Family relations. Household chores
Activity 1. “Man is the head of the family, woman the neck that turns the head” (a Chinese proverb).
“It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons” (J. Schiller).
You’ve already got acquainted with some students from other countries at the conference and you want to know your new friend/s better. Ask him/her:
whether he/she has any siblings (sisters/brothers);
which member of his/her family he/she has a particularly close relationship with;
whether he/she tells his/her parents secrets;
whether he/she is married or single, has a girlfriend/boyfriend;
whether his/her family gets together on holidays;
how household chores are shared among the members of his/her family;
how often he/she spring-cleans his/her house/flat and how long it takes him/her to do it;
what he/she does to make his/her work more pleasant (e.g. switch on his/her favourite music, anticipate the result or the reward for your help, etc.).
Activity 2. “The family is a haven in a heartless world.” (Attributed to Ch. Lasch)
Step 1. A friend of yours has written you a letter complaining that he had a squabble (= a noisy argument) with his brother because they didn’t see eye to eye on the role of the family in present-day society. He put his brother’s views in a nutshell (= expressed briefly) in the following way:
Trying to put his brother straight in this respect, your friend asked you to listen to a radio presentation about the role of the family and help him find some sensible arguments to back his own views because he’s at his wits’ end. Listen to it (Rec. 2) and jot down the essential information correcting the statements and adding the necessary arguments against.
The following words and expressions may help you understand the recording better:
provide – give, present
reply – answer
inherit attributes from – get certain characteristics from
vital – essential, important
thrive – be prosperous
value – the importance or worth of something for someone
commitment – when you are willing to give your time and energy to something that you believe in, or a promise or firm decision to do something
instil, (instill- NAmE) (in) – to put a feeling, idea or principle gradually into someone's mind, so that it has a strong influence on the way they think or behave
differentiate – make smb stand out, be different
cope (with) – to deal successfully with a difficult situation
endure – to suffer something difficult, unpleasant or painful trying to get over it
persist – continue to exist
Step 2. Report the statements back to the class.
Step 3. Talk to each other. Convince your partner (who is of the same view as your friend’s brother) that he’s holding the wrong end of the stick (= has misconceptions) concerning family issues. Expand by discussing what ‘a family’ means to you.
Activity 3. “Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future” (Gail Lumet Buckley).
American children live in a variety of family forms. For example, some children live in a nuclear family, many others live with a sole parent, while some others live with one biological or adoptive parent and one step-parent. Some are taken care of by other relatives or foster parents. The parents of some children are married, while others are not. Some children even live with parents of the same-sex. It is important to mention that couples without children also constitute a family. It is therefore, vital to learn about various family structures and constructs, and to understand that different families deal with different strengths and values, as well as different needs and issues. Do you agree?
Step 1. “Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family” (Anthony Brandt, the editor of the Adventure Classics series). Work in groups of four (A, B, C, D). Student A reads the information from card A. Student B reads the information from card B. Student C reads the information from card C. Student D reads the information from card D. Use Appendix 1. Exchange the information – in your groups tell each other as much as you remember about different types of families in the USA.
Step 2. “When our relatives are at home, we have to think of all their good points or it would be impossible to endure them” (George Bernard Shaw).
In pairs decide what type of family in the USA
- has only one parent who earns money and raises a child/children;
- includes a great variety of members that live together;
- is becoming common;
- is the typical and best for children;
- is called when parents cannot bring up their children and their parents do that instead of them;
- includes people of different race;
- adopts a child without a spouse;
- has more problems because of biologically unrelated children and their habits;
- consists of two loving hearts: two men or two women + children;
- is called when a man and a woman create a family with their children from former relationships;
- pay much attention to the children of spouses’ siblings because of not having their own;
- consists of two spouses of different sex and children.
Step 3. Report your ideas back to the class.
Step 4. “The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.” (George Santayana)
Discuss with your partner what type of the family you or your relatives live in. Express your thoughts about each type of the families you’ve read and heard. What might be the pros and cons of living in such families.
Activity 4. “To do or not to do”.
Step 1. Have a look at the following set of pics and say what is common what is different about them. How do you understand their message? Do you agree with the message? To what extent? Justify your choice. Use the phrases in Appendix 2.
|
|
|
|
Step 2. “I think housework is the reason most women go to the office”(Heloise Cruse).
