My son's just turned 2, we're living abroad and the mammy is from another country altogether. So the only person to teach him Irish is me, but I also have to teach him English and help with his other languages.
Long story short: I'd love to hear what tactics others have used, or have heard of, for teaching young children when contact with gaeilgeoirí isn't possible.He doesn't use TV/websites/tablets so those aren't an option. I often leave RnaG on in the background, so at least he hears natives. He loves books, but the only Irish books I've seen for kids tend to focus on single words, so I can do that myself by just translating the picture books he already has into Irish.
So far I've decided to stop singing him songs in English and switch to Irish songs. He accepted this quite easily since he loves getting sung to, so he's not picky. I found songs here:
http://songsinirish.com/tags/children/Stories in Irish (if I had any) probably wouldn't work. He's usually adamant that I read stories in English, so I won't try to force Irish there. For now.
Next I was thinking of speaking Irish to him every other day. At the start I'll have to let him reply in whatever language, since he doesn't have enough Irish, but eventually the hope would be that he'd reply in Irish. Or another variant would be to speak one language at home and the other when outside. I think a separation is important because I've seen that learners who mix two languages end up avoiding the hard aspects of each. If I let him get into that habit it'll be hard to fix it later.
Improving my own Irish is for a different thread, but I was pleasantly surprised to find I have enough Irish for most of our conversations (about eating, clothes, and Duplo trains).
A thought for anyone with a younger child: My son made great progress in his various languages from 18 to 24 months. Maybe the task of teaching him Irish would have been easier if I'd started before the 18-month mark.
So that's my situation. I'm using songs, I plan on bringing in a speak-Irish-every-second-day regime, and I leave RnaG on in the background. Anyone got other ideas? Experiences?