As the days get longer, it’s finally time to head outside and enjoy the sunshine. Before dashing off to the playground, review these important tips to help you do your job safely and carefully. Remember, if you are on duty, the safety and well-being of the children is your job. Continue reading
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Winter Vacation Battle Plan (2016)
Photo: m01229 (Flickr)
During the last weeks of December, many host kids will have between ten days to two weeks off from school for winter vacation. The thought of having the kids home for multiple days during the winter can send even the most seasoned childcare giver into a panic. Cold weather, shorter days, extra sugar, later bedtimes, and visiting relatives can be a challenge, but with some pre-planning, you can provide your host kids with a vacation to remember.
Tip #1: Plan Ahead
- Take advantage of your host children’s free time. Pull out your calendar and read the Capital City Au Pair’s Winter Fun for DC Kids (2016-2017) post for hundreds of holiday and winter-themed events going on right here in DC.
- Play tourist with your host kids. Again, use the free time to explore DC. (Use the DC Guides section to help.) We live in an amazing city!
Tip #2: Dress the Part
Winter has finally arrived in DC. It’s important to dress for cold weather and to make sure that your host children are dressed warmly too. If this is your first experience with really cold weather, ask your host parents for advice on staying warm. For more info, read this blog post from October: It’s Cold Out There! A Guide to Dressing for Winter Weather.
Tip #3: Plan a Cozy Day Indoors
- Staying home for the day? APIA’s Pinterest boards have loads of winter fun and holiday crafts and activities.
- Help the kids organize their toys and rooms with these suggestions. With mom and dad’s permission, perhaps your host kids can donate some of the toys they have outgrown. This will create more room for the new toys from Santa.
- Looking for a fun baking activity? Gingerbread is a delicious way to celebrate the season!
Tip #4: Make a Date
Playdates can be a great way for kids to socialize and work on the important skills necessary to being a good friend. Talk with your host family about planning a playdate over winter vacation. With their permission, you can use our cluster list to find an au pair who lives near you and has host kids who are compatible ages with your host kids. If hosting doesn’t work, you can also make plans to meet up at the library for a free story hour or crafting session.
Holiday Shopping Safety Tips
Adapted from an earlier post by Christine Connally
This time of year, it’s easy to get distracted, and when you’re distracted you’re at a greater risk for holiday crime.
Here are some important tips that are always a good idea, but especially during the holiday shopping season.
- Always pay attention to your surroundings. Avoid distractions like using cell phone or listening to music when you are coming and going from stores.
- Avoid carrying large amounts of cash. Take just the amount you need or use debit or credit cards.
- Keep your money in your front pocket. Pay close attention to your wallet when you are in crowded places like buses, metro, and elevators.
- Be careful not to lay your purse or bags down on the floor or out of your sight at the mall.
- Save your most expensive purchases for the end of your shopping trip, so you aren’t carrying them with you for long periods of time.
- Whenever possible, shop during daylight hours and if you must shop after dark, go with a friend.
- If you’re not driving yourself to go shopping, use the Metro Trip Planner before going out to minimize time waiting at the bus stop or metro station. Never accept a ride from a stranger.
- Be aware of strangers approaching you for any reason. Criminals will use different methods to distract you and steal your belongings.
- Look around the parking area when you are leaving.
- Do not approach your car alone if there are suspicious people in the area. Return to the store and ask security to walk out with you or wait for a family or other group of people to walk out at the same time with you.
- Trust your instincts, If something seems suspicious or unsafe, you are probably right.
- Remember the saying, “Better Safe Than Sorry.”
Why Are Cluster Meetings Important?
Recent cluster meetings have included touring the US Capitol and outdoor movie screenings.
Cluster meetings are an integral part of an au pair’s experience in America and au pairs are highly encouraged to attend. Au Pair in America requires that counselors provide a cluster meeting per month. Our cluster meetings are scheduled on weekdays and weekends, in order to accommodate the varied schedules of the host families in our area.
Cluster meetings offer the opportunity to:
- Enjoy the many wonderful places and activities in and around Washington, DC
- Meet one another, make new friends from other countries and socialize
- Develop a relationship with your counselor
- Celebrate American holidays, welcome and say farewell to other au pairs
- Learn child development and safety tips
- Support each other by sharing experiences
Our cluster volunteered to make sandwiches for Martha’s Table
International Potluck Dinner with Guest Speaker (Photo Credit: Christie Jorge-Tresolini)
Cluster meetings are an important part of an au pair’s cultural exchange. While it’s understood that sometimes work conflicts make this impossible, host parents are encouraged to free up their schedules so that au pairs can attend.
