Monthly Archives: February 2010

Au Pair in America Brings You Olympic News!

Au Pair in America
Olympic Update
from Vancouver!

“we bring the world together”

Greetings!

Au Pair in America brings the world together, so we thought it would be fun to bring the world to you with updates on the Olympic Games in Vancouver. Enjoy!

Inspiring Performances in Ladies Figure Skating

Inspiring Performances in Ladies Figure Skating

Joannie Rochette of Canada skated an inspiring and emotional short program last night, not 48 hours after her mother passing away suddenly of a heart attack. Her score of 71.36, a personal best for the short program, put her in third place going into the ladies long program on Thursday.
In first place, South Korean Kim Yu-Na, a heavy favorite for gold and a marketing icon in her home country, set a new scoring record for short program, with a 78.50. Mao Asada of Japan is in second, with a score of 73.78, a personal best for her as well.
Thursday’s long program is definitely a must see!

Nordic Combined Relay

Nordic Combined Relay

In very snowy conditions, Austria won the gold medal in the Nordic combined relay yesterday with a winning time of 49 minutes 31.6 seconds, beating out the US team by 5.2 seconds. Germany took home bronze, 19.5 seconds behind Austria.

Olympic Giant Slalom

World Champion Carlo Janka of Switzerland took the gold medal in the men’s giant slalom Tuesday, with a combined two-leg time of 2 minutes 37.83 seconds. Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Lund Svindal, both of Norway, won silver and bronze.

Women’s Ski Cross Makes it’s Debut

Women's Ski Cross Makes it's Debut

Ashleigh Mclvor of Canada made the hosting country proud by taking home gold in the Olympic debut of women’s skicross on Tuesday. Hedda Bernsten of Norway won silver, while Marion Josserand of France won bronze.

Medal Count!

Medal Count!

The top five countries are as follows:

US: 7 Gold, 9 Silver, 10 Bronze, Total: 26

Germany: 7 Gold, 9 Silver, 7 Bronze, Total: 23

Norway: 6 Gold, 5 Silver, 6 Bronze, Total: 17

Russia: 3 Gold, 4 Silver, 6 Bronze, Total: 13

Canada: 6 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze, Total: 11

For a complete Medal Count list, click here

Free Pancakes at IHOP February 23

IHOP (International House of Pancakes) is giving away free short stacks of pancakes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010.  The pancake giveaway is part of their efforts to promote National Pancake Day.   Details can be found here.

http://blogs.southtownstar.com/money/ihop-free-pancake-day-2009.jpg

IHOP asks you to consider donating a few dollars to the Children’s Miracle Network to support sick kids.  Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

Activity Kit Info & Links – February/March

As promised at last night’s meeting, I am posting some photos and links that will assist you in doing a few of the projects I have given you.

Newspaper Seedling Cups

Click on the photo below to go to a web page with step by step photos and directions for the seedling cup I showed you at the meeting.   If you have older kids and are looking for something more to do with them, there are lots of videos on YouTube of how to make these using all kinds of different techniques including some origami folds.

Newspaper Seedling Pot

Newspaper Seedling Pot

Butterfly Craft

Click on the photo below to go to a web page with complete project instructions.

Butterfly Craft Project (click on the photo to go to a web page with complete instructions)

Butterfly Craft Project

Shamrock Decoration

Below is a picture of what the completed shamrock project might look like.  They can be decorated using paint, markers, crayons, glitter glue and stickers.

shamrock

Shamrock Decorations

I hope you will use these ideas as a starting point to come up with lots of other fun projects and activities to do with the kids.

Snow Day Boredom Busters #2 – Indoor Physical Activities

It’s difficult when the weather is too snowy, wet or cold for kids to play outside and get all of that great kid energy out.

JuggleGirl

Here are some indoor physical activity ideas:

  • Create an indoor obstacle course in the largest, kid safe room in the house (playroom, basement, family room, etc.)  Use large cushions and toys to create places for kids to climb over and under.
  • Turn on some music (kid music or other music that is appropriate) and dance.
  • Play freeze dance. Tell the kids to dance when you turn the music on and to stop dancing when the music stops.  Let the kids take turns being the leader,  controlling the music.
  • Do the limbo dance.  Play music and challenge the kids to go under the limbo pole as it gets lower and lower.

kids_dancing

  • Make paper airplanes and see how far they can fly.  Remind the kids not to throw them at other other people.
  • Mark small squares on the floor and challenge the kids to see who can stay on their spot the longest.  Make it tougher for older kids by having them stand on one foot.
  • Play ball toss games with soft items like rolled up socks.   The younger the children the larger the container they are tossing into should be.  For very young kids, use a laundry basket.  For older kids, use something smaller like a box, basket or large plastic mixing bowl.
  • Build a fort using blanket and furniture like chairs and tables.  Or if the kids have a small play tent put that up.
  • Play sports charades.  Charades is a game where you act out something while people try to guess.  You can do this with sports actions, using no equipment, just making the actions.  For example – hitting a golf ball, pitching a baseball, serving a tennis ball, bowling, etc.)
  • Jump rope. Jumping_rope.
  • Play with a hula hoop.
  • Try juggling, top spinning, or yo-yo contests.
  • Play hide and go seek.
  • Play “keep the balloon up”. Use one balloon per child or one balloon per small group. The group may add additional balloons as they gain control and awareness. *

* Safety Note – Balloons are a choking hazard, supervise children when playing with balloons and make sure to find and throw away any pieces of popped balloons.

