Ideas on how to raise a baby to be bilingual ?  

My past french teacher grew up in Belgium and she learned how to speak french, german, dutch, and spanish from her mom, dad, grandpa, and grandma. She would speak to one of them in their language and the other in another language. That is how she learned those 4 languages by the time she was 6 years old. Where do you live? My teacher said that a parent should speak with their child in their native language and they will pick up the main language of where they live because it is everywhere (tv, radio, books, etc.) I do not think your child will be confused if you tell him or her when to use which language. A child learning to be bilingual will be very fluent in both languages and can use them for his or her benefit in the future. I wish you both good luck!

I think that whatever languages you use at home the chold will eventually learn. I don't think there is anything worng with learning two languages. You will of course most likely need to get some tutorial books or cds to help with structure and stuff like that when the child gets older. Just make sure to let your son know what you are saying in French as you say it. I wish I had worked harder at my duaghter lerning Spanish when she was younger. Where I live Spanish is huge so I would love for her to speak it along with English.

Children today are so stuffed with all kinds of brain enhancing supplements and food that they will eventually be better lawyers than us. Your husband speaks english and you speak french. Besides getting the little chap to both speak english and french, better get him to learn chinese as well.
When globalisation is fully realised, he might be in China doing business. Just a suggestion only.

the best way is to just talk to your child in both languages. just like teaching them to speak english, do the same with French. most of the time, if there is a parent who is fluent in another language, the child will eventually learn it as well. since the child doesn't know anyone else, he wouldn't find it weird. he'll actually learn both the languages.

The people that I know that are bilingual learned it when they were young. Picking up the two languages for a young child is very easy for them. Since you live in the U.S. teaching your child French first would be the way to go and they will pick up English easier. Young children see language much different than adults do. My mother works with families that the parents only speak Spanish and the children speak both Spanish and English. All the children she know have a hard time translating exactly word by word. They are much better at just speaking it in conversation. I can see how it will be harder because not both parents speak the same languages but I am sure it can be done.

my kids aren't bilingual, but they speak a lot french. I am english and my husband is french. when they were born, he spoke pure french to them. it wore off a lot as they get older, but he still speaks a lot to them in french. they say a lot of things in the french language...in fact, the only way they say "goodnight" "i love you" and "hello" is in french. it totally freaks people out! LOL they say it is better to speak 2 languages while they are young so they can catch on easy...the older they get the harder it is...at least this is what i have heard.

I am raising my daughter to be bi-lingual. I only speak English but her father is Peruvian so we want her to speak Spanish too. I think that the best way is to just speak to the baby in both from birth and then the baby will pick up both languages. My baby is only 4 months but I have two nieces that were raised to be bilingual this way.

I was going to respond from opinion, but not experience. Reading what the experienced people tell you, I find I am just chiming in with my gut instinct, and what I have been told over the years. If your child hears both languages at home, he will speak both languages at home. He might have a hard time accepting that not everyone he will meet will understand French, but pretty quickly he will learn. Like he will learn that at school he shoulc only speak English. Good luck, just speak in love, in both languages. Lucky child.

You should teach him French first, then english. If you teach him english first then it will be hard for him to learn it later on. French first and english later but you have to do at a perfect time not to much time in between or else he will fall behind.

I live in Israel, so when the children were born, we spoke English at home, and they heard Hebrew at school. I also spoke Hebrew when needed, at home with guests and outside the house. When the children went to nursery school, I sent them to Hebrew speaking schools, so they got Hebrew. My husband speaks French, but adding the third language that I don't speak didn't really work out very well. Both parents have to understand and speak all the languages that you want to teach the children. Now, my oldest is 12 and speaks and reads both Hebrew and English. Of course the English reading is not at an American 6th grade level, but he is better than the other Israelis in his class.