BY CHRIS TAYLOR

So when the co-founder of The Quantum Fund (with George Soros) and author of “Adventure Capitalist” became a father, he naturally thought of how best to give his daughters an advantage.

His answer: Have them learn Mandarin.

“I am spending a lot of time, money and energy to be sure my kids do it,” Rogers told Reuters.

Indeed. Instead of just hiring a Mandarin-speaking nanny or having his daughters take a language class or two per week, the Rogers family packed up their belongings and moved across the world to Singapore.

“My older daughter has now won the nationwide Mandarin-speaking contest two years in a row,” Rogers said. “Her little sister is even better.”

Of course, not every parent is willing to undertake such a dramatic life change. But there is no denying that more and more Americans are keen to have their children learn the language of the world’s most populous country and second-largest economy.

Please read more here.

It looks as if they’re adding a second kindergarten class in the St. Cloud, Minn. Mandarin program and have spaces open in both kindergarten and first grade. Just an FYI for folks in that neck of the woods.

Check out the parents’ helpful website here.

It’s a great example of parents taking the bull by the horns and helping their school district with the program.

From the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition

http://www.carla.umn.edu/immersion/resources.html#listserves

Language immersion resources from Global Village Academy in Colorado.

http://www.globalvillageacademy.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=237097&type=d&pREC_ID=546478

Parent innovation leads to unusual solution to school frustrations

SLIDESHOW

1 of 9

Maya Sugarman/KPCC

Founding parents Nancy Baca, left, Duhee Lee and Marian Chen look inside an available classroom at Pasadena Christian Church. The ad-hoc group of founding parents are calling the new school “The Oasis Trilingual Community School.”

Tamara Hernandez isn’t the first parent to be underwhelmed by her local public school. But she’s solving the problem in a way not many do: she’s joining other frustrated parents to start a new school.

She said the idea had been percolating in her head for some time. But the project didn’t get started until one afternoon this Winter, while brainstorming with parents about another way to bring change at the school.

“They wanted me to join their effort, and I just blurted out ‘I’m going to start my own school,’” she said. “And then as soon as I said it, it just started happening very quickly.”

Please read more here.

Menlo Park parents push for Mandarin language immersion program in schools

By Bonnie Eslinger

Daily News Staff Writer

POSTED: 03/28/2014 03:00:00 AM PDT0 COMMENTS

A group of parents who have organized to convince the Menlo Park City School District to launch a Mandarin language immersion program will get to make their pitch to the school board on April 23.

The board plans to review its foreign language offerings at that meeting, although no action will be taken then, Superintendent Maurice Ghysels said.

The district offers Spanish immersion at Laurel and Encinal elementary schools. Established in 2008, the program currently has 248 students in grades K-5, he said.

In that program, teachers give kindergarten students their core academic instruction in Spanish and gradually introduce English though the grades. By the fifth grade, students are taught equally in English and Spanish, according to the district’s website.

About a year ago, parent Carol Cunningham began leading the charge for Mandarin immersion. Her oldest child currently attends Cornerstone Learning Foundation in Palo Alto, a private Mandarin immersion preschool, and is slated to start kindergarten this fall.

Please read more here.