Given that many dvds have more than one language on the same dvd, it is quite usual that we listen to the same dvd in multiple languages. I think if anything, it helps the child make the connection between there being different ways (languages) to say the same things, name the same objects. Which is one of the strong points of raising a child bilingually: they learn that a table is not "table" but rather an object with different names, one of which is "table"

Also, I tend to use my son's loves to attract him to different languages. We rented Bob the Builder at the library in French (also had English on same dvd so we listened to them both alternating) and he loved it, so I got him Bob in Mandarin. He might not have been so fascinated by a Mandarin language cartoon if it wasn't Bob, which kept him glued to the screen. Same with Dora now. He now can sing a bunch of the Dora songs in Mandarin.

And he had started to reject books I read to him in French (No speak different mama, no like French), so I got a couple Dora books at the library, even though I think they are crappy as far as literature goes (they make much better interactive dvds, and he asks me to read them 3 times in a row, twice a day without complaining it is French.

So if your kid loves Pooh Bear, I'd say, go for Pooh Bear in Spanish! Even get a multilingual dvd if possible, and you get two for one!

I had to write it out to see how I do it, but definitely with a b I draw the ligne first, and d I sart with circle first. As NIkita says, we write from left to right, so it makes no sense to write the circle on the b first, or to draw the line on the d before the circle part... one would have to think about how much space to the left of the line to leave for the circle of the d, and cross over to the left of the line to make the circle, and cross back to make the following letter.

Not only Australia: Canada too. The first ST I ordered weren’t that expensive for postage, but then they started sending them only Expedited or somesuch, which was over $20 per order, and now they only send them Fedex I believe, and I end up spending over $30 on just postage, plus brokerage, import duties and taxes. So I have stopped ordering from them. I got dvds from four other places the same month, in the US, and all of them cost under $10 ea for postage, and labelled it so it didn’t cost so much. On top of it the last order I ordered from ST was because it was a 50% off special... (which I thought would make up for the horrid postage), but they wrote the 100% price on the customs label, so I was charged taxes and duty on full price. That is not the way it works: you always pay tax on what you actually paid for something, not what it might have been worth not on sale.

OK, that rant over, my son and I LOVE LOVE LOVE BST and ST, but most of all BST. He is 3.5 yrs old now and I got the two new BST dvds that came out at Christmas, even though he is older and we have almost every ST dvd. The BST have WAY more songs... every few signs it shows, there is a new song. That is THE best way to have my son engaged in the dvd, and we sing the songs while going for walks etc. I don’t particularly like the CDs because they have multiple copies of the same song on them, including sort of Karaoke versions. I find they are a lot of money for few songs.

My son adores all the ST dvds and as the woman who does them (her daughter is deaf) is a songwriter by profession to start with, the songs are really catchy and you find yourself singing them all the time. My son learned all his colors from ST, and as someone else remarked, they have a cartoon image and the word clearly printed on screen when the signs are signed by an adult, so they are an intro to reading as well. The signs are clearly signed by multiple children of different ages, which really helps the child watching, but also the parent, to be able to understand your child when he does the sign, but not quite right.

The BST is definitely regular ASL, but they show signs that are important for babies: milk, diaper, more, all done, potty etc. They also leave out signs that might be helpful like truck and park, but that would be too hard for a very young child to do. Ie Truck and park are actually fingerspelled, so really complex. Vs bus and car and bike, which are simple signs.

I decided which ones to buy by seeing which signs I would like in my daily life to know, his interests, and also which ones would be helpful, and checking which were on the dvds. For instance, I didn’t get the “outdoors” one with ant, tent, rainbow etc on it in the winter, but about a month before we went camping. And I didn’t get the one with all the wild animals on it until he had been to a zoo, and we wanted to talk about what he saw there.

I also tried to buy dvds that didn’t replicate the ones known in BST.

Finally, I really prefer the format of the ST Series One to the Series Two. They have more signs, more songs. Series Two seem more geared to television, and have some “games” that I find just waste time. Finally, re signing “frog”: the two main characters in the dvds are Leah (the deaf daughter), Alex (her real life cousin) and Hopkins, an animated FROG. So of course, one of the first words is frog. My son has a stuffed frog, so it wasn’t a wasteful word for him, and also, in the ST learning colors rainbow song, I think Frog is the sign used when they talk about Green.

