Focus I . Pre - School Years

ACTIVE LISTENING

Before Listening Activities

Activity I: Orientation

1. Who takes care of young children (up to the age of five) in Russia? Do you know how much parents have to pay for childcare?

2. Look at the pie charts comparing the expenses on children (from birth through age 17) in 1960 and 2009. Describe the charts using the vocabulary below. Summarize the trends. Can you explain them?

(http://www.wealthinformatics.com/2010/09/27/cost-of-raising-a-child/)

 

Vocabulary: Describing the changes

Verbs and adverbs: to increase/rise by, to decrease/fall by, to increase/go up/climb/rise to, to decrease/fall/decline/drop/go down/reduce to, to maintain the same level, to remain steady/stable (at), to fluctuate around, to grow (rise, fall, etc) dramatically/ sharply/considerably/significantly/slightly

Nouns and adjectives: a slight/dramatic/sharp/gradual/steady/substantial/significant increase (rise, growth, decrease, decline, fall, etc)

Activity II: Helpful Vocabulary

1. Look at the list of words used to describe various childcare providers in the USA. Match the words to their definitions.

1) au pair	a) a school or class to prepare children aged five for school
2) babysitter	b) care provided by an individual or a few individuals in their private home
3) daycare center	c) a school for children between the ages of about two and five
4) home daycare	d) a place when babies or young children are looked after during the day, especially while their family members are at work
5) Head Start center	e) a facility where care for a parent’s baby or toddler is provided either directly at her/his place of employment or directly adjacent to it
6) kindergarten	f) a person who takes care of babies or children while their parents are away from home and is usually paid to do this
7) nanny	g) a parent who stays at home to take care of their children instead of going out to work
8) on-site (corporate) daycare center	i) a woman whose job is to take care of young children in the children’s own home
9) preschool (nursery school)	j) a young person, usually a woman, who lives with a family in a foreign country in order to learn the language. She/he helps in the house, takes care of children and receives a small wage
10) stay-at-home mother/father	k) a federally-funded center for children aged three to five years from low-income families. Its aim is to prepare children for success in school through an early learning program.

 

2. Put the words from the previous exercise into the following categories:

center-based care (facilities which provide care for children in groups)

family childcare (providers who offer care for children in their own home)

in-home care (care occurs in the child’s own home)

3. Guess the meaning of the underlined words and phrases from the context:

1. The daycare dilemma is always on my mind. It’s just always there. It’s pervasive.

2. When my friends needed to make the decision whether or not to go back to work, they sat down and calculated out to the nth expense.

3. Many daycare centers are expensive, they are places where parents are overcharged.

4. I grew up in an area where all my relatives lived. It was a built-in unit.

5. If one of the parents was busy, you were dropped at aunt’s house, uncle’s house.

6. You cannot underestimate having a grandmother. It’s one of the greatest inventions ever.

7. Who did you think might take care of your child, and how does it match up with what actually happened?

8. When I found out I was pregnant, I definitely went through sticker shock.