Home/ Academics / Our Dual-Language Model
How immersion works · Cómo funcionaTwo languages, learned the way kids actually learn.
Two-way immersion, a graduated ladder from 90% Spanish toward more English, play-based Pre-K, project (mission) based elementary, and a Friday virtual day. Here's how a Sol & Son week comes together — and why we built it this way.
This is not a school with a Spanish class, this is school in Spanish!
Your child begins immersing in Spanish from day one.
What "two-way" really means.
Plenty of schools offer a Spanish class. A two-way dual language classroom is different: native English speakers and native Spanish speakers learn core subjects together, in both languages — and become each other's teachers along the way.
~50% native English speakers
Kids who arrive speaking mostly English pick up Spanish the natural way — through math, stories, and recess with friends, from the first day of school.
~50% native Spanish speakers
Kids who arrive speaking mostly Spanish keep and strengthen their heritage language while building full literacy in English alongside it.
= one classroom, two languages, everybody bilingual
Both groups grow up bilingual and biliterate — reading, writing, thinking, and making friends in English and Spanish.
More Spanish early, more balance as they grow.
Our youngest learners hear the most Spanish, building a strong foundation while their ears are most open. English steps in gradually as biliteracy develops — so kids are never overwhelmed, and never lose ground in either language.
Because immersion depends on that early Spanish foundation, students new to Spanish join at or before 1st grade — students who speak Spanish at home can join at any grade — then everyone grows with the school as we add a grade each year, right alongside our founding class.
Play-based in Pre-K, project (mission) based in elementary.
Immersion is the language of the day. These are the two age-appropriate ways we fill it.
Pre-K Enrichment · ages 3–4
Play-based and language-immersive. Half-day, two or four days a week, our littlest learners soak up Spanish through play, songs, and familiar routines — a gentle on-ramp into the dual-language environment.
Elementary · Kindergarten and up
Project (mission) based learning, full-day Monday–Thursday. A unit like "how does our community get its food?" ties math, reading, art, and field studies together — with both languages doing real work.
The research behind the approach: what is project-based learning? (PBLWorks) · the importance of play-based learning (IES)
What the school day looks like.
In person Monday through Thursday — arrival from 8:15, dismissal at 2:30. Here's the K–2 day, straight from the 2026–27 class schedule:
Llegada & asamblea Español
Arrival and backpacks away, then circle time — calendar, songs, the day's plan. School opens in Spanish.
Matemáticas Español
Hands-on math while minds are freshest — manipulatives on the table, asked and answered in Spanish.
Música & arte Español
Music and art rotate through the week, then a quick snack.
Lectura Español
The reading block — phonological awareness, syllables, blending and segmenting sounds. Literacy is built in Spanish first.
Biblia y carácter
Bible and character — the Christ-centered anchor in the middle of every day.
Recreo & almuerzo
Recess — PE midweek — then lunch. On the playground, kids use whichever language keeps the game going.
Ciencias & ciencias sociales Español
Science and social studies, tied into the project (mission) units.
Habilidades y STEM
Skills and STEM — and twice a week for 2nd graders, the English reading block English: formal English literacy begins here, on sound skills that transfer from Spanish.
Salida
An afternoon snack and one more recess close the day — then backpacks, hugs, and hasta mañana.
Pre-K keeps its own half-day version of the same rhythm — math and science centers, music and art, recess, pre-reading and writing centers, lunch, and Bible — with pick-up by 12:30. Biblical character runs through every subject in every grade: the whole day is Christ-centered.
The Friday virtual day.
For Kindergarten and up, Fridays are a virtual day. A live check-in runs 9:00–9:30 AM — families are welcome to look on and see what their kids are learning through the week. We touch on core themes and material for review and do a short activity together. Afterward, families can book optional 15-minute blocks for extra tutoring or a chat with the teacher, who is available in office hours until noon while planning the next week.
- Live 9:00–9:30 AM check-in — families welcome to look on
- Optional 15-minute blocks for tutoring or a parent chat — office hours until noon
- An intentional micro-school rhythm — sustainable for families and teachers
- Pre-K does not have a Friday virtual day
What starts showing up at home.
We won't promise you a prodigy — just what decades of research on dual language immersion consistently finds, and what our families tend to see first.
- Spanish sneaks home early — a song at the dinner table, a phrase with a sibling — often within the first couple of months.
- The early dip in English reading that worries parents is real, modest, and temporary — research finds dual-language students match or surpass their monolingual peers by the middle elementary grades.
- Bilingual kids show measurable strengths in executive function — focusing, switching between tasks, and working through ambiguity.
- Mixing the two languages ("code-switching") is a sign of a brain working in both — not confusion, and not a speech delay.
Want the deeper dive — research, common worries, honest answers?
Read the immersion guideSee immersion in action.
Reading about it is one thing — watching a room full of kids switch between two languages is another. Come see a morning.
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