Strategies for raising Bilingual kids

When it comes to the actual mechanics of how to deliver the 2 languages in your family it can be confusing to know what strategy is the right fit. There are several well known and tested models. Here are the two most popular.

One Parent One Language
This model works really well when each parent has a different native language. It's a great fit for multicultural marriages and partnerships. Basically the idea is that each parent only speaks their own language to the child at home. It's important not to swap between the languages. Being firm about this will give a stronger foundation for your child to understand the differences between the languages and will give them the advantange of hearing each spoken over a long period of time.

It can also work when there are more than 2 languages. For instance if I am American and my wife is Czech, but we live in Holland we might do the OPOL thing at home, and then speak Dutch outside the house.

It works best when both parents have at least a basic understanding of both languages to assuage any feelings of left-outness.

The Minority Language Model
This strategy is more specific to your circumstance. If for instance you are both Americans and you live in Prague, then English would be the minority language. The children would get Czech at school and everywhere else in their environment, but at home English would be the dominant language.

There are a few more techniques, but I find these to be the most common and most generally useful.

Remember, keep up the minority language!