The world is a big place. It’s an even bigger place for a child. One of the best ways to teach your child about a new country is to visit it, and although international travel is a great family experience, it can also be costly and time consuming. There are some simple and affordable ways to teach your children about the world without purchasing plane tickets. We polled our staff at Tea and gathered our top three ways to teach your kids the world without opening your front door.

1) Talk about the world.
“Growing up, we didn’t have money for international travel so we had to imagine our foreign trips using an old globe in our living room. My father would spin it and wherever our fingers would stop was where we’d take our “vacation.” We’d then imagine life in these faraway lands- what would we pack for our Middle Eastern trip? Is it cold in Beijing in the winter? What’s the food like in Morocco? To this day, I still can’t help spinning a globe whenever I walk by one to see where I should “vacation” that day.”

2) Cook globally.
“I was a very picky eater growing up. I knew that when I had kids I wanted them to open themselves up to trying new foods and experiences. So we made preparing dinners a family experience. If we have Mexican food, my kids will prepare the salsa. If I make curry, they’ll help me make pita chips. I have to admit, some nights aren’t a hit and I do have to end up preparing macaroni and cheese. But, it’s worth trying especially for the nights when dinner goes as planned—like when my four-year-old actually rolled and ate her own avocado and cream cheese sushi roll!”

3) Incorporate a new language into everyday life
“I wanted my two boys to learn French but I didn’t know where to start. So, we started with what would be easy: food. We labeled all of the food in the house with their French translation. After weeks of referring to apples as les pommes and milk as lait I was ready to give up and then my 3 year-old asked for fromage with their crackers. Small changes really do make the difference.”

Our Tea staffers prove that bringing the world home is actually pretty easy. How do you teach your kids to be globally inspired? Share your tips below in the comments section.

This is a topic that resonates with most parents raising their children to speak a second or third language, often doing so for some combination of cultural heritage and desire for their children to have that extra advantage in the future.

All three CEOs said our educational system is not doing enough to prepare our children for the global marketplace. Their companies need people who are able to work across borders, engage in cross-cultural teamwork and communicate with people of other cultures. Ursula Burns also noted that we are closing down our borders in the U.S. (accepting fewer immigrants and asking international students to leave) right at the time we need more international brainpower to drive innovation and execute on the entrepreneurial abundance here in the U.S. “The future of big tech is going to be compromised if we keep pushing out international talent.”

The fact that fewer students from abroad can get educated here will also mean fewer bridges between our country and others. Two CEOs pointed out that they do business with people running major companies in other countries who were educated in the U.S. and therefore understand the American way of working. Personal relationships are key, and many are formed in undergrad, grad and business schools, when international students study abroad. Fewer international students today may mean fewer American CEOs at international tables in the future.

CEOs love facts and numbers and these CEOs were no different. They reminded us that there are 6 billion people in the world, only 300 million of whom are in the U.S.

• All successful big businesses are selling to and working with the international marketplace.

• Over 50% of the revenues collected by their three mega corporations (total of over $80 billion) came from OUTSIDE the U.S.

• International sales are currently the biggest growth area for most U.S. Fortune 500 corporations.

Our K-12 schools are not doing enough to prepare our kids in math, reading, science and language, so what can we do to prepare for this shift?

• Globalization is here to stay (Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, notes he revived the entire company by going global), so as leaders we need to have a “healthy paranoia” about getting left behind in the global economy. We need to pay better attention to what is happening in other countries and make sure we remain competitive.

• Companies in the U.S. need to step up and partner with the government to improve schools and provide more educational opportunities (one such example is the “Change the Equation Foundation” that helps kids improve in science and is funded by the private and public sectors)

• We need to rethink how we teach kids using new technology at our disposal (John Chambers of Cicsco mentioned his two year old granddaughter’s seamless use of the iPad and questions how tablets, e-readers, and other new such devices are going to be integrated into the classroom)

Ursula Burns ended the keynote panel by saying she felt the most important question we need to be asking as a nation is “what are we going to do prepare our children to participate in the global economy?” She feels this means more science and math, and more exposure to the tools that will help our kids become global citizens.

We know that speaking a foreign language will give our kids at least one of the tools they will need… Do you agree with their take on where things are going? You can post your comments to our Facebook or Twitter page.

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Digital moms’ influence as the “chief decision maker” for their families, extended families and friends continues to grow. In turn, the Mommy Tech market has grown into a $90 billion dollar marketplace driven by tech-savvy women who are recognized as both powerful consumers and advocates for new technology.

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Me with Elga Wasserman, an instrumental faculty member who oversaw Yale going coed in 1969. Her interview is the cornerstone of my film.

It was great to be back at Yale; a place that holds wonderful memories for me. I was reminded of how much I learned at the tender age of 21 when I conducted the interviews for our film. These women paved the way for all of us – Yale was truly a bastion of male power until 1969, when women were begrudgingly admitted amidst vocal protests from a large percentage of the alumni.

Before the screening, I met with a group of students interested in starting their own businesses. Eight aspiring entrepreneurs got up early (early for students!) to meet for breakfast at one of my old favorite spots, the charming Claire’s Cornucopia. Over decadent Lithuanian Coffee Cake we talked about how Little Pim was launched and what obstacles I had to overcome to start the business. They shared some of their business ideas in various stages of incubation. It was great to meet Yale’s future entrepreneurs, and perhaps future Mompreneurs, who knows?

The business leaders of the future...

I wish them all the best of luck and, since I agree with Woody Allen that showing up is 90% of success, they are all on their way to making it.

Panel about the making of Boola Boola. (From left to right) Presca Ahn (Yale '10), Julia Pimsleur Levine (Yale '90) and Eliza Byard, co-producer of the film (Yale '90).

Fun things to do in the car:
1) Play a game where every child gets a point for naming an object you see out the window in another language. Whoever gets the most points gets a treat at the next rest stop or on arrival. you can help out by naming objects the first time (a tree = “un arbre” or a car = “une voiture”) and your kids can call them out the next time.
2) Print out the Little Pim coloring pages from our web site and have kids color them in the back seat (you’ll need crayons and a lap desk or a hard cover book to lean). Go to GAMES on the web site and print out up to 10 pictures of Little Pim to color in, with vocabulary included.
3) Play music in a foreign language and encourage your kids to sing a long
4) Bring flash cards and award prizes for the child who gets the most right, or with one child, a small treat if they can get 5 right in a row.
5) Play “I spy” in the language they are learning. Point out things in the car, in other cars, or in the scenery.

Fun stuff to do on an airplane:
1) Play with flash cards (home made or store bought)
2) Color in Little Pim coloring pages (see above)
3) Get some snacks and put them on the fold out table (i.e. peanuts, pretzels) and count them in the foreign language
4) Write a letter to a member of the family with some foreign language words included (or pictures your child draws, labeled in French/Spanish/Chinese, etc.). Make a big production of mailing it when you arrive at your destination.

Fun stuff to do on a bicycle (you thought I was kidding!):
1) Shout out all the parts of the body in the foreign language
2) Sing verses from simple foreign language songs you both know together
3) Play a made up game where each time you stop, point out an object and if your child can name it in the foreign language (i.e. bus, ice cream, car) then they get a point. When they get to 5 points they get a special treat at home!