It looks as if your oldest daughter’s Spanish education has come full circle. Three days after she walks across the stage and receives her college school diploma, she, her fellow graduates, and the Spanish language professor are leaving for Spain. This final part of her formal Spanish training, and an amazing addition to the Spanish curriculum, will include trips to the following locations:
- Prado National Museum in Madrid
- Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
- Seville Cathedral in Seville
- Siam Park in Adeje
- Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote
- Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar in Zaragoza
All of this with a group of friends and adults who are fluent in the Spanish language. A perfect way to wrap up a college degree in a foreign language that very well may have started with an introduction to the language through her preschool Spanish curriculum.
While other children were reading Dr. Seuss and other staples of the most basic preschool curriculum, your daughter was part of an introductory preschool Spanish curriculum that was offered in her Montessori classrooms. More than just a few cute songs where children learn to count in Spanish and the Spanish names for colors, the preschool Spanish curriculum integrated into their Montessori day included language immersion as well. Each multiage classroom had at least one Spanish speaking teacher’s assistant who spoke Spanish to the children as they worked.
As she continued into her middle school years she continued to take Spanish classes. The students who had a preschool Spanish curriculum picked up on the language much faster than their peers who had no previous interaction with the language. As you student entered high school she continued taking spanish classes beyond what was required by the school. By her senior year, she was taking Advanced Placement Spanish. In this class Spanish was the only language spoken inside the classroom, and your daughter’s understanding and love for the language grew and grew. In this class the students had the opportunity to teach their own preschool spanish curriculum to young children attending an after school program at an outreach center. Your child also had the opportunity to go and help at the multicultural senior center, and interact with spanish speaking members of her community there. For a final project her senior year, your daughter and classmates wrote and performed an entire play, in addition to learning a song in spanish and creating an intricate poster celebrating different spanish artists. They had the opportunity to perform their play and song, and present their poster at a local university’s widely recognized language fair. This AP spanish class also allowed her the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica with her instructor and students from four different states as a not only fun, but educational senior trip. All this, because a preschool spanish curriculum sparked interest in the language.
Are Preschool Spanish Lessons Part of Your Child’s Education?
While there are many fun exotic and foreign places to visit where Spanish speaking skills can be utilized, being bilingual is useful for more than just travel. The average earning of bilingual employees is 20% higher than that of their monolingual counterparts. And although learning any language at a young age is beneficial, according to conducted censuses, Spanish is the second most frequently spoken language in the world. And this status as the second most spoken hides the true popularity of the language, as with more than 387 native speakers, there are more people walking the Earth who speak Spanish rather than English. This fact means that there will never be a shortage of opportunities involving this language, and speaking Spanish provides you with endless options around the globe.
Even if your child does not continue to use and learn the Spanish language, a preschool Spanish curriculum is still helpful because research has shown that if children learn a second language at a young age, it is easier for them to learn a third language later. In addition to the preschool spanish offerings, a Spanish curriculum for elementary schools and home schools is also available. Making the decision to register your children for a preschool that includes a focus on foreign language acquisition is a decision to give them a head start later in life.
