This December, we gathered with 3 other clusters at the Arlington Center for the Arts to celebrate the holidays.
We enjoyed food that we all contributed, holiday music and caroling, a yankee swap, as well as a visit by Santa.
For more photos, please go to holiday party.
Our November cluster meeting was a self-defense course at Together in Motion in East Arlington. 2 other clusters joined us.
Through a mixture of lecture and exercises, au pairs learned how to be more aware of potential aggressors and how to deter them.
For more photos go to self-defense 2016.
This month is Halloween month, so I decided to invite my au pairs for pumpkin carving. Au pairs were very creative in making designs for their pumpkins and had a good time together.
We also enjoyed yummy Halloween food:
For more photos, go to Halloween 2016
Once a year, we offer a host family workshop. We always make it a fun event that is interesting to host families. They usually bring their au pairs, too. This year we met at the Honey Pot Hill farm and we met with families from other clusters. Host families usually bring their au pairs as this is a New England tradition that is a meaningful cultural experience.
We provided educational host family material, delicious apple cider and apple cider donuts and art activities for the kids. We had a great turnout, awesome weather and a lot of fun!
For more photos, go to Host Family Picnic
In September, we met at my apartment for an international potluck dinner. It was amazing to see all the different foods of the world! My whole kitchen was filled with wonderful smells and sights. I wish I had taken picture of it.
We welcomed a few more new au pairs who enjoyed getting to know other au pairs. During this meeting, we also discussed a childcare topic. This month’s topic was “Childcare in your country” and we discussed cultural differences in childcare and issues that have come up for my au pairs as a result of it.
For more photos, go to September 2016.
In August, we went to Nahant Beach for our cluster meeting. It was a beautiful day, although a little bit windy (blowing sand all over us). We still had a good time, welcoming many new arrivals who made new connections during our meeting. This is why our meetings are so important: it really helps newly arrived au pairs to find a new friend group, so necessary because they left theirs at home. We also said good-bye to au pairs whose year is over. They always have good tips for the newer au pairs, which they share during the meeting.
For more photos of our meeting, go to Nahant Beach 2016.
In June, we had planned to go canoeing and have a picnic in Concord. Unfortunately, it was rainy that day. On our rain date, most au pairs preferred to meet for coffee in Cambridge. So we picked up some coffee and sat near the Charles River in Cambridge. It was a nice, relaxing meeting.
In the summer we say good-bye and hello to a lot of au pairs. At our meeting, we wished Natalie, Lena and Amandine farewell. Good luck with your future endeavors!
This month, we gathered at my place for a mid-week breakfast meeting. Some au pairs who were on duty brought their kids along. This was one of my largest meetings with 25 au pairs in attendance!
We welcomed Katharina S., Anna, Lila and Lea to our cluster. We said good-bye to Veronika who is going back to Slovakia. This month we had our childcare/safety meeting and discussed summer safety.
In April, our au pair cluster met a few other clusters and visited the skywalk. We had nice weather and amazing views of Boston.
We said good-bye to Lisa and Veronika and welcomed Natasha. For more photos go to skywalk.
Our March cluster meeting was at Laser Craze in Woburn where we met two other clusters. We first met for some refreshments and mingling. We also had our quarterly childcare discussion during which we talked about discipline. Au pairs had lots of fun playing laser tag against each other.
