Prepare your child for the Stay
If your child is very young or anxious, why not make the journey with them to make it easier for them to acclimatise? If you decide to send them on their own, it's important that they should feel confident and ready. In general terms, to ensure that your child gets as much benefit from their stay as possible (progress in the language, a wider view of the world, greater independence and sharing ideas with their foreign hosts) we advise you to work through the following preparatory steps:
• Encourage them to have plenty of contact with their partner before they leave.
• Check that they feel positive about the idea of the stay.
• Involve them in preparing for the stay.
• Warn them about possible cultural differences. If their language study holiday is to be a success, your child needs to abide by their host family's rules and customs.
• Explain to them that cultural differences are expressed in day-to-day life, for example in their diet or how they behave at mealtimes.
• Encourage them to adapt. Explain to your child that the family they will be staying with is ready to include them in their day-to-day life but that they won't change their pace or way of life for them. It's up to them to adapt to their new environment.
• Encourage them to communicate. If they are going to learn to get to know and understand their family, your child needs to be curious, ask questions and be willing to talk about themselves, their family and their culture so that there can be a real exchange of ideas.
• Encourage them to participate. Sharing in family life means taking part in all the family's activities: going to the supermarket, watching television, visiting friends, taking part in leisure activities and so on. This is how they will broaden their vocabulary and widen their view of the world.
• The effort they make to adapt to and assimilate a new way of life will be the key factor that triggers their progress in the language.