Parent to Parent

What general advice would you give other parents?

It seems best to do what is natural. If you speak another language at home, then speak that to your child. Don't ever force them and expect them to do tedious exercises. Incorporate fun, songs, stories. We read all the story books to him in French. Inculcate a pride in their bilingual heritage. They have the richness of 2 cultures and they should be knowledgeable and proud of both.
— Mother of bilingual adult child (French)

Track down songs and games you used to sing and play as a child — from books, ask your family, etc. This will give you the opportunity to enjoy teaching your kids the songs and games you remember fondly from your own childhood.
— Mother of bilingual 3 1/2 -year old (Spanish)

Be consistent and correct him when he mixes both languages. We don't want "Spanglish" at home. We want perfect grammar, writing and reading in Spanish as well as we want in English.
— Mother of bilingual 3 -year old (Spanish)

Stick strictly to the second language parent speaking the second language. If possible have the first language parent speak to the children in the second language frequently after the kids are 3 or 4 and know English. One thing we learned is that the children are going to learn English and speak like natives just from going to school.
— Parents of bilingual 11 -year old and 7-year old (Japanese)

I would tell the second language parent(s) to persevere in speaking only the second language from the child's birth (or as soon as possible) and not worry about the child acquiring the majority language. This will happen naturally. There's no reason to be concerned that the child will not pick up the primary language of his/her outside surroundings. Also, the parents should not worry about the possibility that learning two languages at once will delay the child's speech development. This may happen (it did not at all in our case), but in the end, the children will know two languages well.
— Mother of bilingual 4 -year old and 2 1/2-year old (French)

My sister-in-law is a native Spanish speaker but never spoke to her daughter in Spanish.  At nine years old she is monolingual other than one children's song and counting up to ten. It's a shame. I think giving an additional language to a child is an incredibly important and useful gift — one of the best things you can give a child. Start young and be consistent!
— Mother of bilingual 4 1/2-year old (French)

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