(Photo: WBOC)MAGNOLIA, Del.- Going to Kindergarten is a time for new experiences for children. For the kids at J. Ralph McIlvaine Early Childhood Center, they will be learning a new language at their new school.
McIlvaine, along with two other schools in Delaware, is a part of the World Language Immersion Program. Kindergartners will spend half of their day learning in Mandarin and the other half learning in English.
"Their content, which will be math, science and social studies will be taught completely in Chinese," said Kindergarten teacher Candice Castro. "We will do some content review here in English but mostly they'll be getting those content subjects in Chinese."
Christina Castro and her Chinese Teaching partner Li Jing Jing will each teach half of the day in their respective language. The split learning day is meant to enrich the educational experience but not everyone is for the second language.
"This is America and our language here is English and I think we ought to dig our heels in and understand our English language at such a young age," said Rori Allen.
Despite some apprehension, the Chinese teachers say they are ready to make the students comfortable with the new experience.
"We prepare many teaching resources, toys, puppets, some stickers and many toys for the children to make them not so nervous about that," said Li Jing Jing.
