German Au Pair Derya, who lives with her host family in the Seattle area, recently visited a pre-school classroom to teach the children about her home country as part of a presentation for Global Awareness, a program developed by Au Pair in America to promote cross-cultural communication and understanding. Derya brought with her a special helper who was also extremely knowledgeable about Germany: a monkey puppet!
Derya explained that she was trying to find an interesting way to talk about her home country that a group of pre-schoolers would want to sit through. Her host child loves when Derya plays with puppets, so she brought the monkey puppet to the classroom and made it ask her questions about Germany. The kids were enthralled!
Derya talks about her experience: “At first I said that Germany was far away and that if I’d fly back now it would take me 12 hours – which is about 36 episodes of a popular kids series (LEGO Ninjago). After that, the puppet came out and wanted to join the presentation. I told the kids that Germany is small in comparison to the USA. I showed the kids a map of the USA and gave the example that Germany is only half the size of Texas. After that the puppet wanted to add an example and said, ‘If the USA was a Christmas tree, Germany would be an ornament.’ I also taught the puppet a German Christmas song (‘Es schneit’) and the puppet ‘needed help’ from the children, so they sang it together with him. I also taught the children (and the puppet) German words and showed them how to count in German. During the presentation the children listened patiently. The puppet really helped to keep the children on track, and I recommend other people to do that in front of little children.
I learned how important it is to exchange information and experiences from your home country. In this way people from different countries connect, which shows us that we live in different countries but in one world. Thank you for that experience.”
Thank you, Derya, for spreading the message of cultural exchange!
Is your family looking for an international cultural experience in addition to excellent child care from an engaging, caring au pair like Derya? Learn more about Au Pair in America!
