Good parenting

The objective

For students to share and discuss their ideas about what makes a good parent

The language

Conditionals: If your baby cries, don´t come running immediately.

Imperatives: Set a sleep schedule.

The set-up

None, but I recommend that you first find out if you think this issue will be interesting to learners--generally it would be good for a class comprised of a number of adult learners who have children, but not limited to them only.

The low-down

Put students into groups of three or four. Tell them that you would like them to consider what makes a good parent (if they aren´t parents themselves, they can think about their own or others they know). Tell them that you´d like them to write an informal "Guide to Good Parenting". But first ask them to consider the typical problems parents have with children by the stages of a child´s life:

• Infant - 1 to 12 months
• Toddler - 1 to 3 years
• Pre-school and School Age - 3 to 12 years
• Teen - 13 and older

Once they´ve done that, ask them to think of solutions. For example, "When an infant cries, don´t come immediately but wait a few minutes to see if they stop", "When toddlers cry and make demands, don´t let them have their way". Of course they can write it any way they like, but monitor and make sure they´re on task. If they have problems coming up with ideas, you can bring the class together for a few moments so that others may share their examples of problems parents can have with children.

Now what?

When they´ve finished, pair groups together and ask them to share their ideas and note down which ideas were similar and which were different by first asking, "Did you discuss what to do when... (an infant cries)? This way, it becomes more interactive and they´ll be more likely to discuss differences. When they´re finished invite a few groups to share a similarity and a difference they thought was most interesting or one they couldn´t resolve.

Time to teach

I think learners will have a lot of questions about vocabulary, but there is also the possibility to focus on grammar such as for and since, register when using imperatives or use of the zero conditional.

More talk-time

How did your life change when you had children?

Do you think parenting has changed a lot in the last few years? How?

How was your experience as a child different than your children´t experience now?