Yearly Archives: 2011

Boston Area Au Pairs Celebrate The Holidays

December 5, 2011 – 9:26 pm

Linda from Germany, Hannah from South Africa, Vanessa and Anita from Germany

Heike’s au pair group

Boston area community counselors

On Sunday, we celebrated the holidays with other Boston area au pair clusters at the Scout House in Concord. Over 150 au pairs participated in the au pair holiday gala.

Counselors supplied holiday music, decorations, main dishes like ham, turkey, lasagna, as well as a holiday punch. Each au pair was asked to bring food to share from her country.

Au pairs also participated in a gift swap game during which they were asked questions like “Who has visited the Grand Canyon,” or “Who has an American boyfriend?” As you can imagine, there was a lot of laughter involved.

Gift Exchange Game

As a conclusion to a fun evening, au pairs also split up into country groups to sing traditional holiday songs from their country.

To see some more pictures please go to Holiday party 2011 , cluster group picture and Tina’s pix.

Holidays are Coming – Prepare Now!

November 21, 2011 – 6:10 pm

School breaks during holidays; ask your host family how your schedule will change during the break to make sure you and they are ready. Talk to your host family about how they celebrate the holidays. Share some holiday traditions from your country with your host family. Ask your host family which activities they really want you to join in; dinner with relatives, holiday gatherings, baking, decorating, and religious services. Discuss your plans for the holidays; parties or events you wish time off for well in advance, so your host family can plan. Be careful, accidents happen when children are very excited. Know when to calm them down, so you can avoid accidents before they happen. Try to keep the kids on as much of a regular schedule as possible. Kids will get over tired and cranky if there are too many activities in one day or several days in a row. Try to help limit the activities to a few a day or week. Give kids downtime with quiet activities, like reading a holiday story or watching a holiday DVD. Make sure you and the kids get plenty of sleep. Remember to prepare some gifts for your host family, especially for the kids. I recommend books, crafts, or games. You can read the books, do the crafts, play the games with them. Take some time for yourself; to shop, to spend with friends, to call home. Remember it is a stressful time, even if it is fun and exciting. You are far from home and you may feel a bit homesick. Don’t make promises to the kids that you can’t keep. Don’t promise to go to an event and then cancel because you would rather be out with your friends. Go to your host children’s school holiday activities, the class party, the winter concert, etc. Offer to talk to their class about how you celebrate holidays in your country. Do a craft with the class. Earn a Global Awareness letter or certificate. Ask me for help. Participate in family holiday traditions whenever possible. Be available to help the parents watch the kids while they decorate the house, prepare holiday foods, or attend holiday parties. Come to our International Holiday Party!! See you on Dec 4 🙂

November cluster meeting: Laser tag

November 13, 2011 – 7:34 pm

30 aupairs, who participated in our cluster meeting

We went to the laser quest for our November cluster meeting and had a lot of fun there. To see more pictures go to Laser tag Nov 2011

Haunted Happenings in October

October 26, 2011 – 1:26 pm

Goblins and Ghosts stay safe!

Make sure to inspect the children’s Trick Or Treat candy to make sure everything is in a sealed wrapper and appears safe.
Small children should not eat hard candy because of chocking.
Children should be supervised when they go Trick-or-Treating. Many parents will come home early from work on the day to go with their children. Check with Host Parents about this.

Halloween Safety Tips for Drivers

Halloween is a wonderful holiday, but because of increased foot traffic and that Trick-or-Treaters are out at night, the potential for automobile related accidents with young pedestrians increases four times on this night according to a CDC (Center for Disease Control) study.

Streets are literally crawling with all sorts of witches, ghosts, goblins, vampires and all other sorts of costumed people. This makes for added responsibility for drivers to make sure that they drive safer than normal.

