I strongly advise parents to encourage their children to learn a foreign language at the earliest age possible. Many schools give mini-courses in Spanish, French, German and Latin, and then the child can choose in middle school and high school what language to pursue. Foreign language study develops mental facility and fluency of expression in the student's own native language also.
THAT my friend is a very good idea! The younger the better, as from what little I know as a child gets older it gets harder for them to learn a new language.
I had to take a French class in high school...what a disaster that was.