How should I teach my (bilingual) child how to read and write in English when she won`t learn at school?

I would buy a phonics program and start with that. She sounds interested in learning to read, so you might as well go with it. You can always do handwriting too, if she is interested. Just move along at her own pace. There's no hurry, particularly because her education for the moment will be in Japanese. If she gets tired of it after a while, you can always stop and come back again when she's ready for more.

Check out http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/

I personally will be using the Peace Hill Press products (http://www.peacehillpress.com),/ "Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading" and "First Language Lessons." There are, however, plenty of other programs out there, so check the Homeschool Reviews site and see if anything there appeals.

As for what to use in the future, well I can't help there. You'd need to tell us what your future goals for her English development were. The Well Trained Mind forum hosts an "Afterschooling" board for those like yourself who are supplementing their child's education out of hours, but perhaps there are other such groups online. I wouldn't know, since I haven't looked at them. I believe there are a few others on the above mentioned forum who are stationed in Japan as well.

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You are already doing a really good job. The best thing you can do for her is what you are doing already. Making lists and reading together is really great. Just keep teaching her on the side, after she learns the letters, have her learn the sounds too. After she learns the letters, have her write them too. Don't be picky with her hand writing being perfect just yet. I live in California so let me refer you to our state standards; www.cde.gov. I believe that is it. It shows the standards for each grade level. The standards are what are expected of children by the end of the grade year. It is a good base to work from so you can see what other children her age are learning. You will use them to work on throughout the year. Keep reviewing concepts until she has mastered them and then move on. Good luck!

1. Get her a playmate that speaks English, maybe someone you know from the US embassy has an English speaking kid?

2. Talk english in front of her all the time. (I'm assuming your husband is fluent in English). Get her Sesame Street DVDs in English, keep it running, and hey, which kid doesn't love SS?

3. Get her baby books in english, and read them to her, and encourage her to read them herself, ask questions in English, and after you both have read the book, you *have to* encourage her to relate the story to you, in *english* and in her own words.

4. So the drill is, for at least 3 years, you speak 90% english at home, cos' she speaks 100% japanese at school anyway.

My parents both worked when I was a child, and our mother tongue is not English, but I was always read bedtime books in English, and was surrounded with English story books, from Enid Blyton books, to Tin Tin, and then classics.

I feel like there are people that want English to be properly spoken but, there are variations in the English language that are acceptable even though the people who "make the language proper" don't think it is. Yes, one can be taught how to write/speak English properly but they can also use variations that most suits them. Though maybe there are people that should spell right when its necessary but also know their "variation." You can blame that English is too "free" when you write because there are no accents or anything they help us indicate how you pronounce those words. Then one should consider spelling reform. (there I wrote as properly as I could.)