Author Archives: Heike

April Cluster meeting in the Blue Hills

April 7, 2012 – 4:28 pm

We enjoyed the view from the Blue Hills of the Boston skyline at our April cluster meeting. We started at the Trailside museum in Milton. This is a great place where aupairs can take kids to visit the museum with live animals who are in our forest and to enjoy the nature outdoors as well.

A 20 min hike over a rocky walkway leads to the outlook with picnic tables. Many families come here from the greater Boston area to enjoy hiking on easy and more challanging trails.

Boston skyline from the top of the Blue Hills

From left to right: Me, Jen from Fance, Christina from Germany, Camille and Charlotte from France

From left to right: Me, Jen from France, Christina from Germany, Camille and Charlotte from France

Christina from Germany

To view more pics please go to Blue Hills 2012.

Celebrating Easter and Observing Passover

April 4, 2012 – 2:28 pm

Celebrating Easter

Easter is one of the most awaited Christian festivals. It is celebrated throughout the world by the followers of Christian community. It is considered to be very auspicious as it is believed that this was the day when Christ resurrected after crucifixion. This day is of immense religious as well as social significance amongst the Christian community.

Church services and festive celebrations blend together during the Easter weekend. On Easter Sunday in New York and other cities, large Easter parades are held. Easter in USA is also very much commercialized. Easter symbols like bunnies, Easter tree, Easter Eggs and Easter lamb are found in different forms during the Easter festivities throughout the market. The popular trend of Easter symbols such as the Easter bunny and egg tree were introduced to the American folklore by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s. Gradually American people took to crafts such as egg and Easter tree decoration. Easter in US is also a time to enjoy special Easter foods such as baked ham, potatoes and vegetables. Several special recipes are made at each home. Easter parties are also organized where traditional Easter delicacies are served and people enjoy wonderful get together along with Easter games and music.

For children’s Easter games and activities go to: http://www.thekidzpage.com/easter_games/index.html

Observing Passover

Passover is an eight day celebration observed each year by the Jewish religion. It commemorates the freedom of Jewish slaves from Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II. Families celebrate Passover by having a seder. With special foods, songs, and customs, the Seder is the focal point of the Passover celebration. Seder means order, and the Passover story is read in order from a book called a haggadah.

Fearing that Jews were becoming too strong, a Pharaoh decreed that all male Jewish babies were to be killed. Jocheved and Amran, a Jewish couple, wanted to save their infant son – so they put him in a basket that floated him down the river. The infant was rescued by the Pharaoh’s daughter and she raised him as her own son. She named the baby Moses, which means “take from the water.”

When Moses grew up, he empathized with the Jewish slaves and tried to get the Pharaoh to free them. The Pharaoh refused – so there were 10 plagues sent down to Egypt: Blood, Frogs, Lice, Beasts, Cattle Disease, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, and Slaying of the Firstborn. The name Passover comes from the Plague of Slaying the Firstborn. The Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Jews who had put lambs blood on their doors.

After the 10th plague, Pharaoh agreed to let the Jewish slaves go. They gathered up their belongings quickly, and didn’t have time for their bread to rise, so they had to bake it and take it the way it was. This is why the Jewish people eat matzah during Passover. As the Jews were fleeing, Pharaoh changed his mind, and sent his army after the people to bring them back. Moses parted the Red Sea for the Jews to cross, and as soon as they were safely to the other side, the waters closed on the soldiers, drowning them all. The Jewish people were free.

For children’s activities go to: http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/passover/

Au Pairs visit Prudential Center Skywalk

April 2, 2012 – 2:26 pm

This month, we met another Boston area cluster for a visit to the Prudential Center Skywalk. Au pairs enjoyed the view from the 50th floor despite the fact that it was cloudy. Au pairs also learned a lot about Boston by using the audio tour device and reading up on Boston facts.

Afterwards, we walked over to Vapiano restaurant in the theater district. Counselors distributed a handout about spring activities, including child safety reminders. Each quarter, counselors hold a childcare/safety meeting with au pairs in an effort to ensure good quality childcare for their host families.

View from the top.

For more photos of our meeting, go to Skywalk 2012. and Prudential center skywalk.

Maple Sugering

March 13, 2012 – 2:59 pm

Au Pairs with Guides

Last weekend, Au Pair in America offered a Maple Sugaring Tour at the Belmont Habitat for their Boston area au pairs. In addition to monthly cluster meetings, these monthly regional events give au pairs the chance to participate in culturally relevant activities. Maple Sugaring is an experience very unique to this area, and au pairs in the area are very lucky to be able to experience this as part of their cultural exchange.

Examining the sugar maple

Two experienced Habitat guides, Ann and Sandy, gave us a wonderful tour. Au Pairs learned about the characteristics of a sugar maple in order to differentiate it from other trees and other types of maples. (branching pattern, leaf pattern, shape and color of buds) We visited a tapped maple tree and learned that the flow of sap is very close to the outer bark of the tree and its flow gets activated every year in the early months for about 6 weeks, when starch that is stored in the roots converts back to sugar that gets transported up the tree in order to feed the buds. This is brought about by cold nights and warmer days.

