Take a sheet of paper and draw seven cells in a row. Sign the days of the week.
The child attends a Russian day-care center. Classes are on Saturdays, from ten to one o'clock.
Color the Saturday.
One of seven cells.
First, one condition. An empty cell does not mean a day without Russian. On Tuesday, the child spoke with you over dinner, read to you before bed, and wrote to his grandmother. The cell only shows that there was no lesson that day.
Six empty cells in a row
From one Saturday to the next six days there are no classes. Sunday, Monday and onwards until Friday.
Let’s say you’re thinking about adding an online group. Let’s say you have two lessons per week of forty minutes each, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Fill in the other two cells and calculate what has changed.
The meeting with the teacher was one, it became three.
The longest row of empty cells was six. Now two, Sunday and Monday.
The schedule was one hundred and eighty minutes long. It became two hundred and sixty.
Three numbers have changed at once. None of them yet indicates that the child will be better off as a result.
The numbers themselves are also rough. Three hours in a school building can include breaks and other activities.
The sheet shows how the classes have been scheduled for the week. Why they are needed is not yet written on it.
Why a second group for a child who already speaks?
Your child speaks Russian fluently. He already has a weekend school.
Then another line is needed under the cages. What work in the Saturday program doesn't have enough space?
For example, talking about what was read. Many people read in class, but they don't have time to discuss it.
Or a self-written letter. The child has been doing the exercises for a while now, but he hasn’t written his five-paragraph text yet.
Write your line. One.
Then find out at the online school if they are doing this in the group you are going to join. Ask about the finished program. Don't expect the teacher to adjust it to suit your Saturday schedule.
If the line is not written, that is also an answer. More on that below.
Two questions after each lesson
What actually happens in the classes is unrecognizable by the school name. The program on the website is no different.
Ask the child. On Saturday after school and on Thursday after the online lesson, using the same words.
What did you manage to do in Russian today?
Discuss the story, read it, write a text, rehearse the scene, chat during the break.
What did you have to explain or prove?
Write your answers under the cell.
The child may not remember it; that's normal. Questions are necessary for discussion; you can't grade the lesson based on them.
It’s worth asking at both places. Otherwise, it will come out that you decided in advance that Saturday is a day for celebrating with friends, but the screen is showing a speech. It can also be the other way around. At school on the day off, they argue about a story, while in the online group they are preparing a New Year’s scene.
In a few weeks, we’ll have a record of the entries. Use those to compare them.
If the child’s answers are unclear about the differences between the classes, ask the teachers what tasks they are solving.
One story in two places
Let’s say the recordings matched. On Saturday they read the story, and on Thursday they read the same story.
This is not yet a reason to give up.
Look what they did to him. We read about it on Saturday. On Thursday we discussed why the character did what he did. The theme is the same, but the work is different.
It's another matter if the child performs tasks that he has long been capable of in both places, and no one can say why it has to be done a second time. And he gets tired doing it anyway.
Then the combination should be reviewed.
When new cells do not need to be colored
The first case is the simplest. The line under the cages was never written. The day-care school already takes care of the family's tasks; the child is doing well there. There's no need to add anything.
The second case is evident throughout the week. The lesson is that the child regularly goes to bed later. The road and homework almost never leave time for rest. The child has repeatedly said that he/she cannot get himself/herself together.
One rejection does not mean that the format is not suitable. Ask what happened. If the difficulties persist, review the schedule.
Which format to use will be determined by your line under the cages.
What to tell the second teacher
If there are two formats, tell each teacher about the classes at the other school.
There are four things enough. The topic. What tasks are given. What the child finds difficult. How many homework assignments are given.
Two teachers are not required to communicate with each other, and you should not expect this to happen.
A week on screen
Note down the Russian-language activities and tasks that repeat every week. Click on the day to select it in a form.
The same sheet can be put together into a block. Add activities and tasks, each day, duration, and, if you wish, a «for what» line.
The block considers the duration separately for three types: classes with a teacher, homework reading and writing, and communication. It shows the longest interval twice, without classes and without any marked tasks. The calculation is based on the fact that the schedule repeats every week. The block says nothing about the benefits of the block.
Calling grandma and reading a bedtime story can also be noted. Their minutes do not add up to the block of minutes for the lesson.
It is not necessary to fill in all seven cells.
If you are still looking for a weekend school, in the English-language search it is called the Russian weekend school or the Russian Saturday school. There is a blog on it. An overview of offline schools Russian in the USA and Canada and separate Comparison of online courses.
Start with a sheet and one line under the cages.
At the «Russian for Bilinguals» course at Palme School, groups meet online twice a week for forty minutes, in a group of up to eight people. The schedule is adjusted to the family’s time zone. Before signing up, check to see if the group is working on the same material you’ve recorded under the covers.
You can ask about this at two free lessons. They show how the activity is organized and whether it fits into the child's weekly schedule.
Sign up for free lessonsFrequently asked questions about the weekend school and the online group
Is an online group necessary if the child already attends a Russian day-care center?
Not necessarily. If the school already meets the family’s needs and the child is doing well there, there’s no need to add anything else. The second format makes sense when you can name specific work that the school’s program lacks and the chosen group is working on it.
How many times a week does the child need Russian lessons?
There is no uniform standard. Additional classes can reduce the gaps between lessons. It depends on which days they take place. Reducing the gaps in itself does not prove that combining the two formats is beneficial for your child. Look at the purpose for which the additional class is being added and whether it fits into the week.
How do you know when the workload has become too much?
Look at the recurring circumstances. Because of the lesson, the child regularly goes to bed later, the road and homework almost do not leave time for rest, the child has repeatedly said that he/she cannot get back on his/her feet. One rejection does not mean that the format is not suitable. Ask what happened and review the schedule if the difficulties persist.
What should I do if the same things are being taught in school and in the online group?
Look at what they are actually doing with the topic. Reading the story in one place and discussing the protagonist's actions in another is a different approach. The combination should be reviewed if the child is doing long-term tasks in both places without a clear additional purpose and is becoming fatigued in the process.
