Valentine’s Day (February 14) is a time of love, friendship, giving, and caring. Americans use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to tell friends and family how much they care. Children usually exchange cards at school.
Are you looking for Valentine’s day activity and craft ideas?
Look no further… Au Pair in America has a Pinterest pinboard devoted to Valentine’s Day:
Photo: Clever Cupcakes (Flickr)
Next week’s Camp Au Pair theme is Paris Summer Olympics. The 2024 Summer Olympics are taking place in Paris, France, July 26-August 11.
Crafts, recipes, activities, and games related to the Summer Olympics can be found here on the Camp Au Pair Summer Olympics pinboard.
Culture Sharing – The Olympics bring so many opportunities for learning about other countries. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Videos – On YouTube you can find many videos for kids about the Olympics.
Books – Stop by your local library and look for books about the Olympics.
Some good ones include: Olympig!, G is for Gold Medal: An Olympic Alphabet, How to Train with a T-Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals, Wilma Unlimited, America’s Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle, Way to Go Alex!, Touch the Sky, Pele: King of Soccer, A Picture Book of Jesse Owens & Babar’s Celestville Games.
You can also check on YouTube for videos of books being read aloud.
Fun Fact: The Olympic symbol consists of five interlaced rings of equal dimensions, used alone, in one or in five different colors, which are, from left to right, blue, yellow, black, green and red. The Olympic symbol (the Olympic rings) expresses the activity of the Olympic Movement and represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games.
Image: Project Nursery
When kids are out of school for the summer, it doesn’t take long for them to become bored and sometimes that leads to sibling squabbles and mischief. Even though they don’t realize it, they are usually missing routine and predictability in their daily schedule. One solution is to make fun plans to keep them busy!
Each week this summer we will share a different Camp Au Pair theme. These weekly themes are designed to give you ideas to keep your host kids occupied and engaged all summer long. They will also be learning. (But shhhh, don’t tell them that part.) Check back each Friday, for the next week’s theme. This gives you a chance to make plans and gather materials for the next week. For each theme there will be crafts, games, snacks and activities. You can just use these ideas or add your own and customize the themes to fit the ages and interests of your host children.
Here are the themes you can look forward to:
Check out Summer Fun & Summer Holidays pin boards for even more ideas.
If you get some great pictures doing these activities with your host kids, please send those to your community counselor. We love to share your accomplishments and inspire other au pairs!
Let’s make this an amazing summer!
The term “bucket list” was popularized in the 2007 Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman movie. The idea is to make a list of things you want to do before you “kick the bucket” (which is an idiom referring to death.) Even though that sounds kind of morbid, the idea has taken off as something much more positive and people create bucket lists to log the things they want to do at some point in their life.
With that said, a Summer Bucket list is a list of things to do before this summer ends.
Click here to print your own summer bucket list
Get lots of ideas to put on your list on our APIA Summer Fun Pinterest Board.
Looking for ideas to keep the kids busy on a snow day (when they are home from school for winter weather?)
Here is a simple snow day game plan…
Stay warm & have fun!
Photo: Yuli Salinas
Next week’s Camp Au Pair theme is Dinosaurs.
Crafts, recipes, activities, and games related to dinosaurs can all be found here on the Camp Au Pair – Dinosaurs pinboard.
Field Trips can be a great way for kids to learn and have new experiences. Get permission from your host parents before any outings and be sure to take all social distancing precautions.
Field Trip Ideas:
Virtual Field Trips:
Toys – Many kids have dinosaur toys already. See what your kids have and think of fun, new ways you can play with these toys with them. Imagine taking a plastic dinosaur and making footprints in play dough to form your own fossils.
Webcam – The Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland offers a webcam where you can watch paleontologists remove rock from around fossils.
Videos – Look for fun videos on YouTube about dinosaurs and fossils. Here are a few to get you started.
Movies – Here are some movies that fit the dinosaur theme.
For older kids:
Books – Check your kids’ bookshelf for books on dinosaurs. You can also find many read aloud book videos on YouTube.
Photo: krojotak.com
“Game plan” means a strategy for how you are going to accomplish something. In the case of keeping kids from getting bored and/or into trouble, the best way to prevent it is to keep them busy with safe, fun activities.
When there are days home from school, letting kids sit around watching TV or play video games is not the best use of their time. Providing fun alternatives will make it much easier to pull them away from the screen.
You need to make a plan of what you will do with them each day and prepare for that. Planning is very important. You don’t want to tell them you are going some place fun, only to arrive there and see they are not open that day or you needed to bring something and you don’t have it.
If your plan includes a craft or cooking project, make sure you have:
If your plan includes an outing to someplace fun, figure out:
Use some of these online resources to find activities and recipes:
Photos: vmiramontes (Flickr) & tasty.co
Making your own ice cream is a fun summer activity to do with the kids. Here is a simple recipe. You can change it up by adding a little chocolate syrup, a few chocolate chips, or using a flavoring other than vanilla.
In a quart size zipper baggie, combine…
1 cup of whole milk or half and half
2 tablespoons of sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
In a gallon size zipper baggie…
Fill ½ way with ice cubes
Add 1/3 cup of rock salt (if you don’t have rock salt you can use table salt or kosher salt)
Seal the small baggie carefully and place the inside of the large bag. Seal the large bag and shake the bags until you can see the mixture thickening (about 5 minutes.) It will be cold to hold, so you may want to carefully pass it back and forth between yourself and a partner. Remove the small baggie and wipe the top off (to remove salt water,) unzip and enjoy!
What is Passover?
Passover is the Jewish celebration lasting seven to eight days (seven in Israel, eight outside of it) that marks the freedom of the Jews from enslavement by the Egyptians. According to the Old Testament, the Jews, led by Moses, had requested freedom from the Pharaoh of Egypt but were denied. To punish the Egyptians, God sent the 10 plagues to Egypt to convince the Pharaoh to release the Jews. The last of these plagues, and the most devastating, was to kill the firstborn male in each Egyptian household.
When is Passover?
Passover in 2022 will start at sunset on Friday, the 15th of April and will continue for 7 days until Saturday, the 23rd of April.
How is Passover celebrated?
Family and friends gather together after nightfall on the first and second nights of the holiday for the high point of the festival observance, the Seder. During the Seder, which means “order” in Hebrew, the experience of the Exodus is told in story, song, prayer, and the tasting of symbolic foods. The Seder meals include four cups of wine, eating matzah and bitter herbs, and retelling the story of the Exodus.
Here are some websites, with Passover activity ideas for kids.
Valentine’s Day (February 14) is a time of love, friendship, giving, and caring. Americans use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to tell friends and family how much they care. Children usually exchange cards at school.
Are you looking for Valentine’s day activity and craft ideas?
Look no further… Au Pair in America has a Pinterest pinboard devoted to Valentine’s Day:
Photo: Clever Cupcakes (Flickr)