Discuss with your partner where and how you usually use various household appliances (see the table with the functions) and cleaning supplies. You’re also welcome to use the following prompts (standing for various types of household chores):
|
|
WORD
|
MEANING
|
dishwasher |
electric appliance that washes dishes; can be “built-in” (under a sink) or “portable” (moved and attached to the sink when in use) |
dryer |
electric appliance used to dry laundry |
fridge |
electric appliance used for keeping food cold |
freezer |
electric appliance used for keeping food frozen (very cold) |
microwave |
electric appliance for “cooking” food quickly |
oven |
electric appliance for baking and heating food |
stove, range |
elements on top of an oven for heating, frying, and boiling food |
washing machine |
electric appliance for cleaning laundry |
broom |
brush with a long handle on it for sweeping floors |
dust pan |
flat container used for collecting dirt and dust swept up with a broom |
duster |
a cleaning tool with a handle and feathers (or a soft cloth) used for wiping dust off surfaces |
garbage or trash bin/can (AmE) |
container with a lid that holds large garbage bags |
gloves |
coverings for the hands, with separate holes for the fingers |
mop |
long stick with a sponge at the bottom that is soaked in water and soap; used for cleaning floors |
scrub brush |
a brush with a handle on it; often used for cleaning toilets |
sponge |
a soft cleaning product that absorbs water and is used for washing surfaces |
vacuum cleaner /hoover |
a machine that sucks up dust and dirt on the floor as you push it around |
Step 3. With your partner decide to which household chores there are no appliances in the table. Add as many necessary appliances and utensils as possible.
Step 4. Present your ideas to the class.
Activity 5. Prioritising/categorising.
Step 1. What message does this pic convey?
Step 2. Discuss with your partner the following:
whether he/she organises his/her household chores or not and why;
how he/she does it (easily or with difficulty; alone or with the other members of his/her family) and why;
what categories he/she splits them into and why;
if he/she sticks to those categories.
Activity 6. “There was no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn’t get any worse” (Quentin Crisp, “The Naked Civil Servant”, 1968).
Discuss with your partner what household chores you:
hate doing and why;
do very often and why;
used to do when you were a child and why;
do quite rarely and why;
have never done in your life and why.
if you/re used to categorising/prioritising household chores.
Activity 7. “There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands” (Eleanor Roosevelt).
Step 1. Look at the pictures and try to guess what dialogue can be between parents and children, a wife and a husband or neighbours:
a |
b |
c |
d |
e |
f |
g |
h |
Step 2. Discuss with your partner what you think is common and what is different in the pictures presented above. Report your ideas back to the class.
Home task 1. Complete the sentences below with the best answer:
(Making/creating/doing) household chores is a necessary part of our life. My family consists of four people. Every member has their own duties.
Speaking about my duties, I usually (rinse/sweep/wash up) the floor, (clear/tidy/wash) my room, (clear/tidy/clean) the shoes, (dust/wash/clear) or (tidy up/polish/pick up) the furniture. It's not easy to do every kind of work at home, you know.
However, it’s my sister’s job to (set up/set/upset) the table before dinner with (utensils/liquids/detergents), cups, and (napkins/dustbins/sponges). If I have a holiday party at home, I can help my mother and grandmother a lot. After the party I always do the (washing/washing-up/mopping). I have to use different (vacuum cleaners/washing liquids/mops) because the dishes are really very dirty and greasy as they’re covered in a lot of grease or oil. How happy mother is to see everything is bright!
When the (garbage can/garbage truck/garbage bin) comes down the street, it’s my brother’s duty to (rinse the trash /sweep the trash /take out the trash). If his clothes are (scattered/ironed/soaked) all over the room, I tell him to (rinse them up/empty them up/pick them up) and put them into the (cupboard/wardrobe/cabinet).
So, we must do our household chores, because if we didn’t do them, our flat would look like a (hoover/scrub brush/trash bin).
Home task 2. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate word or word combination from the box. There are three you won’t need to use.
reply |
cope (with) |
thrive |
value |
differentiate |
commitment |
vital |
provide |
instil |
inherit attributes from |
put to rights |
endure |
deal (with) |
persist |
sweep |
A family, they say, mirrors society in itself. Its importance lies in the fact that it_______________________ the building blocks for you as an individual. And healthy individuals within healthy families cement a healthy society and nation.
Pause for a few seconds and ask yourself, "Why do you work so hard? What motivates you to do so day after day?” Most readers may ____________ “My family”, and may provide reasons to support their answer. But, what is a family? All of us ______________________our physical ____________________ from our parents. Families are our most intimate social environment. They are the places where we begin the ________________________ processes of socializing our children and teaching them how to survive and ___________________ in the world. _________________ such as patience, care, understanding and ___________________________, which were _____________________ you by your family, ___________________________ you from the rest.
Your family creates the right environment where you learn your first words and to understand and ______________________ the physical world. It is the place, where you learn how a family works, by observing how your parents, grandparents, your siblings and rest of the family members ____________________ each other.
Life in families can bring us great joy or pain, depending upon how well individual relationships in a family are. A healthy marriage and family can be a valuable resource for helping us _______________________ the difficulties that life brings us. Dysfunctional or unhealthy relationships can create terrible problems that can persist from one generation to the next.
Home task 3. Fill in the following table. Be ready to present your views in class.
|
Who can you see in the picture and what is she doing? |
How is she feeling now?
|
|
What household appliances is she using?
|
|
Describe the functions |
|
Arguments for the statement
|
|
Arguments against the statement in the picture
|
|
Начало формы
Конец формы