In many areas, people drive their kids into subdivisions and let them out to walk from house to house. Usually the parent follows behind in the car. This can cause traffic jams in small areas and much confusion as kids dart between cars on the streets going from house to house. A driver is already distracted because they are trying to keep an eye on their own kids and usually aren’t paying attention to much else.

Children and adults tend to be preoccupied and may not pay as much attention to safety as they should. They may not see your vehicle or just assume that you see them automatically. Stay on the defensive and you shouldn’t have a problem while driving on Halloween night

* Don’t use a cell phone or other electronic device while driving on Halloween night. You shouldn’t be doing this anyway, the rate of cell phone related auto accidents has jumped dramatically since the use of cell phones and texting has risen so high. Some states have already made laws concerning this and others are working on it.

Make sure your child carries a flashlight, glow stick or has reflective tape on their costume to make them more visible to cars. Left them know if they carry a flash light to never shine itin the eyes of a driver. This can cause blindness on the drivers part temporarily and they may not see your child.

Drive below the posted speed limit in residential areas during trick-or-treating hours. This will allow you time to break if you see a child dart in front of you.





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HAVE SOME FUN THIS MONTH

The month of October brings exciting activities to the city of Salem, Massachusetts. There are many activities relating to the city’s history and penchant for things macabre, including walking tours, haunted houses, trolley rides, spooky performances, exhibits, harbor cruiss and more. Visit their website for all the details: http://www.hauntedhappenings.org/

October Clustermeeting

October 17, 2011 – 9:19 am

P1040071 - Copy Last Sunday our cluster got together to welcome many new aupairs who arrived during the last weeks in our Boston cluster.

We had a lot of information to share: Education requirements and possibilities at the many colleges we have here in Boston were part of the agenda as well as driving for an aupair in MA. With a few exceptions all aupairs are allowed to drive with their home country license together with the international drivers permit for one whole year in MA.

Hannah and Candice from South Africa and Djamila from the Netherlands

We ate traditional New England pumpkin soup together and all aupairs brought a dish or dessert to share. Most of it was self made and from a special recipe from their home countries. It was so delicious!!! The quiche from France for example ( made by Aurelie from France) was gone in no time……

Maria from Germany, Enyi from Costa Rica and Charlene from France

Ana from Costa Rica, Adri from Italy, Su from Costa Rica and Maye from Mexico

It is Dany's turn from Equador to introduce herself to all

For more pictures please go to Clustermeeting October 2011.

Fun Ways to Eat and Cook Apples

October 6, 2011 – 6:57 pm

P1030784 - Copy
Apples are great eaten raw and are ideal for school lunch boxes and snacks. You can bake, stew or microwave apples, then turn us into pies, tarts, crumbles and fritters.

Here are some wonderful ways to cook with your favourite apples:

Apple Cake
Peel, core and slice two apples. Prepare a packet butter cake according to directions, pour half the mixture into the cake tin, arrange apple slices evenly and top with remaining mixture. Bake according to directions allowing an extra 5-8 minutes.

Apple Crumble
Peel, core and slice 6-8 apples. Place apples in a lightly buttered baking dish with a 1/4 cup caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of sultanas. Top with toasted muesli and bake until apples are tender.

Yummy Apple Salad
Wash, core and roughly chop apples. Drizzle with lemon juice to prevent browning. Place in a bowl with sliced celery, lettuce , pecan nuts and toss with your favourite salad dressing.

Apple Picking for Au Pairs and Host families

October 5, 2011 – 7:43 am

Three counselors hosted the event at Carver Hill Orchard

Last Sunday three cluster hosted this annual host family and au pair event at an apple picking orchard in Stow. Host families had a chance to chat with each other and got to know the cluster better. The kids could decorate cookies, pick apples in the orchard and participated in heyrides . Everybody enjoyed the fresh made donuts with apple cidre from the farm.

left to right: Katrine from Denmark, Janika from Germany, Ashleigh from the UK, Candice from South Africa, Theresa from Austria, Heike, the community counselor from Boston, Jane from Germany, Anita from Germany, Sabine from Austria, Aurelie from France and Karoline from Germany

For more pictures please go to Apple picking 2011.

