Hi Hank,
I think it’s great that you’re trying to expose them to languages that you don’t usually speak at home. I think the TV can help a lot, and that doesn’t mean they have to sit there and watch it by themselves. At that age, my son and the other kids here in Spain loved a show called Cantajuegos (which you can find on YouTube). They basically sing and dance with gestures. You could also do the songs and movements together, turn it into a family activity.
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Merci pour votre description détaillée. Je reconnais une grande partie de ce que tu appelles. Nous vivons aux Pays-Bas. C’est la langue maternelle et la langue à l’école de notre fille de 7 ans. Je lui parle toujours allemand. Parce qu’elle sait bien sûr que je comprends le néerlandais, il lui a fallu du temps pour répondre en allemand. Ils apprennent l’anglais de manière ludique à l’école à partir de 4 ans. Notre fille aussi aime les films pour enfants en anglais. Ce qui est drôle, c’est qu’elle a aussi appris quelques mots en français quand j’ai ecouté des leçons de français dans la voiture.
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This is a great suggestion, thanks!! I’m always looking for good YouTube channels and the like. Also, Disney movies in another language have been a great learning experience for both of us.
I’m trying to work from home, watch two kids, and have a life outside of work, so let’s just say occasionally they end up watching the TV by themselves…it’s basically a third parent at this point 
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Very interesting discussion here about raising multilingual children. I cannot participate with own experiences, because I don’t have children. But know a family living in Germany where the father speaks with the 2 daughters only in Esperanto and the mother with them only in German. Both parents are fluent in Esperanto and native in German.
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This is one the of very effective methods. I know multiple parents who have been using this approach successfully.
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Hi @Hank and @Miri, with your discussion on using TVs, I thought I’d share a video I made this summer about how I see the use of TV as a legitimate way to teach your kids languages. This includes a story of how I had once lost confidence in my belief in TVs due to lots of distracting headlines. But eventually, the compelling and comprehensible input hypothesis from Dr. Stephen Krashen restored my faith in TVs again.
Hope you like it and can use this information to solidify your confidence in using TVs with your kids.
Best regards,
Tetsu
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Thanks, Tetsu. Great video. I will be less reluctant to promote watching TV shamelessly in the future. 
Learning Languages with Netflix has also quickly become my personal favorite method for when I learn languages myself.
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What a wonderful topic!
I have a little daughter and I am always thinking about that.
Thank you for the beautiful ideas
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Amazing videos about the matter!
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@Zeina-AR-DE-FR-EN
This is a fantastic topic! Thank you for bringing this to the discussion!
I find this topic particularly interesting because I would love to teach my children some of my languages, but they have speech delays and the focus has become just teaching them to speak in their native language (English). I have found that I use many of my own language learning strategies to help them with their language acquisition of English. 
I can’t wait to see what comes from this discussion!
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Hi @ashli.mason!
Thank you for posting and sharing your own experience.
Yes I hear you… I had the same experience with speech delays. My youngest talked late when she was 2 or even 2.5 years old.
My eldest however was a much faster learner. She walked and talked at 11 months. She began speaking the basics in all 3 languages at 18 months. Her inquisitiveness and ability to focus so early helped a lot with successfully exposing her to multiple languages at ones.
I tried the same approach with my youngest. It did not work. So, I let it go and waited until she was ready. She became ready at 4 years old.
However, I never gave up on her. As I mentioned earlier, I always have German songs playing, Arabic books read to them, French podcasts played out loud etc…
If they are not speaking many languages in time, they will when they are ready. But they are always listening and acquiring words silently. When they are ready to speak another language, they will do so very fast and with a lot more terminology than you could even remember exposing them to.
My youngest woke up one morning counting in Arabic perfectly with perfect pronunciation. Another day she began reciting the alphabet out of nowhere. I never even sat down with her to teach her those.
Every child is intelligent in their own way. They will get there eventually. Let me know what you think 
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Hi! Wonderful e-meeting you? What languages are you planning to teach her? And what has been your approach so far?
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I love that perspective! Thank you so much for sharing! I agree! Just the continuous exposure to different sounds, words, phrases, expressions…it will stick when it’s ready. And they will express it when they are ready. My youngest (2yr old) has already shown keen interest in German and French. He loves to sit and listen. My oldest (6) has Autism and is still working on our Native English. But I love that so many strategies that I use for my own learning are more relatable to him and I than before. Sometimes I felt that his teachers who were supposed to be helping him with his English don’t actually remember what it’s like to learn a language. My language learning journey has helped me to be more supportive and aware of his needs as he continues as well!
Thank you for your amazing suggestions and views!
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@Zeina-AR-DE-FR-EN
to answer your original questions on how I teach or expose my children to different languages, I tell them stories in these languages. Very simple yet exciting stories. They can relate to the character and start to hear high frequency vocabulary through these stories 
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She is a 2-month-old baby yet, but I plan to teach her all the languages I speak. I am still thinking about how to do that. I believe that telling her stories in different languages before her sleep and listening to children’s songs in different languages might help. I believe that input comes first. When she is older I plan to teach her grammar.
I also plan to teach her some basic kanjis alongside the alphabet and the numbers.
So far I try to speak with her in different languages and we listen to a lot of music together.
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Ah ok. Yes, I agree to leave grammar and general language structure to when the kids grow older. Kids always learn to speak a language first before learning anything else about it.
You speak quite a bit of languages. I always left the language spoken in school out of our in-house language education. They will learn it anyway in school and by watching TV.
I wish you the best of luck!
Zeina
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You know what? I couldn’t agree more. I feel this pandemic has been a blessing in disguise to some extent because I am teaching my kiddos from home this year. I was shocked to find out that within 4 months of me teaching my eldest (including Summer), she was able to pass a state exam the first month of school and score three grade levels higher than her current (she used to receive grade level scores).
It is really sad that our children are not pushed to reach their better potential in school. Simply teachers telling them they did their best on a written essay, for example, that has grammar and vocab errors and that were never even corrected, in my opinion, is not enough and not right. I feel sometimes teachers do not want to deal with what each child holds of true potential. And had I not taught my kids this year remotely, I would have never known because well, I trusted her teachers to do the right thing. Teachers telling these kids they did their best gives a child a false affirmation that what he did is correct, but it’s not the case. So, how do they learn to become better language learners then?
I commend you for contributing actively to your child’s education. This is worth gold.
Keep up the awesome work!
Zeina
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That is a great approach indeed. Reading is so important! Even trying to analyze the story is very important to bring the child to proactively partake in the process. I have seen a lot of kids read chapter after chapter and they have no clue what they all talk about. This is definitely an established routine that the child learns to further grow when older
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Thank you! I will try to do my best
I am sure you will do great!
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