In England I read Brzechwa and Tuwim to our toddlers and we had Polish satellite TV.
Now, after 10 years in Poland and our efforts, our teenagers speak virtually faultless English and are up to date on UK news and current affairs. TV has been central to our cultural policy.
My wife and I mainly speak English at home (she's Polish), though we do lapse into Polish when talking about school - they go to the village school, not one of those overpriced international ones.
I give one English lesson a week - our two and a Polish-American boy making up the class. We do linguistic things in addition to a wide variety of other topics. Occasionally, we do Shakespeare - to date: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet. SparkNotes are invaluable supports to me for that.
I don't want my kids to be viewed as half-educated weirdos when they go to England. And their English cousins were really surprised when they came over here and found that our two could speak normal English without a "funny" accent.
Sadly, not everyone does this. I know many Polish families in England where the kids don't really speak Polish, and some Anglo families in Poland where the youngest kids don't speak what I see is acceptable English.
Now, after 10 years in Poland and our efforts, our teenagers speak virtually faultless English and are up to date on UK news and current affairs. TV has been central to our cultural policy.
My wife and I mainly speak English at home (she's Polish), though we do lapse into Polish when talking about school - they go to the village school, not one of those overpriced international ones.
I give one English lesson a week - our two and a Polish-American boy making up the class. We do linguistic things in addition to a wide variety of other topics. Occasionally, we do Shakespeare - to date: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet. SparkNotes are invaluable supports to me for that.
I don't want my kids to be viewed as half-educated weirdos when they go to England. And their English cousins were really surprised when they came over here and found that our two could speak normal English without a "funny" accent.
Sadly, not everyone does this. I know many Polish families in England where the kids don't really speak Polish, and some Anglo families in Poland where the youngest kids don't speak what I see is acceptable English.