I've already spoken to you a little about this in our Chinese discussion, but mine and my Chinese wife's approach to raising our son is that I only speak English and she only speaks Chinese, this way our son has a way to separate each language in his own mind and even understand them in the simple terms of 'mummy language' and 'daddy language'. As he gets older i'm certain he will gravitate towards speaking one language only, as it will be important to him as a general means of personal stability, and as we are in China that language will undoubtedly be Chinese. I will continue to speak to him in English all the while though, and then when he's ready he'll be able to pick up the speaking of it very easily I imagine. The most important thing for me is to stay ahead of his own learning curve with Chinese, so that i'm always able to keep up with what he's saying.

We speak both at home

however when my parents are over we use more English

The Kids watch Chinese children programs as well as English ones.

When we go back to China They talk to their Grandparents and other relatives in Chinese

when they remember that they don't speak English.

My wife is a English teacher and she helps the kids most times with their homework

then at the end she will teach them Characters and the names of things.

My wife really works hard at this as well as the house work and everything else she does for us 

in short it is better to start now than for your child to find out how much it would benefit them later on in life

No kids yet but I like the approach of one parent speaking their native language and another parent speaking their native language. I've seen a few couples who do this and it seems to work out just fine. 

Ideally when I have kids I'd like to teach them a 3rd language as well starting at a young age, but not too young so it doesn't overwhelm them.  I think someone speaking 3 different languages most have some great benefits (or maybe not). 

Young minds are very open and flexible.  It is only later that children "learn" limitations where they don't really exist.  Yes, a child can learn to fluently speak 2 languages simultaneously.  I have seen this in practice both in China and in America.   The most natural way is the method described by philbravery where a mixed couple will use their own native language when speaking to the child.  The child will naturally distinguish "daddy's talk"  "from momma's talk".  It is not something particularly difficult, for a small child does not know what he or she cannot do.  Their brains are like sponges and their inhibitions are low.

Children are great!

Thats how I was raised, with both English and Spanish at home. My sister (younger) further benefited with French as well.

The Educational psychologist all agree and I mean ALL of them, children don't need to learn up until about 6years of age, they absorb language as a natural process. There are numerous examples of children growing up naturally bi and even multi lingual.

The two main ways are One Parent One Language (OPOL)

and Minority Language at Home (MLH)

really a good question..I think even Sigmund Freud has to think on this from heaven..and prepare some theory for us..

yeah just keep speaking different languages, she will pick up both of them, same thing with my family they all speak different languages, 

I raise my kids in a home with 3 languages.  Mommy speaks Mandarin, Daddy speaks English and the Grandma & maid speak in Cantonese.

At 4.5 years old they can hold fluent conversations in Mandarin, and basic conversations in English & Cantonese.  They understand WAY more than they can speak, but I think that is the same for anyone learning a language.

The school that they currently attend teaches half the day in English and half the day in Mandarin.  They also play games and watch programs in English & Mandarin.

For anyone who is able, I would strongly recommend that they raise their kids with as many languages as possible.  It is nothing but a benefit as far as I have seen.

I don't think it would be difficult for a kid to learn 2 languages at the same time. They are like sponges when it comes to languages. Sure even 1 language may have many words meaning the same thing. What's the difference between hello hi and ni hao?

There will be a lot of influence to speak Chinese here, especially from the kid's grandparents. So I'd try to have the kid speaking as much English as possible. I've seen many mixed couples where the foreign parent can hardly communicate with the kid, I don't want that! I want to be able to talk to my kid more than hello how are you?

My father is french and my mother is english, i learned both languages as a child.

I think is very fine to do so. Now we are talking to our 2,5year old son in 3 languages. Mothers chinese, mine czech and of international english. For them is easy to learn even at start is a bit confused, soon they will find own way to separate and choose when to speak which language.

I don't know how it works for kids,but for me,i have tried to learn Portuguese and Spanish at the same time,finally i gave up.The two languages are too similar,it's easy for me to get confused.Now ,i just learn Portuguese,i will learn Spanish only after i have mastered this. 

      I think it's no reason to worry about  "how many"  language the children can absorb simultaneously.......

This is more tham lucky for them, and flow naturaly from early age.  

Born in family of two language,  and grow-up in the environment of another one different .   And than may study in school where there speak other one.   So... it's truly fantastic!!!

But.... inside of this story,  the parents play a BIG role, heh! 

Well.....I still talking about my own children exemple, speaking four language till now. 

When the day is divided for speaking each language, the child can learn each easier.  From gettin up until noon speak one language.  Start at noon to speak the second until bedtime.  This makes it easier for the child to learn each language.  There are families that speak three languages in the home (French, German, and Lithwanian(Sp)) and another (English) on the street.  This was accomplished by dividing the day into parts and speaking only one language during that time.  While shopping I heard three Chinese women talking in Chinese with one of their daughters.  One of the ladies noticed my observing and said, "We are teaching her Chinese."  Speaking English (mother tongue), German and French, while speaking English the more perfect word meaning of the three comes into my mind and I have to stop to think the English word.