Harvard Campus Tour

September 17, 2011 – 7:39 pm

Each September, Au Pair in America organizes a group tour at Harvard University for its Boston area au pairs. Over 60 au pairs participated on a lovely sunny day.

Aside from Harvard’s history, we always learn interesting facts from the tour leaders. Yesterday we learned that Harvard is the only university which is “needs blind” which means that they will accept students based on their scholarly value no matter how much money they have to contribute to their education. Harvard will then supplement the rest, even if it means paying 100%. We also learned that each dorm on campus reflects the total makeup of the Harvard student population. So if Harvard has 20% international students, each dorm will have 20% international students. A true tribute to diversity!

Our tour guide with some of our cluster

We heard that even the statue of Mr. Harvard tells three lies:

1. It was not Mr. Harvard who founded the Harvard University

2. It was not founded in the year written on the statue

3. It’s not Mr. Harvard himself since nobody really knew how he looked like.

Statue of Mr. Harvard....

Many more stories our tour guide has told us and this was an impressive way to introduce all aupairs to this famous Harvard University.

Many of our aupairs continue to sign up for classes at the Harvard extension school as well.

Theresa from Austria, Aurelie from France, Sabine from Austria, Hannah from South Africa and Jane from Germany

To see more pictures please go to Harvard campus tour 2011 and Harvard tour 2.

Driving Tips for Au Pairs

September 13, 2011 – 12:48 pm

1. Make sure you and everyone in the car are buckled up correctly. Be careful to adjust car seats correctly!

2. Adjust your mirrors before you move!

3. Be very careful when backing up. Walk around the car first.

4. Parking lots are dangerous, many accidents happen in parking lots!

5. Observe all road signs, come to a full stop at every stop sign and red light. NO EXCEPTIONS EVER!

6. Be aware of the other drivers, not everyone is a good driver and they might do something unexpected!

7. Leave the music alone, do not adjust the radio while you are driving.

8. Do not talk on your cell or text while driving – It is dangerous and against the law!!!

9. NO DRINKING and DRIVING ever! No open alcohol in a car because you can be arrested just for having it in the car.

10. Do not take any risks when driving. Yellow lights mean prepare to stop!!

11. Keep the car neat and tidy.

12. Do not run out of gas, keep the tank half full all the time.

13. Windshield wipers and lights must be on if it is raining or snowing, this is the law in New York State.

14. No rowdy passengers, pay attention to the road.

15. In a school zone the speed limit is no more than 20 miles per hour. BE CAREFUL, kids run out in front of cars & buses.

16. DO NOT PASS a stopped school bus from either direction when it has its stop signs out. When a bus has the lights flashing, it is about to stop.

17. DRIVE DEFENSIVELY ALWAYS

Holidays/Dates to Remember

September 3, 2011 – 10:00 am

Back to school

5 -Labor Day:

Labor Day is the first Monday in September and was first celebrated in the United States on September 5, 1882 as a trade union holiday. Now Labor Day is seen as the end of summer and the beginning of school for many students. The day is often celebrated with picnics, sporting events and reunions.

11- September 11:

Take a moment to day to remember victims of the 2001 September 11 attacks, often referred to as 9/11 (pronounced nine-eleven) On this day, hijackers intentionally crashed two airplanes in to the World Trade Center in New York City causing them to collapse. Hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane.

11- National Grandparents Day:

Grandparents Day is celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day. This is not a widely celebrated holiday, but most grandparents would still appreciate being remembered and would particularly enjoy a homemade gift or card. Work with your children to create a simple but special surprise. Use a photo of the child or the child and the grandparent to make it even more special. If the grandparents do not live nearby to deliver the gift, call them to say hi and have a great day.

22- Fall begins

28-Rosh Hashanah