Now if we can just get them to send internationally with normal (ie what everyone else uses) methods and rates, we could all adore them!

That's a really interesting point about the accent... I do know that my friend who comes into the house is from Beijing, and Chinesepod is Shanghai... there are some differences they point out at times (finishing words like wan with an "r" sound for instance). On that same point, the chinese Bob the Builder I have on cd has an English option, and Bob speaks a very cute british English with very british expressions! So I guess my child is getting yet another language he wouldn't hear in his daily life!  I do know I read reviews, and on Amazon there are a few "sing and learn chinese" cds that reviewers have specified are Taiwan accent and not mainland China. And the local convenience store has a couple working there who come from the south of China, and they are always trying to correct my (Beijing) accent.

I used to have a tutor for myself for Swedish lessons, and when I went to a "Swedish club" meeting of the whole city, everyone knew who my teacher was as she had a particular provincial way of saying her Rs which she passed on to me.

1. It is probably easiest to learn /teach simplified characters, as others pointed out, they are SIMPLIFIED! LOL! But it is good to have some exposure to traditional ones... just to recognize that they the same meaning as simplified ones you/she knows. Because a LOT of bilingual stuff, and mandarin stuff available is from Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan... and they all use traditional. Many more resources in traditional, including subtitling in dvds etc. (our Bob the Builder ones are subtitled in traditional characters only)

2) You can probably learn at the same time as your child. All the things a beginner in a foreign language learns is the same as the child's early vocab... very simple phrases, easy vocab etc. Right now I am learning "in" "out" "beside" etc in Chinee, and my son is just learning the differences between these in any language. He and I are at the same level in flashcards, baby books etc! And as someone said, you can get someone in. I just asked around, an an acquaintance had a Chinese (Beijing) girlfriend, who now comes to our home once a week. She teaches us words and phrases... usually just about what we are doing: "baby wants milk! Mama puts milk in the bottle" "baby is hungry" "mama will give you a cookie". And then I can say the same things the whole week til she comes again and I learn new phrases. And she corrects my pronunciation.

3) As an adult learner, I highly recommend http://chinespod.com which focuses on spoken chinese (from Shanghai). Very good for hearing correct pronunciation. You can listen over and over, and the newbie level is very easy. You can search for lessons by subject ie "baby" "children" "family"

Kappasweet... you are entirely right! My son had almost no tantrums (ok, one when the new playground was a construction site blocked off and he couldn't understand why he could see it but not go play!) once I could understand him! We had conversations instead! He'd sign "kitty" and I'd know why he was insistently pointing outside! And not have to play a guessing game at the fridge: milk? water? juice? orange juice? apple juice? Cuz he could TELL Me! it is GREAT! and silent if you need to use it across a room instead of shouting!

Hmmm,
apparently all bilingual people tend to mix languages if they can (ie if the other person will understand them)... though they can speak one language or the other if needed. Lots of words don't have equivalencies. There really isn't an english equivalent of dépanneur.

And apparently bilingual children will also mix languages, even if you do separate the days or situations... they'll use the word they know (ie if they have learned "pompier" in French but not "fireman" in english... if they are speaking english, they might say, "Look mama, a pompier!"

Personally, I would find it impossible to do one language a day. I am not going to go around my French neighborhood speaking English... it would be quite socially unacceptable (big political issues in Quebec!) as well as difficult with playdates with French children that day, going to francophone barber, shops etc.

And I don't have a "baby " vocab in French" I learned it in college and could more easily discuss politics than the names of flowers. If we happen upon daffodils, marigolds and irises that day, should I just say "fleurs" because it is a French day and deprive him of the opportunity to get excellent specific English vocab?

As for Chinese, I am just learning it myself. I could never do a day in Chinese. Though I can integrate Chinese into all sorts of things. I sing songs while walking the dog with the stroller: I will sing a French song, six English songs, two Chinese songs, another French song, six more English songs. When I learn a new song, I add it. At supper, I might speak English, but then ask "zhe she shen me?" (what is this?" about various food items on his plate, or "zhe she shem ne yan se?" (what color is this?") and point out colors of what we can see while we're eating. This enforces my and his new Chinese languages skills.

