Looking for some fun ideas for Easter and Passover celebrations and spring break activities? Check out the Au Pair in America Pinterest board for lots of great ideas!
Bake and decorate chick cupcakes
Make a foosball game out of a shoebox
Go on a scavenger hunt at the park
Photo by Michael
Play dough is the perfect modeling material for children. Their small hands can pat, poke, pinch, roll and knead it into many shapes. Keep it in an airtight container to use another day, or let it air dry into favorite shapes.
Measure 2 cups of flour, one cup of salt and 4 teaspoons of cream of tartar into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of oil to one cup of water in a separate bowl then add the mixture to the dry ingredients. For colored play dough, squeeze 10-20 drops of food coloring into the water before you add it to the mixture. Cook the dough at low heat in a wide pan, stirring constantly until it becomes rubbery. Remove the dough from the heat and knead it for a few minutes. When it cools the kids can play too!
Photo: Kevin Jarrett (Flickr)
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, recipe and craft ideas? Look no further… Au Pair in America has a Pinterest pinboard devoted to Valentine’s Day.
Photo: Clever Cupcakes (Flickr)
Play dough is the perfect modeling material for children. Their small hands can pat, poke, pinch, roll and knead it into many shapes. Keep it in an airtight container to use another day, or let it air dry into favorite shapes.
Measure 2 cups of flour, one cup of salt and 4 teaspoons of cream of tartar into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of oil to one cup of water in a separate bowl then add the mixture to the dry ingredients. For colored play dough, squeeze 10-20 drops of food coloring into the water before you add it to the mixture. Cook the dough at low heat in a wide pan, stirring constantly until it becomes rubbery. Remove the dough from the heat and knead it for a few minutes. When it cools the kids can play too!
Photo: Kevin Jarrett (Flickr)
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, recipe and craft ideas? Look no further… Au Pair in America has a Pinterest pinboard devoted to Valentine’s Day.
Photo: Clever Cupcakes (Flickr)
Halloween is fast approaching! There are many ways that you can make this time fun and interesting for both you and the children you care for!
Au Pair in America has captured a wonderful array of projects you can work on together. You can find them on our Halloween Fun Pinterest board! Try making a collection of glowing pumpkins using jars from the host family’s recycling! You’ll need clean jars, liquid glue, orange tissue paper, some paint, black construction paper or cardstock and a strand of lights or battery operated tea lights.
If you have a collection of plastic pumpkins for trick or treating, place them on a shelf or table and dress them up! baseball hats, party hats, tiaras, fire fighter hats, pirate hats and more will help you create a fun display! Dig through the dress up collection for some great options or make some of your own with craft supplies!
Check out the Pinterest board for some other great ideas like ghost bowling using toilet paper! How about adding some fun to lunchboxes by slipping a Halloween joke in? Try making some glowing cups – Frankenstein, ghost and pumpkin! Try transforming some acorns into pumpkins using paint!
Photos by Philip James and Mootsie
Toddlers are a bundle of inquisitive energy! So much to explore! Lets look at some engaging activities, inside and out, that we can plan for our days together!!
How about some outdoor hopscotch? Grab some chalk and get creative!
Practice cause and effect with this easy craft project. Bonus points – it travels well for entertaining small hands in waiting rooms, restaurants, etc.
Try playing with muffin tin sorting! Easy to find items in the home become useful tools of play as your and your child sort, place in, take out, etc.
Try your artistic hand at making a rainbow salt tray to explore! Completely reusable, this activity has long staying power!
Use recyclable water bottles and some miscellaneous items to create a Discovery Bottle.
Try creating a rainbow sand box! This compact box is perfect for small spaces, indoors, etc. Just grab another shallow container with a lid, add in the colored rice after it dries and some digging and sifting equipment! 
Photo credits to – Ilya Haykinson – Flickr; Emma Craig – Flickr; Kidz Activities – Flickr
As with any activity, please use your own judgement about what your particular child can do or try.
Looking for some fun ideas for Easter celebrations and spring break activities? Check out the Au Pair in America Pinterest board for lots of great ideas!
Bake and decorate chick cupcakes
Make a foosball game out of a shoebox
Go on a scavenger hunt at the park
Photo by Michael
Looking for ideas for St. Patrick’s Day? Check out these great ideas from the Au Pair in America Pinterest board!
Use marshmallows and green paint to create shamrocks!
Photo: Walter {flickr}
Almost everyone experiences homesickness and culture shock to some degree, when they come to live in a completely new environment. So much is different and it takes time to adjust.
It is normal to miss your own family, at home. Try to remember that they support you and want you to make the most of this experience. They will enjoy learning more about the U.S., through your eyes, as you share your adventures with them.
1. Make Friends – Don’t wait for other au pairs to reach out to you, reach out to them. There are other lots of new au pairs who are feeling the same way you are right now. Set a goal to reach out to a few of them each day. Some will respond and some will not. Don’t let that discourage you. No one will ever be mad at you for sending them a message to say hello or ask if they want to do something together. Make friends from various countries and you will also get a chance to practice your English skills together.
2. Stay in touch with your home country, but not too much. Skyping or talking on the phone every day with your family and/or friends back home normally makes homesickness worse. Try emailing instead and reduce the Skype and phone calls to once a week, until you feel stronger. It’s much harder seeing the faces and hearing the voices of those you miss.
3. Get out of the house (or your room specifically) – Go to cluster meetings, have coffee or movies with other au pairs, join a gym, go to the library, go for a walk, visit the mall, get a manicure, visit a museum. If someone invites you out, say “yes.” Also, don’t be afraid to do the inviting. If your host family invites you to do things with them, say “yes.” This will help you get to know each other and contribute to your overall happiness.
4. Realize that it definitely gets better – All au pairs experience homesickness and the vast majority of them get through it, stay and have a successful year (some even extend for a second year!) So, it must get better, right? Once you get past the initial homesickness, most au pairs report how quickly the year goes by.
5. Make Plans – Create your own Au Pair Bucket List (places you want to go, new foods to try, new things to experience during your year in the U.S.) and start doing them now. Post on our cluster Facebook group to find others who may want to join you on your adventures.
Photo by: Shimelle Laine (Flickr)
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
