Bettina Velona's Au Pair Blog

Bettina's au pair group

Boston area community counselors

On Sunday, we celebrated the holidays with other Boston area au pair clusters at the Scout House in Concord.  Over 150 au pairs participated in the au pair holiday gala.

Counselors supplied holiday music, decorations, main dishes like ham, turkey, lasagna, as well as a holiday punch.  Each au pair was asked to bring food to share from her country.

Au pairs also participated in a gift swap game during which they were asked questions like “Who has visited the Grand Canyon,” or “Who has an American boyfriend?” As you can imagine, there was a lot of laughter involved.

Gift Exchange Game

As a conclusion to a fun evening, au pairs also split up into country groups to sing traditional holiday songs from their country.   Here are a few samples:

At the end of the evening, the au pairs got together with their counselors and received a gift.

For more photos and videos of our holiday party please go to Holiday Party 2011 and Au Pair Holiday Party 2011

Our Au Pair Cluster

This month, our au pair cluster joined three others and ventured out to Boylston, MA for  country linedancing at Bay Path Barn.

Learning the steps

Au Pairs lined up in a big hall and followed owner Mary Rinker’s dance step instructions.  Mary first walked everybody through a dance without the music and then we got to practice with music.    It took a little while getting used to the different steps, but it became easier to follow along as time went on.  Dances we learned included the Cotton Eyed Joe, the Mama Maria and the Kick Step.

practicing the steps

Also part of our meeting this month was a talk about winter driving and cold/flu prevention.   This satisfies the State Department requirement of an quarterly child development/safety meeting.  We also welcomed our newest arrivals who had a chance to connect with the group.

Check out these two videos of au pairs first learning the steps, and then practicing them with a song:

For more photos and videos of our meeting, please go to Country Linedancing

Join us for

Apple Picking

For Au Pairs and Host Families at as well as families interested in our program

Carver Hill Orchard in Stow, MA

Come meet au pairs and host families from three Boston area clusters

http://www.carverhill.com/

Date:  Saturday, September 24, 2011

Time: 3-5pm

Where:  Brookside Ave, Stow, MA

We will offer organized activities for the kids as well as informational material.

We have the covered picnic tables reserved.  If you would like, you can bring blankets or chairs and food for a picnic.  We will supply water as well as apple cider and apple cider donuts.

In addition to apple picking, Carver Hill Orchard offers the following activities for added fun:

Hiking Trails

Hayrides

Children’s Activity in the Orchard

Farm Stand

Hot Dog Stand

Host families:  this satisfies your requirement to attend an annual host family workshop

Au Pairs:  this is our monthly meeting for September

Please RSVP by Monday, September 19.

We hope you can join us!

This month I teamed up with two other local counselors and we planned a trip to Concord, MA.  The au pairs were going to start canoeing at the South Bridge and make their way to the North Bridge.  There, we were going to welcome them with a prepared picnic.    Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate that day and on the next day, which was the rain date.

We made the best of it and I met my group of au pairs for an inside picnic at my house.   We sat around my table and had good conversations.    These meetings are a chance for au pairs to talk about their experience as an au pair and bring up topics to discuss with the group.  It is often very helpful for them to hear others talk about an issue that they might experience.

We also got a chance to say good-bye to Nadege who will be going home to France after 2 years.   We welcomed two new au pairs, Mai and Meilikano to our group.   I always have the departing au pair say a few words about her experience and suggest sharing anything she finds helpful with the newer au pairs.

For more photos please go to June Meeting

This January, our cluster met other Boston area au pairs to go night time snowtubing in Nashoba Valley.   We have  au pairs that come from countries that usually don’t get snow and many of them are excited to participate in winter activities.  After enjoying a cup of hot chocolate and treats, au pairs braved the elements and headed for the slopes.

For more pictures please visit Snowtubing 2011

This month, our au pair group visited “Not-Me” in East Arlington, where owner Erik Kondo held a “Beyond Awareness – Physical Assertiveness for the Street”  self-defense class.  The class focused mainly on non-physical aspects of self-defense, like the decision not to be a victim, situational awareness, one’s attitudes and appearance,  assertiveness, body language, boundary setting, and steps on how to de-escalate an aggressive situation.   Erik and his assistants took us through potential aggressive situations and we got to practice strategies that we had discussed earlier.

This month’s meeting satisfies the State Department mandated quarterly childcare/safety meeting.   It also supports Au Pair in America’s high standard for safety.   Erik’s strategies can be applied to every day life and hopefully most of us will find ourselves remembering some of the things he taught us to keep ourselves and others safe.

We even made it onto the “Not-Me” blog.  Check it out at Not-Me.

For more pictures of our meeting please visit Au Pair Self Defense

Pumpkins

a lively exchange

Last Sunday, four Au Pair in America Community Counselors hosted an Au Pair and Host Family Picnic at Honey Pot Hill Orchard in Stow, MA.  This annual event offers au pairs and host families a chance to meet and connect with other families and au pairs in the program and to share a special New England fall tradition.

Our picnic satisfies the State Department requirement for Au Pair in America to offer at least one mandatory host family workshop a year.  This year, our focus was on International Day of Peace, which is today,  September 21.   As an au pair agency, we bring different cultures together, building a bridge of understanding so important in our world today.  Au pairs and host children had a chance to decorate peace rocks:

Au pairs and host families enjoyed this visit to the apple orchard and took advantage of what the farm had to offer: apple picking, hay wagon rides, farm animals, a hedge maze, apple cider and apple cider donuts.   For more photos please go to Au Pair and Host Family Picnic

Community Counselors

Canoeing The Concord River

We had so much fun last weekend at our August cluster meeting.  We met at the boathouse in Concord and rented 3 canoes.   In groups of 4 or 5 we canoed up the Concord River.  There were lots of laughs involved.   Afterwards, we had a nice picnic by the riverside and enjoyed Thai food, snacks and Lemon Pound Cake.

Some of the new au pairs had a chance to talk to the more seasoned au pairs about courses they are interested in taking.   As part of the au pair program, au pairs are required to take 6 credits or 80 hours in the classroom.  Many au pairs take ESL classes to improve their English, or courses where they learn about American culture.  Of course many au pairs are excited to be part of the Harvard Extension School experience.

Going down the river

For more pictures of our meeting, go to Canoeing Pictures