School and Language

Changing gears a little. There have been conversations in two of the adoption forums I like to follow about adopted older children and schooling. Some families have chosen to enroll their new children in public school with ESL and other help (depending on specific needs). Other families, especially ones already well established in it, are homeschooling their new kids. Both have advantages. Both have challenges. I have been reading up on language acquisition and language loss for children like Alice. The reality for kids in this situation is that they will lose their first language and it will happen faster than they will learn English. Most of them will learn English fairly rapidly due to the total 24/7 immersion. They will sound fluent in a matter of months, but when it will take years to acquire fluency in reading, writing, comprehension, and academic level vocabulary.

I am gathering information about what our local public schools will provide. I admit to wanting to keep Alice home. We really will have very little time with her before she is grown up (maybe 6 years until she is off to college). I appreciated all the time I could spend with my other 3 because they were homeschooled. I don't look forward to sending Alice away to school for the better part of the day and then giving up a chunk of our family time every evening attending to school assignments.

So I confess, I really would like to homeschool Alice. I think about the field trips we could take - learning US history and geography on the road. Having time to visit extended family when we want. The ability to make the learning more concrete - doing things and seeing places - rather than reading textbooks just seems like it would be better for Alice given the language issues we will be dealing with. And then there is the comfort factor - homeschooling is a "known" for me, while public school is the "big unknown".

No decision yet. We will wait until Alice is here and we know more about her personality, her likes and dislikes, her preferences.

I hate waiting. Have I mentioned that before?