Trixity
16 Sep 2011
UK, Ireland / Raising Bilingual Children - How are you teaching your children? Your experiences? [74]
I've been living in Poland for 2 years. My wife is Polish, I'm English. We have two children - one is two and the other 9 months. At home we use the One Parent One Language (OPOL) strategy for teaching our children Polish and English. I know there are other methods as well - Minority Language at Home for example.
I'd love to know what methods of bilingual education other people are using and what are your experiences - the pitfalls and successes of the various methods and your thoughts on bringing up your children in a bilingual family.
On my side, my two year old seems to understand Polish and English to the same level (she can follow simple instructions in both languages and she has a vocabulary of about 30-50 words in both languages - I've never accurately measured, so I maybe well out with this estimates) and she is more chatty in Polish than English (I use the words Polish and English in their loosest senses here!). I worry because I read that by 2 a toddler should have a vocabulary of about 200-300 words, but I wonder if the delay is because she's got two languages to get to grips with. I am not so worried though, because she is making progress and that's the main thing I hope. I also have a selfish concern that English will become a second language for my children.
The 9 month old isn't much into talking but put anything near his hand and it will end up in his mouth!
I've been living in Poland for 2 years. My wife is Polish, I'm English. We have two children - one is two and the other 9 months. At home we use the One Parent One Language (OPOL) strategy for teaching our children Polish and English. I know there are other methods as well - Minority Language at Home for example.
I'd love to know what methods of bilingual education other people are using and what are your experiences - the pitfalls and successes of the various methods and your thoughts on bringing up your children in a bilingual family.
On my side, my two year old seems to understand Polish and English to the same level (she can follow simple instructions in both languages and she has a vocabulary of about 30-50 words in both languages - I've never accurately measured, so I maybe well out with this estimates) and she is more chatty in Polish than English (I use the words Polish and English in their loosest senses here!). I worry because I read that by 2 a toddler should have a vocabulary of about 200-300 words, but I wonder if the delay is because she's got two languages to get to grips with. I am not so worried though, because she is making progress and that's the main thing I hope. I also have a selfish concern that English will become a second language for my children.
The 9 month old isn't much into talking but put anything near his hand and it will end up in his mouth!