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, and 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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