I just had my second grader home sick for two days and she watched a lot of 5Q Channel and ChildRoad. They’re nice for when you want to give your kids an online or video treat but you’d like it to be something that is educational.

Here’s the latest release from 5Q Channel. ChildRoad.com has also been updating their site and they’ve added some nice functionality, including age ranges for some of the stories, which helps those of us who don’t read Chinese.

[Note – The MIPC doesn’t accept anything for free, so we bought and paid for all of these. These aren’t meant as ads but simply telling other parents what useful Chinese-related things we’ve found. If you’ve found something that engages your child in Chinese, please email so we can tell everyone else.]

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We have more apps on APP Store now.
Here are three new apps of 5QChannel.

1. Chinese Conjunctions 1
This one is our first app made for Chinese learners.
The icon’s color is orange.
It’s free for now, welcome you to download it from here :
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chinese-conjunctions-1/id433567805?mt=8
Simplified Chinese

2. The Frog Borrowed a Drum from The Snake
Promo code : MK3TYXAPYYYK

Simplified Chinese

3. Qingming Festival
Promo code : LJMEWFWAYLET
Simplified Chinese

Best regards,

Tseng Jr-Shi
http://www.5qchannel.com

A Forest Lake charter school will begin offering a Mandarin Chinese immersion program next year.

Lakes International Language Academy, also known as LILA, has traditionally offered only full Spanish immersion classes for its 600 students. But its founders kept the school name as a “language academy” for the opportunity to expand.

The Chinese program will be offered to kindergartners next school year, the board of directors decided recently.

The school has held Chinese New Year celebrations and hosted Chinese exchange students. It also held Chinese elective classes for students in first through third grades since opening.

Parents founded the Lakes International Language Academy in 2004 after school board members rejected a proposal to start an immersion program in the district.

In recent years, Lakes International has helped the Forest Lake Public School district start a Spanish immersion program of its own, and they have collaborated on teaching strategies. And the school has floated the idea of becoming a “site-based” school that would be funded by the Forest Lake Public Schools but be run by its parents and teachers.

In immersion programs, students are taught regular subjects, such as math and geography, in a language other than their native language.

Lakes International will host an information session, including a building tour, for interested families on Wednesday, May 11 from 9-10:30 a.m. For more information, visit www.lakesinternational.org or call 651-464-0771.

Article here.

Township resident Yanbin Ma is among a group of area residents who have applied to start the Hanyu International Academy, one of two Mandarin Immersion charter schools that could accept Millburn students in fall 2012. The schools would charge no tuition, but would receive 90 percent of the average per-pupil costs from the local public school districts.

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Ma, who is President of the Millburn–Short Hills Chinese Association, said he and others were looking for options to teach their children Chinese. Beyond private school, weekend classes and short-lived after school programs, the choices they found were scarce.

“We want our kids to know Chinese, to read and write Chinese when they grow up,” he said.

Ma says the language offerings in the public schools are not commensurate with the growing Asian population. He said he and other Millburn parents gained the support of former language supervisor Adrienne Tator in pushing for Chinese education at the elementary and middle school levels, but the effort did not go further. The only time Chinese is taught is at the AP level in high school.

Read more here.

Nice infographic here.

Mandarin Chinese-English charter school seeking zoning board variance

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — A proposed Mandarin Chinese-English charter school that has drawn fire for seeking to draw students from the West Windsor-Plainsboro, Princeton and South Brunswick school districts has chosen a location in Middlesex County.

Princeton International Academy Charter School, or PIACS, came before the South Brunswick zoning board on April 14, seeking a zoning variance for 12 Perrine Rd. The building is currently zoned for office and commercial use, and PIACS wants a waiver to use it for educational purposes, said Parker Block, the school’s spokesman and one of its co-founders.

Zoning waivers for parking needs were also requested, said a South Brunswick planning board official.

Block said Helena May, a former PIACS board member, started a group called 12P Associates to buy the facility at 12 Perrine Rd. The current owner of the property is using part of the space as a liquor storage facility, Block said.

PIACS was set to open last September at the former St. Joseph’s seminary in Plainsboro, but could not obtain a certificate of occupancy or cross other hurdles in time. The charter school, approved in January 2010 by the state Department of Education, needed a variance and a site plan waiver from the Plainsboro Zoning Board to use the seminary site.

At the South Brunswick location, PIACS would share the space with Wing Hua International School, a privately operated Mandarin-English immersion school, which also wants to move to that location, Block said. One of PIACS’ board members is also on the board of that school.

If the zoning is not changed for educational purposes, then 12P Associates will not buy the Perrine Road building. PIACS has until June 30th, the deadline proposed by the state Department of Education, to submit all their paperwork, including a certificate of occupancy.

Read more here.

Charter Schools in Suburbia: More Argument Than Agreement

This report is part of a joint project between NJ Spotlight.com and the Patch.com network of community news sites to provide both a statewide and a local look at the politics of charter schools in many New Jersey communities, and the tensions that sometimes arise regarding their funding in an age of budget cutbacks.

Suburban charter schools almost sound like a contradiction in terms. After all, charters typically conjure up the image of families seeking alternatives to gritty urban schools.

Charters Across New Jersey

East Brunswick: Questioning Charter School’s Right to Exist

Morristown: Unity Charter May Be a Jewel, But It’s One With Some Costs

Gloucester: A Home Schooler Takes on the School Board

Hoboken: Can the Public Schools Compete, by Getting Better?

Livingston: How Many Mandarin Schools Is too Many?

Princeton: Everyone’s Mad About Mandarin

Red Bank: Charter Schools Face Budget Woes Too

South Brunswick: A Debate or a Shouting Match?

Teaneck: Innovation or Duplication?

But while some suburban charters have been in existence from the start in places like Princeton and Morristown, the small, independent schools are becoming a growing presence — and a growing source of tension as well.

A combination of factors are at work, not the least of which is Gov. Chris Christie’s push to expand charters statewide. Much of the attention has been on so-called boutique schools, with narrow focuses like Hebrew or Mandarin. That specialization is raising concerns in host communities as to why they have to support special-interest institutions.

But on the eve of this week’s budget votes, ongoing recession fears and tight public resources that have left everyone struggling for money underlie the tension. School districts in suburban and urban areas generally pay charters 90 percent of the district’s per-pupil costs.

Not every district is grumbling, by any means, but the complaints in districts like Princeton, East Brunswick and South Brunswick are getting louder.

NJ Spotlight and Patch.com have teamed up to examine the issues that have surfaced over the growing charter school movement in New Jersey, especially in suburban districts.

Read more here.

Learning Chinese is new craze at American schools

Last updated at 5:58 PM on 21st April 2011

Chinese is now the language du jour for parents who want their children to learn a second – and sometimes third – dialect.

The sudden rise is likely due to the economic growth of the country as parents want their children to have limitless opportunities in a global economy bringing Asia, the U.S. and Latin America closer together.

A lot of children who learn Chinese are often trilingual, due to one or maybe both Spanish speaking parents.

Children sit at desks marked with their name tags in Chinese at Broadway Elementary School in Venice, Los Angeles, which launched one of only two English-Mandarin Chinese dual-language immersion programmes in the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2010

School districts have expanded Chinese language programmes due to the rise of China in the global economy and students from a wide range of backgrounds have joined them.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1379312/Learning-Chinese-new-craze-American-schools.html#ixzz1KGzjpmDv