Parent to Parent
What general advice would you give other parents?Do it! It's so important. Children pick up languages so quickly when they are little. It won't confuse them. Teach your babies another language from the start. They can pick up English in school.
— Adult raised in bilingual home (Korean)Be sure to get books in the second language and read them to your kids. I admit that for the first couple years we had been taking our English children's books and "reading" them in Spanish by simply translating them in our heads as we went along. But it occurred to me that what our son is missing out on is learning other ways to say things, different expressions and new vocabulary that is different from how we speak. He's only hearing how we speak, not how others speak or write. So we bought some Spanish-language books and in just a few weeks, I was amazed at how many new words and expressions he learned! He goes around saying "Creo que si puedo, creo que si puedo" (I think I can, I think I can) from his latest favorite Spanish storybook.
— Mother of bilingual 3 1/2-year old (Spanish)I would strongly recommend that you don't neglect your own language. It's part of you and something that is worth sharing with your kids. The best advice I heard was "do what feels comfortable for you"!
— Mother of bilingual 1-year old (French)Send your kid to visit the grandparents in the mother country for the summer. They are like little sponges (the kids, that is, not grandpa and grandma).
— Father of trilingual 2-year old (Chinese & Japanese)I wouldn't really want to give advice since I don't know if our efforts will be successful. I did read that it is important to be consistent and that children are most comfortable with one parent /one language which may be both parents speaking the same language or a language per parent. I have found that my daughter seems to like the difference in that the different languages are part of the different relationship she has with me versus that with my husband.
— Mother of bilingual 2 1/2-year old (Spanish)