• British Boarding Schools Show Geneva, 28 November 2023
  • Airbnb Geneva
  • Coffee and Creations

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Upcoming workshop on Sunday, 24 March from 9h30-13h30

What is The Brain Based Parenting Bootcamp?
The Brain Based Parenting Bootcamp is a parenting course designed and developed by Dr Jo Mueller, a Clinical Psychologist and Rachel Colin-Jones, a Paediatric & Specialist Family Nurse, who have a combined 30 years of experience working with families around the world. The course covers the most important information about children's brain development and shows how this impacts on behaviour. This sets the context for understanding how to more effectively manage behaviour. We provide a toolbox of practical parenting strategies that are effective, easy to remember and implement and enable parents to be calmer and to shout less. Importantly, the whole course is built on a solid scientific evidence base meaning parents can trust the information and strategies and have confidence that this approach will also support their child's long term emotional and psychological health. The course has been running for 18 months now and is consistently highly rated by parents and correlated with real change.

How does it work?
First parents watch 3.5 hours of on-demand, bite-sized video content in their own time. Then they book into a 4 hour in-person workshop where Dr Jo and Rachel help to tailor the content and strategies to each individual family. This is also an opportunity to meet and share experiences with other like-minded parents and to build local community. Parents retain lifetime access to the videos and to the course workbook.

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Suisse romande poster for Kägi fret chocolate bisuits... corrected to read Kégi so the Suisse Romands can pronounce it!

There are several expressions that don't translate literally. It is fun to learn how to speak like a local. Do you know of any other phrases that we could show our readers? If so, please get in touch. Make sure to check out part one and part two of these articles.

Deçu en bien
Meaning "pleasantly surprised"
Literal translation: disappointed in good

The expectation of a bad or mediocre result, thus the opposite of disappointed. It is a confusing one but often used in Suisse Romandie.

Used in a sentence: Je suis deçu en bien après avoir finalement gouter la recette. Je ne m'y attendais pas que ça sera si delicieux car il n'avait par l'air. (I'm disappointed in a good way after finally tasting the recipe. I didn't expect it to be so delicious because it didn't look like it.)

Ce n’est pas terrible
The French expression ce n’est pas terrible is a weird one, because the word terrible can mean either “terrible” or “terrific.” When someone says c’est terrible! they might mean “it’s great!” or “it’s awful!”

In the negative, ironically, terrible is usually positive, so ce n’est pas terrible (or, more familiarly, c’est pas terrible) most commonly means “it’s not so great, it’s nothing special.”

Ça va pas le chalet?
Meaning "Are you crazy?"
Literal translation: isn't it alright in the mountain house?

Other similar expressions in French are "il n’a pas la lumière allumée à tous les étages” means “not every floor is lit."

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Do you love sewing, would love to be included in classes among like-minded people, or are a novice willing to learn how to sew? Check out Naver Couture in Aubonne where you can participate, order, and celebrate around sewing and creating.

Do you have a sewing machine that needs servicing? Would you like to organize a party with a sewing theme? Do you prefer having a one-on-one lesson?

Naver Couture is also an official Elna Suisse dealer and offers 10% off the retail prices through their website.

Since we wrote an article about Naver Couture in 2020 at this link, lots of changes have been made. Nathalie Underhill has been building up her sewing classes and bespoke curtain orders to include much more.

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Know-it-all passport®'s upcoming workshop on Raising Multilingual Children

Hotel Cornavin
Thursday, 18 January 2024
18h-22h

Raising Multilingual Children: Foreign Language Acquisition and Children

This interactive workshop on raising multilingual children will be led, once again, by the world-renowned specialist in education and neuroscience, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.. Half Japanese-American and half Irish-Native American, Tracey is married to an Ecuadorian and has 3 adult children who all speak fluent English, Spanish and German, and some French.

Currently teaching a successful course on The Neurscience of Learning and Achievement at Harvard University Extension School and Harvard College, Tracey has written numerous books on the brain and learning. Her first book, “Raising Multilingual Children: Foreign Language Acquisition and Children”, is especially popular with international parents facing the challenges of raising children in a multilingual environment. She has now written 11 books and keeps going! Her latest book is entitled, "Questions Kids Ask About Their Brains: How the Answers Help Students Learn and Teachers Teach".

Language acquisition: the key to success

According to Tracey, there are Ten Key Factors, which influence every student’s success with new languages:

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We found out about a new publication that helps those starting their career. Written by local author C. R. Williams (aka Carl Williams), this guidebook was released in April 2023. We caught up with the author and asked a few questions. He is also offering a signed book as a competition prize, so read down to the bottom.

What has been the inspiration behind the book?
The catalyst was hearing (for the umpteenth time) the comment; “why don’t they teach that at school?” For anyone who has worked professionally, it’s evident that formal education continues to bypass many of the core learnings we need to successfully navigate through life’s labyrinth. The “one size fits all” education structure and process – from elementary through University – is a modern day anomaly. It’s a remnant of the industrial revolution and something which nobody, thus far, has had the political will to take it on. The question remains: “how can something so glaring be so blatantly ignored for so long?” So, I wrote this book to try and fill some of the gaps. It highlights the things you’ll definitely encounter, either when entering the workforce or after a few years of toiling away, and provides readers with tools, ideas and established best practises to help them cut through the molasses.

Have you been working on this idea forever, or was it something that came to you recently?
The idea first came to me when my eldest son graduated from University in 2014. At that point I went through a classic ideation process, gathering input from various parties vis-à-vis what skills, knowledge and mind-set would be really useful to improve the chances of having a fulfilling professional career. I then compared and contrasted those with the subjects being taught in schools and found an abyss!

What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome?
The book was published in April 2023 so it took circa nine years to hatch. That is some gestation period! There were two obstacles: 1. Allocating the time to do the job properly when working full-time and helping to raise a family and 2. Writer’s block. The latter I ultimately overcame by fully committing to “90 minutes for 90 days” from 7h-8h30. I also used an interesting structure to write chapters.