Math&English tuition for 4yrs old. Necessary?

[SRose]

May I have some advice from experienced mums please??

DD1 was born in the UK but we moved to France when she was 3( she attented local French school.). We recently came back to London and she started attending a local school(reception).
Although she can speak English it’s not as good as other children at her age - she never learnt English before.
Both of DH and I are non-native English speakers.

We weren’t worried about her English( actually we were more concerned about keeping her other languages) as we thought she’d pick it up at school, however, yesterday, I was stopped by a sales person from a leaning centre( tutoring kids from 4yrs old using computer) and she told me DD1 needed language support as her English was behind.
I booked a trial lesson, but I’m wobdering if it’s really necessary at this stage??

And I’m not sure if it’s efficient to start the tuition when she doesn’t understand English enough to keep up with the lesdons?

Has anyone had similar experience???

Thank you very much!

Is this explore learning?
It’s fun enough if you want to use it as a babysitter while you shop, and have plenty of cash to spare.

It’s nowhere near necessary for a 4yo, whether they are bilingual or not.

Mine went for a bit (one has additional needs and it seemed like a good idea) but it made absolutely zero difference to their academics. It’s just babysitting while they play educational computer games...

OP is it Explore Learning? Don’t complain to Sainsbury’s as they just rent land off Sainsbury’s who won’t do anything. Complain to the head office- there’s a number in their website for the Guildford head office. They would probably be very open to discussing it with you.

Ps. Tuition isn’t necessary at 4.

LinoleumBlownapart,

Thanks for sharing your experience!
DD1 was like him when she started school in France( luckily it was still nursery - but it’s like a big school) , then again she is going through the similar experience in th UK:(
I really feel sport for her, but hopefully she will catch up with her classmates one day.
I’ll study to support her + will hire a tutor if necessary:)

slightlybefuddledlibrarian,

Yes, it’s explore learning!
I just don’t want to go inside the Sainsbury’s now as I can see some sales people are there...

DH and I thought it could be OK if DD enjoyed the tuitions there and if she could have advantage academically.
However, DD wasn’t interested, and now that I heard it didn’t make any different to your LOs academics, I’m glad we didn’t sign her in😁
Thank you very much for your advice!

Cheekyandfreaky,

Thanks for the info!
I’m not that upset now and not planning to complain unless they try to convince me everytime I go shopping there;)
Let’s see and I’ll contact their head office if necessary.

They gave me a great opportunity to have a lot of advice from experienced mums on raising multilingual kids and on early education here. So I think I should Thank Explore Education for that!

I really feel sport for her -> I really feel sorry for her

Auto cue....

No language learned at an early age is ever wasted.

I spent the first 2y of my life in country A, our home language was B, and we then moved to country C, where I eventually went to school.

I have never, to my recollection, been able to speak language A. I don't even remember hearing it again until I was an adult. I speak languages B, C and D (learned D at secondary school).

I can, however, understand quite a lot of language A, especially when it is spoken slowly and simply...as if to a young child.

No deep learning is ever truly lost,

Hi op, I am a private tutor and I would say it is unlikely your daughter would benefit from something like explore learning aged 4. If you are concerned about her English, talk in the first instance to her teacher. They should be picking up at school if there are concerns and can give you advice on what to do if extra support is needed. They'd probably have let you know by now if there was a serious issue.

As far as your younger child is concerned, if you can afford a couple of sessions a week in a good nursery, then that would probably be the best way of giving her extra support in English if you wanted to.

It's definitely unnecessary at that age.
I teach someone who moved to the UK when he was 4, with no knowledge of English. Ten years on, his grasp of the English language and grammar is much better than that of most native English speakers.

I didn't learn English until I went to school. I was always behind (still am for my level of intellect and education) however I got an A in English lit in my last year of school. No trutoringobviously.

OP is this Sainsbury's in a town beginning with B? Trying not to out you!

JellySlice,

Thank you very much!

Glad to know that:) We were thinking it’d be a pittty if DD1’d forget all French she learnt but it might help her if she decides to learn French in future:)

educatingarti,

Thank you very much for your advice!
I spoke to DD1’s teacher and asked her if DD1 needed extra tuition to catch up English skills and she said No;)
Apparently she started talking a lot in the class recently.