Upcoming cluster meetings are listed in cluster newsletters and posted in the DCC Host Families Facebook Group and the Cluster DCC Facebook Group (for au pairs) so that they can be added to the family calendar.
Au pairs are expected to attend cluster meetings and should contact their counselor prior to the meeting if they cannot attend. Host families are expected to provide the time and transportation for the au pair to attend cluster meetings. Au pairs and host families are encouraged to offer cluster meeting ideas.
A Few of Our Fun and Informative Meetings
Autumn Cluster Meetings
Summer Cluster Meetings
Adams Morgan Movie Night
2016 DC Cultural Fair
US Capitol Tour
Disney on Ice
Holiday Cluster Meeting
Volunteering by Making Sandwiches
Potomac Sunset Cruise
APIA Regional Scavenger Hunt at the Zoo
Host Family/Au Pair Picnic
Celebrate Halloween 2016!
Halloween (or Hallow e’en) is a celebration observed in a number of countries including the United States on October 31st. Halloween has a special significance for children, who dress in funny or ghostly costumes and knock on neighborhood doors shouting “Trick or Treat!” Pirates and princesses, ghosts and witches all hold bags open to catch the candy or other goodies that the neighbors drop in.
Since the 800’s, November 1st is a religious holiday known as All Saints’ Day. The Mass that was said on this day was called Allhallowmas. The evening before became known as All Hallow e’en, or Halloween. Like some other American celebrations, its origins lie in both pre-Christian and Christian customs.
The most popular Halloween activities include trick-or-treating attending Halloween costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.
For more information and a “how-to” video on carving a pumpkin, click here. Find more pumpkin carving ideas, scary snacks, and other fun Halloween activities on the APIA Halloween Fun Pinterest board.
Halloween can be a lot of fun but it is also a time when safety should come first. Here are some tips for Monday:
Adult supervision is essential. Always accompany the children if they are going door to door to trick or treat
Try tick-or-treat-friendly homes. Ensure the children only visit houses with lights on. And, you might also suggest the houses they visit have some sort of Halloween decoration on the porch.
Stay outside. Make sure the children don’t go inside someone’s house. They can trick or treat on the porch.
Remain visible. Dress the children in bright costumes or have them wear reflective strips or carry a glow stick or flashlight.
Quality-check treats. Check the candy before they eat it. Throw out any candy that is not in its original wrapper or looks like it has been tampered with.
Say “no” to strangers. Remind the children to never accept a ride or go anywhere with a stranger.
It’s Cold Out There! A Guide to Dressing for Winter Weather
When I moved to DC from the warm South Carolina coast for graduate school, I refused to believe that winter weather would actually arrive and (even worse) stick around for several months.
That first September, I was confused by the empty hooks hanging in the back of all of the classrooms. I couldn’t imagine that in a few short months each hook would be holding a winter coat.
In October, I ignored the racks of coats and stacks of sweaters displayed in all of the stores. My lightweight jacket and jeans seemed to work just fine.
In November, I dashed to and from the car, grateful for the warmth and heat inside my house and university. “It’s just a cold snap,” I told myself.
And then it snowed.
I watched my neighbors shovel their sidewalks and head off to work. I checked the university website and was shocked that classes hadn’t been canceled. December had arrived and I was living in DC without a hat, gloves, scarf, or boots. I slipped and slid my way to my car, carefully drove to Nordstroms (marveling at the snow plows clearing the roads), and bought the only pair of snow boots left in the store.
Sixteen years later, my closet is fully stocked with coats and everything else necessary to live, work, and play in the winter. Because that’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned about living in a city with winter weather- unless we have a blizzard, people go outside in the cold weather. In fact, they even have fun outdoors.
Children love to play in the snow- and they need the exercise. Staying cooped up inside only leads to grumpiness and fights. It’s much more fun to stay outside and build a snowman. Au pairs need to be prepared to join in the excitement.
For those of you not used to this weather, I understand your dismay. However, I encourage you to take advantage of this unique experience. Embrace the cold weather months as a chance to wear sweaters, try out a pair of gorgeous boots, and experience the snow. The au pair year is over very quickly, and before you know it, you’ll be home again showing your friends and families pictures of the first snowman you ever built.
Important Tips*
Photo credit: Catherine McEaddy Holmes
Dress in Layers – Consider buying sweaters, jackets and long underwear. If you wear several layers, you can take off things to be comfortable. For example, when it might be too warm for a heavy jacket, but too cold for just a sweater, you can combine different pieces of clothing.