Snow Boredom Busters #1 – New Ideas for the Same Old Toys

There are some toys that kids usually play with on their own while you watch on the sidelines. However, you can make those toys feel like something new and fun, by suggesting different ways to play with them.  Another thing that will make it more fun is if you become actively involved rather than just watching.

fullsizefoodbasket

Play Food/Dishes

  • Teach your host children how to say the names of some of the food and dishes.
  • Using English and/or your language play games where you are ordering food like in a restaurant. Take turns with who will be the waiter and who is the customer.
  • Come up with silly food combinations.  For example: Who wants pickles on their slice of cake?
  • Play a guessing game where the kids have to figure out what food you are talking about.  For example: I grow under the ground in the dirt.  People eat me fried, mashed and baked.  What am I? (a potato)
  • Play a game with setting the table using your language to ask for the different items (plate, spoon, etc.)
  • Ask the children to divide the foods up into the different food groups (vegetables, meat, dairy,  etc)

Block, Lego Blocks and Other Building Toys legos

  • Divide all of the blocks up between the people playing by taking turns for each person to select block by block.
  • Suggest specific things to build (robots, house, mountain) and build together.
  • Challenge everyone to use all of their blocks.
  • Sort the blocks by color or shape and make patterns with them (red, blue, red blue or square, triangle, rectangle.)  You can create a pattern and ask the child to fill in what comes next to continue the pattern.
  • Make the tallest block tower you can and let them knock it down (over and over again, if like most kids they like destroying things.)

Mr. Potato Head potato-head

  • Teach your host children the names of the different parts in your language.
  • Play a game asking them to put on the body parts by naming them in your language.
  • Play the same game above, but using Simon Says.  Simon Says is a game where the leader gives commands by saying “Simon Says” first. For example, “Simon Says, put on the nose.”  The players are only to follow the commands when the leader says Simon Says.  If the leader doesn’t say Simon Says first and just says, “put on the nose,”  and the player follows the command they are out of the game.  Repeat the game multiple times, so all kids get a turn to be the leader at least once.

Snow Day Boredom Busters

I know the kids have been home for many snow days this winter.  Believe me I know, since I have 4 kids of my own at home.  The key to keeping things manageable and fun is planning ahead and being proactive.  Don’t wait until the kids are fighting and getting into trouble to find things for them to do. Get them engaged in activities to prevent the boredom and arguing that can happen when everyone is in the house for too long.

I'm bored

I am putting together some blog posts with activity ideas in the following categories:

  1. New Ideas for the Same Old Toys
  2. Indoor Physical Activities
  3. Activities for Older kids
  4. Cooking Activities

Happy 100th Birthday to Boy Scouts of America

I wanted to mention this event since the Boy Scouts of America started from an idea in Great Britain and today there are scouts in countries all over the world.  It seems to be a concept that is pretty universal.

Au pairs from our cluster have shared their languages and cultures by participating in numerous Global Awareness presentations with local Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.


CentennialLogo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BSA!
The Boy Scouts of America – one hundred years young and still going strong! Celebrate the adventure and continue the journey as Scouting launches its Centennial year.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN
While walking the misty streets of London in 1909, American businessman William Boyce lost his way. A boy offered to guide him to his destination. Boyce wanted to pay him, but the boy explained that he was a Scout, and that Scouts do not accept money for doing good turns.

Eager to learn more, Mr. Boyce met with Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement in Great Britain. Boyce knew that boys back home would like the idea, so he brought Scouting to the United States. Papers incorporating the Boy Scouts of America were signed on February 8, 1910 – the date celebrated as the official birthday of the BSA.

Photo/Video Contest Winner is…

#5 – Sandra from Spain

The Winning Photo

The Winning Photo

Over 6,000 votes were cast in this Photo/Video Contest!  I want to thank everyone who submitted photos and all of those who voted.

Sandra has won a free ticket for our ski trip coming up on March 7.

I am putting together a video from all the photos and videos taken at the cultural fair. Look for that to be posted later in the week.

Snow Ice Cream

My kids are looking forward to the upcoming blizzard for many reasons, one of which is snow ice cream.  I only make it when we have a lot of snow, because  you want to collect fresh clean snow and it needs to be deep enough that you are just getting snow.  Ask your host parents before you try it.  I don’t want anyone freaking out. 🙂

snow ice cream

Here are two recipes I use to make it, depending on what kind of milk I have on hand.

Snow Ice Cream Recipe #1

8 cups of fresh clean snow
1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine in a large bowl and enjoy.

Snow Ice Cream Recipe #2

8 cups of fresh clean snow
1/2 cup of evaporated milk (or regular milk)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine milk, sugar and vanilla extract until sugar is dissolved.  Then combine with snow.  Enjoy.