I am very curious how people with rules go about it... How does dad only speak French if the babysitter that day is English, how do you relabel all your furniture every day? What happens if Dad is supposed to speak only French and Mom only English... do they have a conversation where a child never hears the question and answer in the same language? Please if people can give me concrete examples.

I don't know about first words, as I adopted my son at 22 mos from China, but I do know that most of his first English words were ones that were on Signing Time and Baby Signing Time... it makes sense since they say the words over and over so clearly, either while signing them or while showing actual objects and actions.

He definitely learned to say his colors from Signing Time, as hadn't started to teach him colors yet (and he wasn't in daycare or with someone else than me) but has a dvd of Signingtime with colors.. and suddenly started going up to complete strangers and pointing to the colors of their clothes and saying them. I was quite surprised!

As for signing and slowing down speech... he babbled all the time but I couldn't understand him. He would say mah, meh, maa, nah, neh for about twenty things, and the signing really helped me understand him so I could prompt him to better pronounce. Now he speaks pretty well (3.5 yrs old), he almost never signs though he watches Signing Time for entertainment. The speech therapist said signing was an excellent transitional language and was helping his language centers develop, rather than slowing down his speech.

They should look into the research. I am no expert by far, but from what I have read, studies have shown that minority language parents who stop speaking their native language in the home,and switch to English to "help" their child, end up having children who speak English worse, and have more problems in school, than children of minority language parents who continue speaking their native tongue in the home.

This is because in one's native language, one has much richer language, more mastery of the language, grammar, vocabulary, expressions, nursery rhymes etc. So the child is exposed to a rich complex language environment while they are learning language and developing their brain... they can then transfer this to learning English in school. If they get "ok" but not native English at home, they never get that rich development, and high level of language skill from their parents. One can always look up the foreign language equivalency of a complex word in a dictionary. Anyways, they might like this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Bilingual-Edge-Teach-Second-Language/dp/0061246565/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

My son was also behind in language, but the speach therapist said it had nothing to do with bilingual or multilingualism. She said bilingual kids can be a bit slower at the start, as they are learning more than one language system, but then quickly catch up or are ahead. If the child has a learning disability, it will be apparent whether they are unilingual or bilingual... it doesn't make a difference and is no reason to just do one language.

Oh drat, doing it all wrong I guess! I am not super specific about which language when... just try to get it all in.

Teaching three languages (4 if you add ASL) is going very well.

His first born language was Chinese, as he was born there, and moved to Canada at 22 mos.
Now his first language is English, since it is my native language, that of my family and a lot of my friends. It's the language I listen to radio in and watch tv and gte most books.

Second language is French, since we live in Quebec, French community. He is in daycare 2.5 days a week in FRench, and will likely go to French school. Though at home I emphasize it less...like most of the posters here, we work more on the nonmajority language within the home... I figure he will get better French from native Quebecois speakers than from me (I mostly learned it after 18 yrs old) in our neighborhood, schools etc.

Third language is Chinese. Beyond the obvious: that I want to keep some link to his original culture, it IS going to be a great business language, even if he is just working at McDonalds and can speak to Chinese tourists and visiting businessmen! Personally, I am artistic and I enjoy the characters in Chinese. It adds a little extra fun for me, compared to other languages I have studied a little (German, Swedish... which are  languages of my grandparents)

The signing was Signing time, which was great for a toddler transitioning to English, and I still use it to help him understand Chinese and French words he doesn't know.

http://yayacard.com makes Chinese talking cards to label the house etc with. Though apparently their adhesive stickers aren't easy to remove! So I haven't stuck any down. My son does like them because when you push them they say the word out loud three times.

I only have the furniture set, and got them when they were on special for $10 instead of $25. Other problem: the pinyin is on the back, so if you stick them down, you can't read the pinyin anymore. And the pinyin doesn't have tones written on. But they are cool as they talk (helpful when you don't know the language yourself, or are learning like me) , and are attractive to kids.