I agree with you that explore learning type school isn’t for DD1- I visited their website and tried the sample test. To complete the tasks, DD1’ll need someone to explain it to her all the time which explore learning type school won’t provide.

DD2 seems to be a quicker learner than DD1 and understands English a lot. ( Only Jap and Eng for her atm)

Thank you so much for your helpful advice:)

There are lots of French for kids on you tube.
My ds first got interested in French watching French cartoon and learning French cartoon songs.

MongerTruffle,

Thank you very much!
I’ll try to wait for at least 2 years and see how she’ll be coping:)

OutyMcOutface,

Thank you for sharing!
I should trust our DDs more:)

brexitschmexit,

No, it’s in the town C😁
Walking through the Sainsbury’s( in front of Explore learning) is a shortcut from DD’s school to home, but now I’m avoiding it...

irvineoneohone,

Thanks:)
I found Peppa Pig in French on YouTube which DD1 used to watch in France and tried to show it to her, but it seems she has already moved on😄
I guess she wants to focus on English now....( DH still wants to put her in French class tho!)
I’ll wait a bit and will try again:)
Thank you for your advice!

I think it's a good idea to keep up in French class, as your DH wants, in casual basis.
My ds was speaking my native language before school, but we focused on English and he lost it all. He started learning it since yr3 again, and I wish I carried on casually all those years.

When she is older, I recommend Code Lyoko, French cartoon. Brilliant.

Sorry, I didn’t notice your reply till now!!!

Thank you again for your advice:)
( I’ll probably watch it myself to brush up my French first 😁😁)

I think that you should definitely carry on developing DD's Japanese- not just through everyday conversations but also reading and gradually writing to develop a proper competence in the language. Ideally, since Polish was her first strongest language, that should be kept up.

Some ideas include dual language books - they are books written in 2 languages (English + 1) and are fantastic for multilingual children. I'd also get her started at a Saturday school for Japanese (if you decide to develop that as her first language).

The basic premise is that the better her first language (so Japanese or Polish), the better her English will get - it's called additive bilingualism. If she ends up with a pigeon, underdeveloped first language, she's unlikely to be any good at English in the future.

I would probably ditch French for the time being tbh and maybe re-introduce a lot later (as a learnt subject at school).

In terms of 11+, I wouldn't worry as long as you put in the work at home. In grammar schools, there are very high proportions of bi or multilingual children as they tend to have better memory, creativity and lateral thinking skills. On the downside, they'll have more vocabulary than monolingual peers but as it's spread across 2-3 languages, your daughter is unlikely to ever be on par with English children for vocabulary in English. Bilinguals often underperform in reading comprehension too. So just some differences but they won't be a problem if you put in the work at home.

MiaowTheCat,

Thank you for your advice!
I should be careful when I tell my girls off😅

I recently started tutoring DD1 at home, phonics and maths.
I didn’t know that they teach reading and writing and may of kids actually can read and write at reception!!( In my country schooling starts at age7.)😵

JoJoSM2,

Thank you for your advice!!

Dual language books sounds great solution for my hubby to teach DDs Polish!
As he was in London when we were in France, DD1 forgot most of Polish and DD2 has no idea what it is...
He wants to talk to them in Polish but he’s lazy & they don’t understand much, so he doesn’t know any clue where to start.

DD1’s language order now is;
Japanese > English > French > Polish

My husband says he wants DD1 to learn French instead of Polish, but there’ll be another problem... We go to Polish church, so DDs have to be able to speak enough Polish to do first communion there!😓

I don’t wish to push her learn French for now( but she recently started showing her interest for French suddenly!), so I’m looking for a playgroup type class or YouTube to keep some contact with French. Not expecting her to improve it.

She used to attend a Japanese class in France and can read/write simple Japanese( Hiragana, one of the 3 types of Jap alphabets) - not perfect yet tho.

I was planning to teach her Jap writing but I decided to focus on whatever she learns at school for now.
Her teacher told me they targeted on reading and writing simple sentences (in English) by June.... She’s well behind.

Japanese Sat school only starts at age 7, same as the schooling system in Japan.
So, until then I’ll slow down teaching Japanese writing to her.

Thank you very much for the info on 11+ and grammar!
Well, DDs might not be that academic to get into grammar, but you never know😄