Visit #3

For our second visit, the theme was different foods commonly found in this country. We organized the booklet into sections: fruit, vegetables, dairy, a few grains, and an other category for things like cheeseburgers, pizza, and cake. We found last week that the booklet was very successful, because when we went to review the vocabulary in the booklet from visit #2, they were quick to answer and were always correct. I think it was so successful because we left the booklet with them to look at and practice by themselves, instead of needing to take it back with us. Because we did a food theme this weekend, we decided it would be fun to teach our family how to make chocolate chip cookies. I will admit that we did not make the dough from scratch, we just bought some Nestle cookie dough to save a little time. :)
While preparing the dough, our family seemed to be demonstrating a lot of uncertainty. Since they understand little English, it was difficult to help them understand what exactly we were doing, and what they could do to help. We remembered that simplicity was our friend last time, so we stuck to numbers and simple words. I laid out one row of dough vertically and horizontally, four by four. Then I handed the dough to members of the family, pointed to the spots the cookies should be placed in while counting to four, and they understood completely. All that was left to do was put the pan in the oven, so we told them what temperature it needed to be set at and how long the cookies should bake for, and they didn't seem very uncertain anymore.
Since our family is just starting to learn English, we know that simplicity is key and we will need to keep that in mind for our future visits. They are truly beginners, so talking a mile a minute will only result in confusion and uncertainty.

Visit #2

During our second visit, we decided to do a sort of theme on what we were going to focus on: around the house. I compiled a small booklet full of words and pictures of things and rooms commonly found in just about any home, such as kitchen, living room, bathroom, bedroom, closet, spoon, fork, pillow, remote, and so on. The objects were the easiest to learn, but I found that the rooms were the most challenging to teach. I decided that the best thing to do would be to physically go to the kitchen, living room, and bathroom to help our family understand us better.
By bringing those pictures to life and make them more of a first order reality - something to be seen, touched, and for our family, named. By doing that, I felt that attaching meaning to these words we were trying to teach became much easier for our family.
I plan to compile similar booklets for future visits, so I will remember what I did this time to help our family have an easier time understanding.