Taste Test

We tasted the sap right from the tree, and experienced the transformation of the very slightly sweetened liquid into a syrup that is much sweeter by boiling it in the Habitat’s kitchen. The ration of boiling sap into syrup is 40:1! We also compared that natural syrup to the Aunt Jemima kind and noticed how different the two taste. Upon reading the ingredient list of Aunt Jemima, we concluded that there is nothing natural about the product and has nothing to do with the maple sap. Our tour guides also spoke about the different grades of maple syrup and we found out that the darker the syrup, the later in the season it was harvested and the more maple taste it will have.

Tasting our own syrup

The Habitat also has a sugar shack that is not in use any more. This is where the maple sap traditionally gets converted into syrup. Our tour guides showed us the evaporator machine that the farmer used when it was still functional.

In the sugar shack

At the end of the tour, au pairs answered questions to a quiz to see if they remembered what they learned throughout the tour. We were then rewarded by ice-cream that we covered with Maple Syrup, cranberries and maple cookies.

Yummy!

For more photos of our maple sugaring tour please visit maple sugaring 2012

Valentine’s Day Clustermeeting

February 13, 2012 – 2:09 pm

We had a wonderful Valentine’s Cluster meeting on Sunday to celebrate this special day within our cluster.

Many aupairs contributed with sweets and other home made food to our international buffet.

At this meeting we were also talking about taxes, the aupairs have to file.

It was really great to see so many of our growing cluster at this meeting. We also discussed some questions about education and driving as an aupair.

Katrine from Denmark who brought her home made yummi cookies

Candice from South Africa and Susanna from Costa Rica

Laura and Leonie from Germany

From left to right: Jessica from South Africa, Julia from Germany, Fernanda and Rafael from Brazil, Anita and Linda from Germany

Camille, Charlene and Jennifer from France and Christina from Germany

For more pictures please go to Valentine’s Day 2012.

Snow Tubing in Nashoba Valley

February 10, 2012 – 8:57 am

Maria and Vanessa from Germany and Anna from France

Multiple clusters went yesterday to experience snow tubing in Nashoba Valley together. This was a fun event especially since some aupairs have never done anything like it before.

Laura and Ashleigh from the UK and Katrine from Denmark

The slopes were pretty icy and therefore it was a fast trip down the hill. Everybody had a great time.

Jaqueline, Gabriela and Camilla from Brazil

Jaqueline just arrived a few days ago from Brazil and made already some friends during this cluster event.

This was one of our regional events which we offer to our aupairs in the greater Boston area next to our cluster events.

To see all pix please go to Nashoba Valley snow tubing 2012

Switching from a babysitter to AuPair in America

February 3, 2012 – 3:05 pm

Below is a link to a blog from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal online. The blogger/reporter, John J. Edwards III has written about he and his wife’s switch from a babysitter….to Au Pair in America!

http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2012/02/02/switching-to-an-au-pair/?mod=WSJBlog

Super Bowl/ Football

February 1, 2012 – 12:35 pm

American Football Simplified

A football field is 100 yards long. The line dividing the field in the center is the 50 Yard Line. There are other lines marking the field off into 5 yard sections. There is a Goal Post at each end of the field, in the End Zone, one for each team.

Each team has an Offense and a Defense. When the Offense of one team is on the field, the Defense of the other team is on the field. The Offense has the ball and tries to score by getting it across the Goal Line – the line where the playing field and the End Zone meet. The Defense tries to stop them.

The Offense gets four tries to move the ball 10 yards toward their own goal post. These are called Downs. If they make the 10 yards or more, they get another four tries to move the ball another 10 yards. If they don’t move the ball 10 yards in four tries, the ball goes to the other team, or the team “loses the ball.”

When a team loses the ball, their Offense leaves the field and is replaced by their Defense. The other team’s Defense leaves the field and is replaced by their Offense.

Play is started by the Offense and Defense lining up facing each other. The Offense faces the direction of their Goal Post. The Quarterback passes (throws) the ball to one of his team mates. If he catches it, he runs toward the End Zone. If he makes it across the Goal Line, his team scores a Touchdown and gets six points. The team then gets a chance to earn an extra point by kicking the ball through the Goal Posts or two points by passing or running the ball into the End Zone.

If the team mate catches the ball, the Defense runs after him and tries to tackle him (grabbing him and causing him to fall to the ground). If he is tackled, play starts again at that point where the ball is. If the team mate doesn’t catch the pass, the ball is dead and goes back to the previous starting place.

Sometimes a player of the Defense catches the pass. That’s called an Interception. He then runs toward his team’s goal and may score a Touchdown for his team. If he intercepts the ball, the other team’s players will try to tackle him. Even if he is tackled, his team now has possession of the ball. His team’s Defense leaves the field, replaced by their Offense. The other teams Offense leaves the field, replaced by their Defense.

A Football Game is made up of 60 minutes of play time. The 60 minutes is divided into four Quarters of 15 minutes each. At the end of two Quarters, there is a break called Half Time. On the Scoreboard you can see the minutes and seconds running out. The team with the most points at the end of four Quarters wins.

The Super Bowl is the final game of the Football season when two teams play each other for the championship. The game takes place in late January or early February. For some people the TV commercials are the best part of the Super Bowl.

English is a crazy language….

January 22, 2012 – 9:45 am

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January Clustermeeting

January 19, 2012 – 7:36 am

This month we held our monthly cluster meeting at my house after we needed to cancel out snow tubing event in Nashoba Valley due to rain. We will have the snow tubing at another time.