any advise with exposing kids to non native languages

[ruamulla]

Help! I am a working mommy of an almost 2 year old and I am trying to raise him in three languages. My mother tongue is Arabic, but I speak with him in English about 80% of the time. He also is living in an Arabic-speaking country and speaks Arabic with his father on the weekends. I would like for him to have French as a third language. Therefore, I have enrolled him in a French immersion pre-school, which he attends 5 mornings a week.

My dilemna is that I want to ensure that his English is as close to native-speaker fluent as possible. I have been supplementing my speaking English with him with English language videos, songs, meeting with English-speaking friends and other extracurricular activities. I have thus been contemplating moving him to an English-speaking pre-school close to my office. Since he is young, it would allow me to be able to pop in from time to time to visit him in the school and maintain my bond with him. However, I would also like for him to acquire French as young as possible. Outside of the school, he would not be exposed to French speakers, but would only have video and audio aids to help him acquire the language.

Has anyone has success in actually having their child become fluent in a third language with resources that are similarly limited as described above or has the child had a mere superficial knowledge of the third language like only naming the objects ?  do u recomment that i move him to the English preschool and postpond the french for later years as French extracuricular activity start for 3-4 years old kids.
Thanks
Ru'a

[aangeles]

Well, logically, I would choose the French preschool since there are no native French speakers in your household, whereas he is getting English exposure from you on a daily basis. Also, it is so much easier to get multimedia learning materials in English for young children than in French (I'm assuming this is also the case in your country.) Having said that, the maternal side of me is biased towards the English preschool since you will be able to go see him during the day. My 2.5 year old goes to the university daycare in my place of work and I go to have lunch with her and put her down for her nap almost everyday. I feel like I am still able to maintain a really strong emotional bond with her even if I have to work and have someone else take care of her during the rest of the day. I can ward off any potential misbehavior or bad habits she may pick up from the other kids because I am able to spend more time observing and interacting with the other children, I can tell her why it's not a good idea to copy this or that behavior before she starts doing it herself. I feel like I am still able to practice some form of attachment parenting even if she is not with me during the day. If you're concerned about the French exposure, maybe you could look for a French playgroup that he can join once a week and just expose him to as many books, CDs, DVDs in French as you can get your hands on till he gets a little older.

[ruamulla]

Dear aangeles, thank you for yr replay. I really likes the idea of having lunch with him, so i asked the school if I can do soo when I can and they were not the happiest about it bec the other kids will miss their mommies !!!!! Ahhh, nursery decision seems to be harder that marriage decision ;-P I think for now I will wait for the semester to end and will evaluate his progress and maybe I can have a better vision which will help me decide the best for him .
Thanks dear again

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