My family lives in California and we are planning to move to Switzerland for 1 year this summer. My husband is originally from Switzerland (Zurich area) and we would like our children (10 and 13) to have an amazing experience being immersed in the culture and language. Can someone help me-the bilingual school told me-no-for only 1 year. My husband wants to send them to the State school in Andelfingen near family and friends, but I am hesitant. My children and I only speak English and I am concerned they would have a hard time coming back to the States with their classes (Are there teachers out there that can give me some advice) because most of the year would be learning the language not learning subjects. We are looking into International Schools (wow- they are pricey)-but why bother going to Switzerland if they are going to be with English kids and in a German class-we can do that here. To add to it....my children are multi-sensory learners-hi IQs but deficient in sequential memory-they do well in school despite their hardships. My son, 10, could use a hands on approach to learning. Is their any advice out there-maybe who would be a good person to talk to regarding my particular situation. Thank you for your help!

Hi, Lisa welcome to the site. If you use the search function you'll find quite a bit of info already discussed about schools. Check out family matters.
Good luck with your move.

you moving here for one year ,
you will propley say there for longer
thats is what happend to me.

you say you have chidren 10 and 13 .

it is hard to learn but they will learn it , dont worry.
i did and it is easyer for chidren.

there are a lot of English speaking schools in the larger cities. I wouldn't force them into a non-English speaking school and then leave after 12 months, that is just going to scar them and not want to accept foreign languages and try and learn them in the future (or maybe they will love the challenge). It takes a good 6 months to be able to ask for things in another language, so just as they get a start, they will have to leave.
Good luck.

Wow.. not sure we have those in Europe. My label as a kid was "1 for achievement, E for effort" ie bright but pig lazy... I wish I could have told my teacher it was oK, cause I wasnt into sequential learning.

The US and European systems are out of step with year content anyway so unless you put them in a US intl school there will be some disjoin.

If you really want them to have a different experience, as your husband says put them in a local school. Why dont you contact the school and talk to them. But joking aside, they might think you are a crazy californian if you ask them to adapt their teaching methods specifically for your children. Swiss education is pretty formulaic.

PS My other reco is you forget to tell the schools you are just here for one year. Hey life happens so if you take them out after a year... that's international life.

Daniel

I dont agree, unless these children have genuine learning problems, or have problems socializing, at that age, immersed daily via school it will go much quicker.

Interestingly, I have heard better reports from people who sent their kids to the small village school than bigger city ones. In the former, the school was supportive and laid on extra deutsch classes. In the latter, it was oh another foreigner.. go "join the queue" (which will be a real multicultural experience indeed!).

D

I'm really curious about this as I don't know what it means. Would someone be willing to explain it to me?

Hi godess i had exactly the same reaction. If you google it you'll find lots of info. All very interesting.

Thanks, Oldhand. There is lot's of information out there. I took a quiz and found out that I am a visual learner, something I already kind of new but have never had validated in any way. I just wasn't aware that we had started labeling our children in such a way in America.

Me too, massively. Which makes sense, since at work, I generally explain things by drawing on paper as I talk... have to structure my thoughts. To the point where I have to have paper and pen to hand even if dont plan to use them. D

If your husband is swiss this is the best opportunity your children will have to learn their father's language in their own country assuming that they have both nationalities. Don't hasitate about it because if the are high IQ as you said it will be easier to learn a second language at thia age. My friend for Canada lived here for two years the girl was 9 and the boy was 11 years old. The girl picked the language very fast and she acctually had no accent. The boy was very shy and only asked or answered[ questions at the store when he had to buy something for the house or did small errands. If your kids get a little behind in the classes they can take summer school in the States when they go back. In my opinion it is a plus to know another language. As you can see the mayority of the Swiss people speak at least 3 to 4 languages. Don't you think that is great??quote=Lisa Kraft;45603]My family lives in California and we are planning to move to Switzerland for 1 year this summer. My husband is originally from Switzerland (Zurich area) and we would like our children (10 and 13) to have an amazing experience being immersed in the culture and language. Can someone help me-the bilingual school told me-no-for only 1 year. My husband wants to send them to the State school in Andelfingen near family and friends, but I am hesitant. My children and I only speak English and I am concerned they would have a hard time coming back to the States with their classes (Are there teachers out there that can give me some advice) because most of the year would be learning the language not learning subjects. We are looking into International Schools (wow- they are pricey)-but why bother going to Switzerland if they are going to be with English kids and in a German class-we can do that here. To add to it....my children are multi-sensory learners-hi IQs but deficient in sequential memory-they do well in school despite their hardships. My son, 10, could use a hands on approach to learning. Is their any advice out there-maybe who would be a good person to talk to regarding my particular situation. Thank you for your help![/quote]

Hi Lisa,

I don't know if you are still looking for schools but I think you would need to contact the schools to discuss options particularly regarding your older child. Some of the bilingual and international schools language requirements as the children get older so you need to check up on this. Of course there are extra classes provided for children without the second language but this involves them being taken out of class and it is important to check what the rest of the class will be doing while these support classes are going on. Check out www.circleofschools.ch if you are coming to the Zurich area as this gives you links to the international and bilingual schools.

I've no idea what this means either. I feel like I am missing something here. Maybe I should have my kids analysed to check their parallel-processing and caching skills...

dave

I meant on a general note. For kids it is quicker but asking for something and having an appropriate reply for a question returned is not always easy. It is rare when you buy something, that another question is not returned, and this easily takes 6 months to be prepared for that.
I can ask for things in German, but if they ask me a question back, I'm done! Sure kids don't have the foolish fear factor that adults do for making mistakes.