A lucky classroom full of American children recently received a fun (and flavorsome) lesson on French culture from Lucie, a French Au Pair in America au pair living with a host family in California! Visiting her host child’s school, Lucie had the opportunity to participate in French class and give the children a first-hand account of French culture and cuisine. She chose to focus her presentation on “La France aux 1000 fromages” and brought several cheese varieties for the class to sample, which went over quite well with her captivated audience. Everyone left the class with a full belly and a newfound fondness for France!
French au pair Lucie describes her experience sharing her culture with her host child’s class:
“When I think about French food, cheese is the first thing that comes to my mind (closely followed by pastries), and I quickly realized that most of our amazing French cheeses haven’t made it to America (yet). So I took over their French class, and introduced them to five different varieties of cheese.
Before I even started, one of the curious spirits of the classroom asked me how cheese was made, which was the perfect way to start off my presentation. From its creation, to the different categories of cheese, without forgetting to learn a bit more about French regions, I tried to cover every possible angle to turn them into real cheese connoisseurs by the end of the hour.
They all seemed very interested, and really enjoyed trying to find what category the cheeses I brought belonged to… but their favorite part was when they got to finally try all the cheeses! Most of the kids had never tried such cheeses before, and surprisingly absolutely loved them! It took them less than 10 minutes to finish them all, plus all the bread. The activity was a huge success, and at the end the children voted to make it a regular thing. They are now expecting me to come every Tuesday…with new food to discover!”
Learning has never been so much fun! By sharing her culture with her host child’s class, Lucie has given them a true taste—literally—of France, sparking their interest in the world beyond their American classroom. Thanks to Lucie for providing this cross-cultural learning experience to her community!
Is your family interested in learning about international cultures with an engaging au pair like Lucie? Learn more about the cultural benefits of hosting an au pair!
