yr olds, their suitcases bigger than them, who had made their own way from Heathrow in a taxi to the school...

Over here I have attempted to do English lessons with a child who, when I first met the mother was 22 months old. They had seen my bilingual daughter with us and think that 1 hr a week with me will do the same for the wee thing.

Woha mad parent, although DP got sent to stay with friends in Italy all by himself when he was only 7

That is completely insane - there would be enough of a culture shock to deal with even if your parents were there. Alone, with a strange family, not knowing the language. They sound quite crazy.

I can't get over the child having to do the plane journey, customs, airport, getting bags and meeting strangers at the other end thing.

It is a lot to ask of a 7yo.

I am quite

The thought of it brings tears to my eyes

Seriously though... Poor child

Can't they just send their child to the local chinese takeaway and learn all the wonderfull language from the chinesse kitchen? Then the child would still get to sleep at home in her own bed.
Sending a kid that young such a long distance will be scary.

God, I thought i knew a good one, an aquaintance who was talking about taking her 3yo horse riding and it turned out to be a ranch holiday in texas!!

7yo off to china alone - unbelievable (wont even let mine do brownie camp yet!!LOL)

Shame that pushy parent website cannot even spell its name correctly in its banner...

"I can't get over the child having to do the plane journey, customs, airport, getting bags and meeting strangers at the other end thing."

They probably will be getting airport assistance for the child. So parents will hand over child to a flight attendant who will take care of child until he/she is handed over to the party in China.

Still a pretty big ask for a 7yo though, mega. Being passed around a load of strangers. I know very posh kids do it when they board in different countries but still...

The poor, poor child. I haven't come across anything worse than that!

DD1 went on a plane by herself aged 8, to stay with my German cousin and her family for a week. But she was entirely up for it, and knew the cousin (though not well), and knew a bit of the language (I speak it at home occasionally).

The Chinese thing is just maaaaaaad, though.

True, LTOF. But I can't really bring myself to feel sorry about it as we don't know the child's feelings in this. She may even be madly excited about the adventure. I hope it's that.

I wouldn't think anything of a French family with a child at DD's school sending their 7 year old to England for up to a week - a child who has been learning English for five years at DD's school actually does speak quite good English, and certainly understands a lot, so wouldn't be completely at sea. I don't think it would be for every child or family, but some could definitely enjoy it and get a lot out of it.

what a terrible idea for a 7 year old ....poor Kid will undoubtedly be traumatised....especially if she is all alone there....
so...you defintely win