Category Archives: Child Care

Cooking With Kids!

Cooking with children can help with many skills and encourage them to become an adventurous eater! It engages the senses, builds mathematics and critical thinking skills, explores science, build language skills, you can share your culture or learn about a new one together through food.

Check out these great tips for kitchen safety!

Ready to cook up a bit of fun in the kitchen? Check out these great ideas! Consider making animal pancakes for breakfast or a fun snack! Or a birdhouse sandwich for lunch!

How about a tropical fruit snack plate?  Or a fun popcorn mix? Or try some PB&J faux sushi?  Create a fruit filled rainbow!

Make your own granola bars! Or jellyfish sandwiches!

 

Photo: Melissa {flickr}

Planning Ahead for Future Snow Days

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…

  • Play in the snow.  Pro Tip:  Remind your kids go to the bathroom before you get them all bundled up to go outside. 

  • Come inside and warm up with hot chocolate (don’t forget the marshmallows.) Pro Tip: Shake the snow off of the kids boots and snow clothes. Hang them up to dry or put them in the dryer, so they are ready for round 2 out in the snow. 
  • Make your own play dough.

  • Play board games or legos together.
  • Play in the snow again.

  • Warm up inside and make paper snowflakes.

  • Bake cookies together or make some other fun recipe.
  • Make a blanket fort.

Stay warm & have fun!

Photo: Tony Crider (Flickr)

Welcome to Camp Au Pair in America!

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:

  • Art Experiences
  • Backyard Safari
  • Bugs & Butterflies
  • Cars and Trucks
  • Dinosaurs
  • Explore the World
  • Nature Explorations
  • Outer Space
  • Pirate Adventures
  • Princesses & Knights
  • Science (STEM)
  • Under the Sea

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 counselor. We love to share your accomplishments and inspire other au pairs!

Let’s make this an amazing summer!

 

Cooking with Kids!

Cooking with children can help with many skills and encourage them to become an adventurous eater! It engages the senses, builds mathematics and critical thinking skills, explores science, build language skills, you can share your culture or learn about a new one together through food.

Check out these great tips for kitchen safety!

Ready to cook up a bit of fun in the kitchen? Check out these great ideas! Consider making animal pancakes for breakfast or a fun snack! Or a birdhouse sandwich for lunch!

How about a tropical fruit snack plate?  Or a fun popcorn mix? Or try some PB&J faux sushi?  Create a fruit filled rainbow!

Make your own granola bars! Or jellyfish sandwiches!

 

Photo: Melissa {flickr}

Host Families – Au Pair Experiences

“She is doing an excellent job with the boys – has really picked up on their personalities and how to deal with each of them.  She has really been a help around the house.  I like how she takes things in stride and doesn’t get easily rattled-definitely a plus in our household!”   (German au pair)

“I came home to hear of how they brought some snow inside in pans & used food coloring to play & do experiments with it, and then did a scavenger hunt!”   (German au pair)

“She really gets the boys and their creativity and embraces that, making efforts to encourage and support their play. The kids wanted to sell Christmas tress so she helped them set up a table at the end of their driveway, make a sign, etc. No customers on the dead end road, but the boys had a fabulous time!” (Brazilian au pair)

“She has logged some serious ‘family time’ with us over the holidays! She even got up at 6:30am to open presents with the boys, and went on our family road trip to visit the cousins in PA.  She skyped with her family a few times, and was happy that the packages she sent a few weeks ago finally arrived in Germany – just after New Years. ”   (German au pair)

“It’s am amazing thing to bring in a young woman and watch her become a part of our larger family. She just fits in so well. She has been a great big sister to our kids and somewhat of a little sister to us. I am confident that my kids are well cared for and loved when I am not there. She has been such a blessing. I am so sad thinking about her leaving, but so thankful for the time she was with us.” (South African au pair)

“Our girls love being with her. She has become such a nice addition to the family. Her warm personality and demeanor has made it very easy for (us) to become comfortable with her and she with us. Her past experience with young children really shines through when she is spending time with the girls. We are so happy that we found each other!” (Spanish au pair)

“Things are going pretty well. She is really amazing with the boys. She wrote out a schedule for her & (the youngest), and made goals for him for the month (being able to take off his shoes by himself, walking to the playground, etc). When the big 3 were off school & she had everyone, she planned a whole day of Harry Potter-themed activities, crafts, recipes, etc. They loved it!” (Austrian au pair)

Photos by: Scrabble_retrofade_Virginia State Parks; Ilya-Haykinson

Big Kids Need Interaction Too

Just because a child is old enough to occupy themselves, doesn’t mean that they should be expected to do so the majority of the time.  Host families have a certain expectation of activity and involvement for their children. Get the kids engaged and active. You can be more fun than the TV or a video game.

 

Problem:
But, my kids don’t want to do anything but watch TV or play video games.

Solution:
Instead of saying,  “Would you like to (fill in the blank with any activity)?  The answer will often be, “No.”

Try this, “Now we are going to (fill in the blank with any activity.) or “Would you rather do  _____ or ______?”  Make sure both the choices are good options.
Your chances of co-operation are greatly increased. Even kids who are reluctant to try new things will usually get in the spirit of things and have fun, if you pick a good activity.

Problem:
I don’t know what to do with school age kids.

Solution:
Look for ideas online. Google “activities school age kids” or “activities tweens”. Below is a list of some ideas to get you started.

  • Cooking
  • Making things (check craft stores like Michael’s for kits and models that are age appropriate)
  • Going fun places (pottery painting, jewelry making, farms, museums, mini-golf, go-karts)
  • Sports (soccer, tennis, swimming, bicycling, roller skating, ice skating)
  • Let them teach you to do something they enjoy. Kids this age love being the expert.
  • Get outdoors and visit local parks.  You can even make a project of reviewing all the local parks (what kind of equipment they have, is there shade, water fountain?)  They can write this up and keep, so they remember which ones they want to go to again and which ones to skip in the future.
  • Let them help you search and plan some activities.
  • Check on the APIA Pinterest page and here on our cluster blog for ideas.
  • If you have a GPS, try taking them geocaching. Here is a website with all the details.

Note: Always get permission from your host parents before taking the kids places.

Photo: Killian77

Focus on Play: New Ideas for Some Classic Toys

It is good to offer kids a balance of independent play time and play where you are actively engaging with them. You can make toys they may be bored with, feel new and exciting, by suggesting different ways to play with them. Try some of the ideas below as a starting point.

Play Food/Dishes

  • Teach your host children how to say the names of some of the food and dishes in your language.
  • 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 children 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.)

Lego Blocks and Other Building Toys

  • Divide up all of the blocks between the people playing, by taking turns for each person to select block by block.
  • Suggest specific things to build (robots, houses, mountains etc.) 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

  • Teach your host children the names of the different parts in your language and play a game asking them to put on the body parts by name.
  • Play Hide and Seek with Mr. Potato Head. Have the children cover their eyes and count, while you hide Mr. Potato Head, then they go looking for him. Switch things up by letting them hide Mr. Potato Head and then you are the one to locate him.
  • 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.

Photos:  Lisa Maxwell (top) & Tom Smalls (bottom)