Lamphere's preschool students and their families have a great opportunity beginning last school year. In conjuction with Oakland Schools, Oakand County, Michigan State's Confucius Institute and the U.S. -China Center, Lamphere is offering the only Chinese Immersion Preschool in Oakland County.

Why Chinese? many ask - The country is growing globally, our students are the business leaders of the future and being able to communicate in the world's most widely spoken language will be imperitive to success.

Why preschool? "The younger the children, the easier they learn," said Marsha Pando, Lamphere's Superintendent, adding "Research shows that  with this immersion method, children can learn up to 500 Chinese symbols in nine months."

Teaching this class is Lingmin Zhang who came to us from Beijing Normal University. Interviewed over the internet via video conferencing, Zhang was chosen from a field of six candidates.  Her enthusiasm for this project is already showing, the students and their families are already learning new words and symbols from the Mandarine Chinese language.

We hope you will find this website informational and that you'll come back and visit often as we post additional resources and photos of this program