Au Pair Chatter

Here is another fun website with ideas to go along with this week’s Outer Space theme.

Get Crafty: Space Mobile

Make your own star mobile!

What you need:

• - Yellow construction paper
• - String or yarn
• - 2 plastic straws
• - Hole puncher
• - Scissors
• - Pencil
• - Eraser
• - Stapler

Steps:

1. Draw 6-8 stars on the yellow construction paper. Each one should be a different shape or size.
2. When you’re finished, ask a parent to help you cut out the shapes. Cut around the outside of the lines and then use an eraser to remove the pencil marks.
3. Parent Alert: Using the hole puncher, pierce a hole at the top of each star.
4. Cut a piece of string for each of the stars and tie it around the hole. Tip: Vary the length of the string to help your mobile come to life.
5. Parent Alert: Pick up two straws and make the shape of the letter “X” with them. Staple the straws together where the two meet.
6. Cut and tie a long piece of string to where the staple is and then tie the rest of the strings to one of the four limbs of the X.
7. Hang your mobile by the long string in the middle and in your room from the ceiling or in a favorite corner somewhere around the house. Now, you can look at the stars anytime you want!

Craft from Funschool.com

Also: Printable Space Word Jumble & Shuttle Shuffle

I thought this video was a nice explanation of how to make the delicious summertime treat known as s’mores. If you really want to live it up, try replacing the Hershey Bar with a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup! Yum

Looking for some cool summer fun indoors? Bass Pro Shops (located in Arundel Mills Mall) is offering a variety of free craft activities Tuesdays & Thursdays from 4-6 pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 2-5 pm, now through July 10.

Click here to see the full list on the Bass Pro Shops website

Bass Pro Shops has a large indoor fish tank that my kids always enjoy checking out. For older kids, there is a rock climbing wall (for a charge.)

Additional activities are available. Check with your host parents before taking the kids to participate in these or any activities.

Arundel Mills also has a Lego Store, movie theater and Dave & Busters Game Arcade.  It’s not right around the corner (30 minutes from most parts of our cluster,) but worth the drive, if you plan to make a day of it with the kids.

In the April kids activity kits, I included peat pots, potting soil and sunflower seeds. At the last coffee meeting, I received many reports of how well the sunflowers were growing and how excited the kids were to watch them grow. Tina was kind enough to send me some pictures she has taken to document the process of growing the sunflowers with her host child.

Have you ever heard the figure of speech “to have a green thumb?”  It means to have the ability to grow plants well. I personally do not have a green thumb, but it looks like some of our au pairs and host children do.

As these sunflowers get bigger, it will be time to move them to a larger pot or outside. It would be great if some of these survived the summer and you were able to harvest some sunflower seeds in the fall. If your sunflowers make it through the summer, please send me a picture!

Finished Project

Supplies:
construction paper (various colors)
pencil
scissors
stapler
clear tape
drinking straws or chenille stem (pipe cleaners)

Step by Step Instructions

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Au Pair in America and the beginning of legal au pair programs in America, we will be hosting a Regional Cultural Fair. 

When: April 9th, 2011, 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Where: Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park 
               7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, MD 

Who’s Invited: This is a free family event and open to the public.

All of the clusters in the DC/MD/VA area will be participating. We expect to have au pairs representing over 35 different countries. Anyone interested in learning about other cultures and the Au Pair in America program are invited. For more information, email me at cicaupair @ aol.com

There are so many great events and things to see and do in the DC Metro area.  You can spend a lot of money experiencing it, unless you look for deals.  I have three websites that I am subscribed to that send local offers (for the areas of your choice) on a regular basis.

How does it work? All three of these websites allow you to register for free to receive emails with offers in the area(s) of your choice. Groupon and Living Social are daily and Goldstar has a variety of options. I am subscribed for a weekly Goldstar email. If you see an offer you like in the email, you go to their website and buy it. Read the restrictions carefully to make sure of important details such as: at which locations can it be used, the expiration date and special restrictions.

I am signed up for Washington, DC and Baltimore area deals on all of these sites. If I am planning a trip to an area in the future, I sign up for that area as well to look for deals on things I can do on my trip.

Groupon – Click HERE to register.
My fave deals – I bought a Segway Tour of Annapolis for $25 (regular price $50.)  I am planning to use this in the spring. I have gotten lots of other deals for things like salon services, Redbox rentals, places to take the kids and restaurants.

Living Social – Click HERE to register.
My fave deals -  I bought a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. I just got a great deal on movie tickets.

Goldstar – Click HERE to register.
My fave deal – On Goldstar, they have tickets for the Twilight Convention coming to VA in April for $10 (regular price $20) that are tempting me.  They have tickets to all kinds of events, including: theater, kid’s events, sports and more.

I asked au pairs in our cluster to share some photos from their summer travels. Please vote for your favorite by clicking HERE.  The winning au pair will receive a free ticket to the Maryland Renaissance Festival for our upcoming cluster meeting.

Vote as many times as you would like and share the link to this page with your friends via email, Facebook, Twitter and where ever else you can think of.  Voting will end on Thursday, September 23 at 12 noon.

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Please vote for your favorite by clicking HERE

Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

It is great to see the world through the eyes of children.  There are simple things in day to day life that can be a thrill for young children.  Below are a few ideas to get you started thinking.  Try to take time for them to marvel at the world and see new things.

• A car wash (the drive through kind or a bucket and a water hose in the driveway at home)
• Parking on the street near a construction site to watch the big trucks
• Feeding ducks bread at the park
• Collecting leaves, pinecones and rocks
• Driving across a bridge where they can see the water
• Driving past a place where you can see animals
• Any place that has something out of the ordinary, like a fountain or sculpture