Summer can be a load of fun for au pairs and their host kids provided some thinking and planning is done ahead of time.  Bored children are not good companions, so au pairs need to BE PREPARED.
It’s not wise to try and wing it. A much better way is to have a list of possible activities ready for each week.
When deciding on an activity, au pairs need to offer their host kids options but not so many that the kids get confused or overly picky. With young children “either – or” is often the best way to go.
Once the decision is made, everybody can go for it & have FUN!

Put the music on!

And dance. Let the kids pick their own tunes and make their own moves. If host mom or dad decide to join as guest stars that’s all for the better.

Jump!

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick, or a line, a branch, with a jumping rope, on one leg or two, to a tune, to count a hundred jumping jacks… the possibilities are endless.

Have a ball with the ball

Kicking, throwing, passing along, catching, rolling, chasing, bouncing, balancing on the top of the head or the tip of the foot… all the wonderful things you can do with a ball will amuse your host kids for hours on end.

Read aloud with the kids

If your kids are old enough to be able to read, find a book with a lot of dialogue and read it together dividing the roles.  Make sure to read like pros with voice modulations, shouts and whispers when appropriate, hushed silences and stern commands. Encourage your kids to get into it and improvise if they wish.

Yoga with kids

It’s okay if you can’t put your legs around your neck, just trying, together with your kids, will provide enough fun and laughter. Then you can switch to dog, cat, snake and crocodile poses and you’ll all feel like in a zoo.

Sticks and stones

Gathering and using sticks, stones, cones, seeds, shells and other natural objects to create sculptures and collages will provide hours of imaginative play.

Be crafty

Most children enjoy doing crafts and are proud of their creations. You can work with simple and inexpensive household items (yarn, old buttons, a piece of string) and with craft store materials. Make sure that the level of skill required to complete the project is appropriate for the age of your host kids.

Get under the table

The best ever idea for a rainy day is making a tent out of a blanket, a table and a couple of chairs. Sharing stories, writing notes, or playing games is so much fun under the cozy cover.

Dressing-up

Dressing up, putting on make-up and strutting around in the special getup is a perennial favorite of all children. Encouraging & helping older kids to create their own costumes will fire their imagination and produce amazing results

Cooking up a storm

Making a pudding, fixing Jell-O, peeling hard-boiled eggs, rolling out dough, decorating cupcakes will create a bit of mess in the kitchen, but the yummy results are so worth it! Just make sure the kids stay away from hot oven and sharp utensils.

Outdoor play is more than merely supervising children – it is an interactive learning experience with endless possibilities, and is essential to a child’s development.

Researchers have found movement to be crucial to children’s development and are concerned with the amount of inactive time children spend watching television, playing video games or working with computers. An excellent resource on this topic is Jane Healy’s book Endangered Minds. It is shown that children need to have large amounts of unstructured playtime in order to develop well- rounded personalities, to build self-esteem and self-confidence, develop healthy social skills by participating in group activities, and to stimulate their intellectual development.

Playing outdoors allows children the physical freedom that is not always possible indoors. The more children move, the more they learn, and children can play outdoors year-round with appropriate clothing.

Children of all ages need to explore the outdoor environment and learn from their experiences. Children are able to learn about the four basic elements of nature — air, fire, earth and water.

They can find places to pretend they are whoever they want to be, such as a firefighter a super-hero or an animal.

There are places for creativity, such as drawing on the sidewalk with chalk or painting the driveway with water. Children can look for something heavy or light, something smooth or rough, something bright or dark, something man-made or natural, something huge or tiny, the possibilities are endless.

Creative outdoor play takes what is already on this earth and uses it in a way which is unique to a child: digging in the dirt or sand, making ditches and rivers where toy boats can float, or creating roads for toy trucks and cars. It means giving children the freedom for exploration and discovery. Children grow by daring, risking, failing, redoing and succeeding. Help children grow mentally and physically by playing outdoors whenever possible, giving them the opportunity to learn from the world around them.

Carnival is the time of festive celebrations just before the start of Lent, which in turn is the period of fasting and penitence preceding Easter.  Although Carnival is tied to the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church and used to be enjoyed in Catholic countries only, it is now celebrated all over the world…BUT… nobody does it better than New Orleans!! (even though we do get a bit of competition form Rio).

Huge, lavishly decorated floats start rolling down the New Orleans streets more than two weeks before Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday).  Parades, dress up parties, fancy balls, King Cake eating contests, costume competitions, and the jostles to catch Mardi Gras beads and doubloons get more intense as Lent and the need for sobriety approaches.

For au pairs in our cluster the carnival season is the time to get their purple, green, and gold outfits ready and join their host families in a quintessentially New Orleans experience.

Have fun and SEE YOU AT THE PARADES!!

For parade schedule please consult http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/schedule.html

P.S. Although gluttony is the order of the day during Carnival, for the health-minded a delicious and nutritious Mardi Gras Coleslaw recipe follows. Have it with your King Cake, lol.

MARDI GRAS SLAW
INGREDIENTS:

1/3 c frozen orange juice concentrate – thawed
1/3 c unseasoned rice vinegar
1/3 c canola oil
1 – 8 oz bag green cabbage
1- 8 oz bag purple cabbage
4 ears fresh corn or 2 cans niblet corn
2 med carrots peeled, grated
6 med green onions
1/2 c fresh cilantro chopped

PREPARATION:
Whisk orange juice concentrate, rice vinegar, and canola oil in small
bowl, season salt pepper – do ahead, cover refrigerate.

Combine slaw, corn, carrots, green onion, and cilantro in large bowl,
toss with dressing, coat well, let stand for 15 min for flavors to
blend. Toss again.

ENJOY!

Love is in the air on Valentine’s Day, but it doesn’t have to be romantic love only. Saint Valentine’s Day, observed annually on February 14, started as a celebration of intimate relationships, but has now turned into a joyful occasion to celebrate all amicable feelings.  In addition to diamonds, candlelit dinners, and bouquets of roses indulged in by starry–eyed lovers, we exchange Valentine cards, candy, pins, perfume, chocolates, and other tokens of affection with our near and dear.

This simple Valentine’s Day wreath is a lovely gift children can make for parents, grandparents, or a favorite teacher. The idea comes from http://www.dltk-holidays.com/valentines/mvwreath.html, a useful source of holiday themed arts and crafts projects. You may want to bookmark the site for future reference.