Dressing Up, Dads and Dining In the Dark
As economic difficulties continue, we're looking for ways to cheer ourselves up and apparently one way, according to two of our latest lessons, is by dressing up ourselves and our pets...in fancy dress! 11.5 percent of American shoppers will dress up their pets this year according to a recent survey and many plan to spend more money this year on Halloween costumes. Experts say this increase in spending may be due to a desire to 'escape' from the economic doldrums...for an evening. (Upper Intermediate Instant Lesson 'Halloween').

As well as dressing up pets for Halloween, people are now buying appropriate attire for their pets to wear at weddings. A German retailer sells festival clothing for dogs and wedding clothes. 'Male dogs going to weddings can wear dinner jackets, female dogs can wear wedding dresses.' Make sure you do this lesson so you know what's now expected at weddings! (Elementary Instant Lesson 'Fancy Pooch'.)

On a more serious note, our latest Advanced Instant Lesson looks at the 'Iku-men' in Japan, a small but growing number of men who become stay-home dads. " When I decided to take leave, my parents told me that it was the end of my working life,"a product developer who took a month off for paternity leave last April, said. "When I told my boss and my colleagues, it felt like everyone around me was saying 'that's the guy who's going to take leave'," he said.

If you're looking for something to do with a class, why not be inspired by our latest Intermediate Instant Lesson 'Blind Date' and set up a restaurant in the dark? A second restaurant with the same idea of serving food in the dark with blind waiters as staff has now been set up in London. Our lesson looks at what makes this latest restaurant special and then suggests how you and your students can recreate the experience in your classroom.

Click here to access the new resources.

- Fancy Pooch - Elementary Instant Lesson Dog owners are dressing up their dogs for weddings, festivals and costume parties. (Fancy dress, shopping habits, dogs, will for future facts and deciding something at the moment of speaking.)

- Blind Date - Intermediate Instant Lesson Dining in a completely dark room, unaware what's on your plate while sitting next to a complete stranger may not sound like an ideal restaurant experience but it's certainly an intriguing way to spend a rainy night in London. (Food, blind, London, the five senses.)

- Halloween - Upper Intermediate Instant Lesson Whether it's ghosts or goblins or candy and costumes, Americans are ready to spend far more on Halloween this year than last, an estimated $5.8 billion, and they aren't leaving their pets out of the fun. (Halloween, consumer spending, fancy dress costumes.)

- Japan's "Iku-men" - Advanced Instant Lesson There is a tiny but growing number of Japanese men opting for paternity leave despite the risk to their careers. (Stayhome dads, parental leave, Japan, employment issues.)

- Top ten most mustache-dense countries - Intermediate and above Weekly Warmer This warmer encourages discussion and practice scanning as students answer a quiz about the countries where mustaches and beards are most popular.

- Acad Word List 3 – Max V Worksheet The Academic Word List (AWL) is a list of the 3,000 words most often used in English-language academic writing.

- Blind Dates - Instant Workbook This intermediate online lesson has 8 exercises about 'Eating Blind' around the world.

For access to these and more than 1,700 other resources

This month's Point of Interest comes from the Upper-Intermediate Instant Lesson "Halloween":

'Whether it's ghosts or goblins or candy and costumes, Americans are ready to spend far more on Halloween this year than last, an estimated $5.8 billion, and they aren't leaving their pets out of the fun ." A survey by National Retail Federation (NRF) showed the single largest expense will be on costumes for children, adults and pets.
"This year, people are expected to embrace Halloween with even more enthusiasm," Matt Shay, the chief executive of the NRF said in a statement, noting that the pagan holiday has given Americans a welcome mental break from the stress of the economic doldrums.
Two out of five Americans plan to wear a costume this year, up from one-third last year, and about 11.5 percent of shoppers will dress up their pets.
Americans will spend an average of $66.28 on Halloween, including $23.37 a costume, $20.29 on candy and $18.66 on decorations...
"Costumes do allow you to have escapism -- for one night you are able to be whoever you want to be ," Detzi said.
Although spending on Halloween is small compared to the Christmas holidays and back-to-school, it will give a boost to U.S. retailers, who are still struggling with sluggish consumer spending.
The survey showed that many people are still spooked by the state of the economy. About 30 percent said economic concerns are affecting their spending plans, with cuts most likely in candy but not costumes.
"Americans are excited about Halloween but are still being frugal," said BIGresearch executive vice president Phil Rist.'

Thomson Reuters 2010