Question for bilingual moms

I speak Russian fluently. DH is Irish. Those of you who speak a second language, with a DH who does not, what are you doing to teach DC that language?

I grew up speaking Russian with my grandparents. My parents spoke both Russian and english with me when I was growing up, so I learned both languages simultaneously. Obviously, it was much easier for my parents to ensure that I spoke the language since they both spoke it. I'm stumped. I try to speak Russian with DD (she's 3 mos), but it's something I have to remind myself to do. I've been thinking about buying some Russian children's movies/cartoons. Reading to her isn't an option because I can't read or write the language.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Re: Question for bilingual moms

I grew up similar to you. But, I read and write about as well as I speak ... which isn't great.

But I do not speak to my son in Russian. I have a very hard time when trying to discipline and such, or just explaining why everything is the way it is.

My husband is from Russia so he does the Russian part. So he will repeat everything I say and vice versa.

Movies and cartoons, do nothing at early ages, if anything I really think they deter proper language development. But audiobooks are amazing. Will help you both develop language. Lets keep in touch and share what we find, I need DH to help me navigate websites, I really have a hard time understanding them.

But the very best thing, for language, is to have your daughter hang out with Russian kids who speak Russian. My son developed English much faster because I'm home all day. But we put him in a Russian daycare a couple days a week, and his language blossomed. He's 3, and started reading 3-4 letter words recently in English. Next year we plan to start teaching him to read in Russian. We found a teacher that does it Montessori style, in Brooklyn.

Re: Question for bilingual moms

Re: Question for bilingual moms

DH speaks Spanish, I don't. He talks to her in Spanish sometimes but not enough. We have some toys that talk in both languages, so that's good too. I just suggest speaking to her in Russian as much as you can, your LO will def learn that way.
And def get cartoons and movies. Those are great ideas.

Re: Question for bilingual moms

DH speaks Russian, I speak Polish.
DS is 2 years and 9 months old.
We've been pretty lax about the languages even though we want him to speak our two. DH feels weird speaking to DS in Russian in front of me since i don't understand it. I feel the same. So at home, it's mostly English.
I do read books to DS in Polish and DH reads in Russian.
The languages come form the grandparents. DS to this day does not use the word "watermelon". He has always said arbuz. (same word in both, but different accent) The grandmas speak their native languages to him and he picks up a lot from the conversations around him.

Since about 2 1/2 he started interspersing russian and polish words in his English speech. It's adorable!

Question for bilingual moms

DH speaks Spanish, I speak English.
DD is 4, DS is 1. LOs Daycare providers speak Spanish/English.
DD understands Spanish and speaks some here and there at home. DS babbles sometimes in both languages.

I do speak some Spanish as well, we try to speak as much as possible and they probably have a 50/50 split at Day care.