A case of, well, many cases of ... two-way learning
Very brief, sort of telegram-style, a growing collection of what families do :
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One of our favourites: families who exchange grandparents!
One family lives in the south of Italy, the other in the south of Victoria/Australia. Both have large farms and young children. Comes harvest time granny and grandpa come to provide badly needed backup. It's a time when every hand is needed, in the house with the kids and out there with the crops. Half a year later they return the favour. |
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The doctor who checks with his network every time he's ready to decide on a conference, an international congress or a special seminar: is there another member of the GlobalNatives.Club attending too? Or perhaps not attending but living nearby? Any synergies possible? He's managed truly successful connections three times within only two years of membership by turning these trips into getting-to-know-each-other family vacations!
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Seven painters and sculptors, who attend each other's workshops with their families - partly to learn and partly to teach. They provide each other with low cost accommodation and facilities for the kids, who enter into the spirit of things with joy and who love being creative in the perfect multi-lingual company.
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The summer school network: teachers trading places, taking their families along, to provide summer camps with native speakers for intensive language training. Combined with great holidays, of course.
Clearly one of the most attractive and expandable models! |
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The multi-generation au-pair wheel: hundreds of grandparents within the network have already gone abroad in exchange for 18-to-26 year olds as au-pairs in a Shared Mindspace kind of arrangement. They swap places, practice the lingo, get to know country, culture and cuisine and help with the kids. Everyone benefits.
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Social media: learn and teach. Some grandparents are reluctant to dive into the "blessings" of the web and find it challenging to come to terms with the principles of the new media. But they catch on very quickly as soon as enthusiastic kids show them what's in it for them. Particularly when they see how the internet can serve their own interests and hobbies.
And even more so when they come to realize what smart networking can do for the entire family: thousands of our exchange students keep in touch with their grandparents back home and give them a good reason to exercise their newly acquired skills in a Google hangout, a travel blog, via Skype and Facebook messenger and many more. |
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