Introducing La Escuela Familiar

Holy Family Healthcare is beginning a new outreach ministry this fall, La Escuela Familiar! Modeled after En Nuestra Lengua in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the 10-week pilot program will be on Saturday mornings at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Paw Paw. La Escuela Familiar is intended for elementary-aged students who primarily speak Spanish as their first language at home but attend school in English. The classes will be conducted entirely in Spanish in order to focus on maintaining the student’s first language from an early age. Developing the child’s primary language allows them to more easily learn their second language.  

The ministry was started after Holy Family Healthcare’s Dr. Don Bouchard aided a family in finding funding to attend Catholic school. Since then, many families have received assistance, but, in working with these families, a trend was noted in that some children from Spanish speaking households were falling behind early in elementary school. This observation is consistent with current research about the difference between the ability to converse in a language and the language needed for learning. A desire to fill this academic gap brought about the start of La Escuela Familiar. The goal is for students to successfully become bilingual and biliterate through the development of academic language acquisition in their first language. 

The program is open to five to ten-year-olds who primarily speak Spanish at home. La Escuela Familiar starts September 22, 2018, at 10:15 a.m. Up to 50 students and their families can participate in this amazing ministry designed to allow students to efficiently speak two languages at a young age and experience academic success in both of them.  

For more information and to register or become a staff member or volunteer, go to www.holyfamilyhealthcare.org.