Vacation Travel with Children Overseas - Eight Tips for Parents

Summertime, summertime! With the vacation travel season ahead, many families are thinking about how to get around with children during trips to countries where a different language is spoken. Beyond the basics - getting passports and vaccinations in order, making arrangements for currency exchange, arranging your lodging and transportation, you'll want to enjoy this opportunity to improve your own language skills while also showing your children  how much fun it is to discover a a new country.

 Here are eight tips to make that vacation overseas lots of fun for everyone, especially you, the parents.

1. Play a travel game during the weeks before the trip. This is just like playing house, except we play travel. Your child can look at pictures of the places you will be visiting, and you can talk about what clothes and toys to bring, then make-believe packing a suitcase, or help pack the family suitcases. Older children can learn to trace the itinerary on a globe or map, and look up each place you will visit on Wikipedia or similar reference site.
2. Young children tire easily, so try playing travel a few minutes each day: "Let's pretend we're on a trip! Look, I am waiting for my airplane! When it's time to go, I need to look at my ticket to find out where I'm sitting. Now the fun part: Make a pretend airplane ticket, then make rows of chairs with numbers so that each family member can find their assigned seat. Talk about the trays in the airplane, the meal service, and make believe looking out the window to see the clouds.
3. Practice the numbers, the departure and arrival time, and any other basic expressions your child already knows, but make them part of the travel game. How will you greet people when you arrive at the destination? Let's pretend, and let's carry our suitcases around the house, asking for directions, etc. (Young children can carry their favorite toy in a daypack, or pack clothing for their dolls, etc.)
4. To keep children safe, make sure they know basic expressions so that if they become separated from you they will be able to ask for help. At minimum, "Please, Thank you, Excuse me, and My name is ... and I'm staying at ... Could you help me find my parents?" - hoping that last one will not be needed! Make sure the children have age-appropriate "stranger danger" awareness, and understand that they must stay with you all the time, to make sure everyone stays safe. Also, if you will be staying in a hotel with a swimming pool or near a lake or ocean beach, this is a good time to review all the safety rules about swimming, ideally using the target language.
5. Every trip has its unexpected events - that's part of the adventure! Try to avoid scolding or reprimanding your children if they become confused or misbehave due to a chaotic or confusing situation. Just let them know they are safe with you, and by remaining calm yourself, you'll help them calm down as well. If you find you have a longer than expected wait at the airport or train station, try to make a comfortable "nest" with a few toys for your child to relax in, (and hope they will be able to take a nap.)
6. During your trip, look for children's magazines and colorful souvenirs that will be easy to bring home; avoid anything too fragile, because you really do want the child to play with the toy or read the book or magazine rather than keep on a shelf. Also be careful not to bring too much stuff with you - it can get very hard on the parents when young children wear out and need to be carried - along with all the bags and totes. 
7. Mealtime is a lot of fun during a trip - you can show your child the menu and talk about the different foods in the country you are visiting. Try to use the target language as much as possible, making all the same QTalk Method games you play at home, but now with even more opportunity to learn and practice!
8. When you return, keep the travel experience alive - prepare some of the foods you enjoyed during your trip, and retell stories of special experiences or talk about what your favorite meal was, or your favorite spot to relax during the trip. Try to use the target language as much as you can, so that your child will enjoy the memories for years to come.

Many of us remember our own childhood travel experiences - the first ride on a train or airplane, the first time staying in a hotel, the first time riding in a taxi - it can be a lot of fun, but also kind of scary when it's new and completely different from being at home. I hope you and your children will have fun "playing travel" before and after the trip, and I wish you a relaxing and wonderful summer vacation adventure with your family!

Visually Speaking: Maurice Hazan's new Kickstarter project

Visually Speaking: the Science of Language Acquisition with QTalk: Revolutionary new Visually Speaking app will trans...: NEWS UPDATE:   Maurice's new Kickstarter project is for the revolutionary new Visually Speaking app, Maurice has a prototype working and he's so excited that at last his dream may become a reality. He needs your help, so please share and repost this link and pledge even $1 to help make Maurice's project reach its goals.

6 tips to teach language to teenagers

Looking for ideas to keep your middle school and high school students engaged, challenged and focused in language class?

Here are six tips I can share based on my own experience and the advice of language teachers at Tribeca Language and other schools.


1. Be clear: The teenage brain is going through huge developmental changes. From day to day a student may appear to be a different person - and they actually are! With all the neural, hormonal and social changes, not to mention their body shape and size changing and growing, teenage life can be very confusing. So keep things clear in the classroom.

2. Keep it simple: You might think it's exciting to mix multiple topics and activities, but many teachers find it's more effective to provide a simple routine so that students always know what to expect. When students don't understand the purpose of the lesson, don't know how to perform the activities expected, or are unclear about the outcomes you are looking for, you can lose some or all of the students' attention very quickly.

3. Be brief: Anything that seems to go on and on and on
can appear to be a chaotic, impossible topic to a teen. We are language teachers - we think language is fascinating! But with teens, we need to put our brakes on and take breaks. That usually means breaking a longer activity into shorter parts with c
lear start and stop times. Briefer lesson segments also provide you with better ways to signal when it's time to talk and interact, versus when it's time to remain silent and listen to others.

4. Remain in the target language: Tell students what you expect, and write on the board, flipchart or Smartboard, provide handouts and assignment sheets, to give every student multiple ways to make sure they know what's going on and what you expect of them. That's a lot easier to do, when you use a visual scaffolding system such as the QTalk Method, or a story-based method such as TPRS.

5. Be silent: Leave silent pauses between your sentences. Provide time for sustained silent reading or study - even if it's only three minutes to let students reset their attention. Any single activity should last no more than five to eight minutes without a pause - a chance to reset, recalibrate, or just let students absorb for themselves what they have achieved.

6. Be active: If you are standing or sitting in front of the class, static, you will be boring. If you move purposely and comfortably throughout the classroom, engaging with individual students or small groups, you will keep everyone's attention - they never know when you might walk right up to them and ask a question.

Use these six tips and you will keep your teens focused and learning during every language class.
For more information about how to use the QTalk visual method, visit the QTalk Method training site:
http://qtalktraining.weebly.com/

If you'd like to find out more about free samples, pricing and options for schools, homeschools and individuals for the various QTalk Method materials suited to teenage language learners, visit www.QTalkPublishing.com, the sole source provider subscriptions, publications and classroom manipulatives to support Maurice Hazan's QTalk Method. You would want to look at the Sapling materials for Level 1 and Level 2. Some older teens might also benefit from the Tree materials, so take a look at those also.