homeschooling in French in California

Question:
I will be doing some part-time homeschooling in French in Los Angeles starting in January. My daughter is 4 and going to a Montessori school, but I teach her at home as well, in French (I'm from Montreal). Anybody in LA homeschooling in French or at least doing French as a second language for little kids?

Answer:
- I doubt that you'd run into any problems, but it's worth knowing that instruction in California is legally required to be in English.

- is that just for homeschooling? there are 2 French schools in LA with instruction in French. I won't run into problems because my daughter will be in an English school, with part-time homeschooling in French with me. Because she'll be registered in a school (a Montessori one), it won't become an issue.

- There are no laws regarding homeschooling in California, but people often do it by forming private schools in their own homes or by joining private independent study programs, which are, technically, also private schools; and the law says that instruction in private schools must be in English. Another way to homeschool is to have your child tutored by a certificated person, but the tutoring is also supposed to be in English. I'm not as familiar with public school laws, and some homeschoolers use public programs (independent study through a district or a charter school). I know that the language of instruction there has also become a hot issue, with bilingual education being phased out, but I also know that there are public schools that DO teach in foreign languages, as you point out. I don't know what the legal underpinnings are for any of that. I really doubt that any official would ever notice what language homeschooling was done in, since no one inspects private schools. Nor do I really believe anyone would care unless kids weren't learning English at all. Maybe the whole issue wasn't even worth my mentioning. I certainly didn't mean to imply that you'd have any problem with your arrangements. Since your daughter is only 4, the compulsory ed laws don't apply to her at all. But you asked, "Anybody in LA homeschooling in French or at least doing French as a second language for little kids?" It's possible that the number of people who homeschool exclusively in French or who openly admit to it is lower than it otherwise might be because of the law.

- French School in US are under a specific law and English is compulsory as part of the curriculum. Even if the children there are following the French (as in France) curriculum, English is an important part (at least 2 to 3 hours per day) and at the end of the High School, children are normally able to apply to any college in the US. That's the point of all French School all over the world, learning the language of the country as a complement to regular studies. For the US, the requirement for English depends of the State, if my recollection are not to bad, the French School in CA are the one which are doing the more English, Social Studies and so on.