Set a Good Example – Host parents will expect you set the example for your kids by wearing a coat when it is cold outside. You should have a winter coat, hats, gloves, boots and scarves. Your host kids will fight wearing a coat if you don’t wear one. Think of yourself as a celebrity and everyone wants to look like you — especially your kids.
Check the “Emergency Change of Clothes” – With young children, we often keep an emergency change of clothes in the car, diaper bag or at their school. If you haven’t already switched out the shorts and t-shirt for something warmer, now is the time to do it.
Buy Cold Weather Clothing Now – Many stores have sales this time of year. Target, T J Maxx, WalMart, and Macy’s have lots of outdoor gear in their stores. DSW has tons of warm and stylish boots and is located right beside the Columbia Heights metro stop (around the corner from Target on Irving Street). Lands End and Amazon are great online alternatives. An even more affordable option would be to go to a thrift shop. There are many in the area and you can often find a very warm jacket for a small price compared to buying one new.
Monitor School Closings and Delays– Because DC doesn’t get as much snow as the Alps, school is often canceled or delayed when it snows just a little. Au pairs from Germany, Poland, and other cold-weather countries will laugh at the DC area’s dysfunction in the winter ice and snow. Talk with your host family now, so you can all understand the plan for these inevitable schedule changes.
(*Important Tips includes information first posted on Christine Connally’s Au Pair Chatter blog. )
Fashionably Winterized
It’s possible to look great and still be warm. Here are a few articles to inspire you:
Halloween Safety Tips
Going trick or treating? Check out these tips from the CDC to help make the festivities fun and safe for trick-or-treaters.
Swords, knives, and other costume accessories should be short, soft, and flexible.
Avoid trick-or-treating alone. Walk in groups or with a trusted adult.
Fasten reflective tape to costumes and bags to help drivers see you.
Examine all treats for choking hazards and tampering before eating them. Limit the amount of treats you eat.
Hold a flashlight while trick-or-treating to help you see and others see you. WALK and don’t run from house to house.
Always test make-up in a small area first. Remove it before bedtime to prevent possible skin and eye irritation.
Look both ways before crossing the street. Use crosswalks wherever possible.
Lower your risk for serious eye injury by not wearing decorative contact lenses.
Only walk on sidewalks whenever possible, or on the far edge of the road facing traffic to stay safe.
Wear well-fitting masks, costumes, and shoes to avoid blocked vision, trips, and falls.
Eat only factory-wrapped treats. Avoid eating homemade treats made by strangers.
Enter homes only if you’re with a trusted adult. Only visit well-lit houses. Never accept rides from strangers.
Never walk near lit candles or luminaries. Be sure to wear flame-resistant costumes.
Download the CDC’s Halloween Safety Scramble to review these safety tips with your kids.
How to Mail a Package or Letter in the US
The correct way to address an envelope (USPS: A Customer’s Guide to Mailing)
The United States has one of the fastest and most accurate postal systems in the world. The US Postal Service (USPS) has many helpful tips for addressing and sending your letters and packages. Continue reading
Handling Expenses
Does your au pair need to make a last minute supermarket run to buy milk? is she taking the kids to the zoo and buying everyone’s lunch or paying for the carousel ride? Continue reading
Back-to-School Tips for Au Pairs
It may still feel like summer outside, but back-to-school season has arrived. Here are a few things to think about as we turn our attention to September.
- Weekly meetings: These are a perfect time for you to sit down with your host parents and review the weekly schedule, the children’s behavior, and other issues. APIA strongly encourages these meetings. If they’re not happening at your house, let me know and I’ll speak with your host parents.
- Schedule: September is almost here. What does that mean for you? Now is the perfect time to review your work schedule and family agreements and think about how life might change this autumn. Bring up questions you have about these changes in your weekly meetings.
- School: Can you answer all of these questions? If not, ask your host parents, so you will know what to do.
- What are the children’s school and activity schedules (including school holidays, teacher work days)
- How does school drop-off and pick-up work? Have you been added to the list of people allowed to pick up the kids from school>
- What do you do if a child is staying home sick, is late to school, or is dismissed early?
- How do you know if school has been cancelled or delayed for bad weather?
- What should you pack for the children’s lunches?
- What is the after-school routine (do they have free time before starting homework, what to give for snack, any chores, where do they put their backpacks & lunchboxes)?
- How should you communicate with your host parents about what’s going on at school?
- Are there any other changes in routines, bedtimes, and meals?
- Technology: Smart phones are great tools for staying in touch with your host family, finding directions, scheduling playdates, keeping track of your schedule, and taking pictures of your host kids to share with their parents. However, remember that you should never use your phone for anything else during work hours. Don’t do it. For more technology tips, read this blog post.