My son and I love Dora the Explorer in Mandarin... we have all five 5-dvd sets, which come with flashcards. They are simple and formulaic, but not boring, so I learn a lot of vocabulary from them, and also phrasing. If you listen well, when they introduce an English word (they are made for Chinese kids) they often repeat the chinese equivalent several times.

I also really like the Early Start Bao Bei dvds... they have lots of repetition and live action with real kids, and introduce some words and situations that aren't covered by some of the other dvd sets. So many cover the exact same things: colors, hello, same foods and veg, numbers and shapes. The Early Start ones have one about birthday, one about sports etc.

We have the Little Pim 3-dvd set too, which is very nice. Simple and nice that it is ALL mandarin.

My son also loves the two Mei Mei videos we have, though the production quality is kind of sucky. He loves the songs and actions, so we find ourselves singing and playing "Ba luo bo" (pull the carrot/turnip) and "wei wei wei, zhe shi shei" (hello, who is this calling?).

But it is the Dora he watches the most (he is 3).

Yes, thankyou for that very clear and exhaustive rundown of the various methods of trying to teach bilingualism. I guess we are "ruleless", in that I do speak English as my dominant native language at home, but we live in Quebec, and so we have books, videos in French, I speak french fairly fluently most especially in public: the general culture and neighborhood are francophone and my son goes to francophone daycare. He DOES understand French quite well (passive) and now mixes some french words in to his English (play amie! look, pompier! dolly assis ici!) but usually responds in English when I speak to him in French. The Chinese, he sees me studying, and he listens to dvds, we have books with cds etc, and only just this past week or two (he is 3 and a half now) he has started to clearly say some Chinese words to the chinese teacher we have come in to play with him (and teach me). I understand a lot of people do quite organised use of flashcards, but mostly I let my son play with them, shuffling them about, saying what they are, I ask him which is the butterfly in French etc... he seems to like that more than if I flash them in an ordered manner. And I usually say the word alternating back and forth between two or three languages: Bird! Niao! Bird! or Bird, Oiseau! Niao! and he seems to make the connection to the one image very well.

Thanks, GloriaD for the Max and Mei link. Have you these books and cd now? Are they simplified or traditional characters? The cd is in English and Mandarin?? thanks!

I am a single self-employed mom, so I sympathise with time constraints. The funny thing is, I use this to my advantage with the languages: I don't think my son even knows that Dora the Explorer comes in a language other than Mandarin(with English where the English has Spanish).

My son is 3, and was adopted from China. I had just done a wee bit of self-taught mandarin when I brought him home at 22 mos. He was just babybabbling, not speaking, and I don't think he had ever seen ANY book before that.
So he had to learn English, French (we are here in Quebec, both of which I speak quite well) and I am trying to keep up Chinese. So I got Little Pim (excellent), Baby Learns Chinese, EarlyStart (BaoBei the Panda), Sing and Learn with Mei Mei. I swear I learn more from these little kid dvds than i do from adult lessons! (most from childbook.com, some from amazon)

For English, I used Baby Signing Time and SigningTime, which of course taught him signing as well... again, I learned while he did.

When I found that the baby/toddler dvds were repetitive, I searched online and found his fave series: Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer in Mandarin (ebay, and bogeji.com )

Anyways, he begs to watch these things, and I put them on while I am cooking meals, cleaning, and if I need to catch a little bit of shuteye after working all night. If you can hear or see them while cooking etc, you'll learn too. So, funnily enough the same thing I use to occupy him when I don't have time is what he learns the other language from.

I'll often sing little songs I got from the dvds while pushing him in the stroller, or point out things or quiz vocab while walking the dog with him... really, we are learning the SAME vocab at the same time.

Also, funnily enough, a contractor who worked at our place had a girlfriend from Beijing, and I pay her $20 to come for an hour or so once a week to speak to both of us. I learn practical phrases like " Baobao ying gai niao niao" "Baby must peepee" from her! And he hears a native speaker. Again, she comes to our home, and I do things like give him his bath, cook supper etc, and she says what I am doing, and I and he repeat it. So it doesn't take a lot of extra time. She has become a friend and my son is excited to learn Chinese since she speaks it and so does Dora the Explorer! LOL!