Category Archives: Fun Things We Do

Holiday & Vacation Reminders

May 15, 2017 – 1:25 pm

“Rest and be thankful.” – William Wordsworth

Holidays and vacations are a great opportunity to rest, recharge and explore the U.S.

Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start of summer travel season. Here are some reminders about program rules regarding holidays and vacations.

Holidays

Host families are not required to give au pairs any specific holidays.
Each host family will make different arrangements on holidays, some au pairs will be off and others will be required to work.
Au pairs should not make plans for holidays without checking with your host family first.

Vacations

Au pairs earns 2 weeks of paid vacation during the course of her year.
Vacation time should be mutually agreed upon.
All vacation should be preplanned (at least 4 weeks in advance.)
All au pair’s friends and/or family visits/vacations should be pre-approved prior to purchasing tickets.
If an au pair travels with her host family, it should be discussed in advance whether this is the au pair’s vacation or if she is working.
If an au pair travels with the host family to work, the host family is required to pay for her transportation, lodging and meals.

Important: If an au pair is traveling outside of the U.S., she must have her DS2019 signed (travel validation) PRIOR to her departure from the US. More information about this may be found here on the Au Pair in America website.

Photo: torbakhopper (Flickr)

Helping Young Children Learn Language

March 15, 2017 – 11:00 am

Being an au pair is an important role in a child’s life. When you are caring for a young child up to 45 hours per week, there are lots of opportunities to help them learn language. Many host parents are eager for their children to be exposed to foreign language. If this is true of your host parents, you can try the suggestions below, in both English and your native language.

Below are a few tips to start with, for more ideas, check out Ready at Five.

Read – Read to them daily, point out pictures and ask questions. Even if they can’t answer the questions, this is still modeling conversation.
Talk – Point out objects around them, names of their body parts, explain what you are doing and places you are going. Long before babies can speak, they benefit greatly from being spoken to.
Sing – You can sing childhood classics or make up your own silly songs. If you are looking for song ideas, HERE is a great website with lists of songs, lyrics and links to YouTube videos* of the songs. Children’s music is also available at the public library and even on iTunes.
Words – As children move from toddlers to preschoolers begin to point out written language.
Writing – Toddlers and preschoolers can begin to learn pre-writing skills by drawing with crayons or doing finger paints.

*The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for babies under 18 months of age. For children 18 months to 5 years they recommend no more than 1 hour of high quality content. You can play the songs on youtube for the audio and not necessarily show the screen to the child.

Photo: Quinn Dombrowski (Flickr)

Handling Expenses

February 15, 2017 – 2:22 pm

Host parents often ask for suggestions on how best to handle common expenses that occur as au pairs are caring for the children.

Miscellaneous Expenses

There are different ways to handle the little day to day expenses that come up. Things like when an au pair takes the kids out for ice cream or picks up a gallon of milk. Some families keep a cookie jar fund, a little cash that they set aside weekly or monthly for these types of expenses. Others give their au pair a prepaid debit card for this purpose. Below are some suggestions for avoiding problems with expenses.

Host Families

It’s important to be clear about how long this money should last and what types of expenses are approved.
Let the au pair know whether or not you expect receipts.

Au Pairs

Only spend the money on approved expenses.
If it is something you are not sure about, ask first.
Put your receipts in the cookie jar in place of the money to avoid any confusion.

Gas and Fare Cards

Host families are responsible for the au pair’s transportation costs: to and from classes, cluster meetings and when driving the kids.

It is a good idea to figure out how much gas an au pair will use for these trips and either put gas in the car or give a gas allowance. If your au pair is riding to classes or cluster meetings with another au pair, you should offer to share the cost of gas.

Au pairs are responsible for their own transportation at all other times. You should replace the amount of gas used for personal use.

Photo: Andrea Travillian

Tie Dye Au Pair Cluster Meeting was big success!

July 14, 2016 – 12:04 pm

I hope everyone had a great time tie dying at our cluster meeting. I love my Red, White and Blue shorts! This is a very fun activity to share with your older host children, just remember to wear gloves. This is best done outside.

All items must be made of 100% cotton
Make your pattern by folding, twisting or wrapping the item and rubber band it together very tightly. Remember that inside the folds will be left white.
Soak in soda ash and water for about 20 minutes.
Use two or three coordinating colors for the best results. Wear plastic gloves or you will be tie dyed too!
Place in a zip lock bag and leave for 24 hours.
Take out of bag ( wearing plastic gloves) and lay in the grass and wash off excess dye with a garden hose. The dye will change the color of most hard surfaces, so grass is best.
Wash the item by itself once using cold water. After that you can wash along with other clothes. The item will not bleed onto other clothes.

Send me pictures of your projects with your host kids!