Bilingual parenting

kwbride1

Is anybody raising their kids bilingual or knows of a support group for bilingual parents?

I'm just trying to get ideas and maybe read a couple of books on the topic, but am wondering if anyone with experience has any insights to share with me.

Thanks!

FloF9

My DH and I speak Spanish and we just started speaking to them in Spanish since day one.  My parents watched them for 18 months and only spoke Spanish to them.  Full immersion is best - they pick up the language like sponges.

Mrs Manners

I wish dh and I were bilingual but we aren't. However, our nanny speaks only spanish to ds and has since birth. He was a late talker (never even said "mama" until 2 years, 1 month old). He now has a vast understanding in both languages and his spanish vocabulary is growing (although it's much outpaced by his english since he isn't fully immersed). I'd love to find some other kids his age who speak spanish for playdates and such because I think that would really help enforce the language...but since he stays at home all day we don't get out and meet people much.

heyitsme

DH and I fully intended to parent DD bilingually, but it didn't happen. We plan to attempt again with this little one. But let me share what happened with us, maybe to help you see when things can be flawed.

I speak English and only English. I took Spanish in grade school and high school but never reached fluency.

DH, on the other hand, speaks Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and English (those are listed in the order that he learned them--he moved here to the US and learned Spanish before he learned English!).

Since DH's family still resides in Brazil, it's very important for us to have our children speak/understand Portuguese to communicate with them. After much research when I was pregnant, we chose the OPOL method of a bilingual household (one parent, one language). Basically, DH would only speak Portuguese to DD and I would only speak English to her.

In theory, that sounded great, but the OPOL method didn't work with our family. DH went to school FT and worked evenings (and even now works 2 jobs) and I was home with DD all day. So the bulk of the language she heard was English. When we were all together, DH would use English when speaking to me, because I don't speak much Portuguese at all. Yes, he'd speak Portuguese to DD, but when we were all together, English dominated. I was a SAHM until DD was 2, and then went back to work FT. When she started daycare at 2, she was exposed to English all the time and even some Spanish. Her Portuguese has actually regressed because she started switching Portuguese words with Spanish ones... and she doesn't really speak it, although I think she does understand more than we think.

For this baby, we'll be trying the OPOL approach again, but from a different perspective--DH's sister is coming to nanny for us for at least 6 months. So she'll be the constant Portuguese speaker. I'm assuming English and Portuguese will be spoken equally in our household this time around (she and DH will communicate with each other in Portuguese, but DH and I will communicate with each other in English), and I'm hoping that time period will help both my daughter and this baby to grasp Portuguese.

I admit, I should make a stronger effort to learn more of it myself. I always mean to, but between work and his being gone often, it always falls to the wayside.

For resources, I've been a fan of this site for a while... I get their e-mails as well... 

Hope that all my info helps--good luck!

ETA: I also think it helps if your child can be exposed to other children/families who are native speakers. DD's best friend is bilingual in Chinese and English, and I think it's because her mom has been able to be in playgroups and such where the other children/families spoke Chinese. There aren't many native Portuguese speakers in our area... we'd have to travel an hour for DD to have that sort of experience.

citygirl22

I speak English and Spanish and some Hebrew. DH speaks English and some Spanish. At first, I just started randomly speaking in Spanish whenever it came to mind. After some research, I decided to select one specific day as Spanish day (ie. Spanish Friday) b/c I didn't want to confuse him. So on that day, from the moment we get up, I only communicate to him in Spanish. We read only Spanish books, watch Spanish channels/DVD's, listen to Spanish music in the car and at home, etc...

It has worked pretty well b/c he has some vocabulary and can count but really seems to understand a great deal. He's at an age, however, when they know it's "work" to think about the words and he fights me a little on it, but I casually respond in Spanish and we move on to the next thing. So I like this approach so far.