APIA has a calendar for every month that lists fun things to do with kids, interesting facts, and educational information for many of the days in each month. January’s includes Martin Luther King, Jr. day, Albert Schweitzer’s birthday, activities to learn about hibernation, and recipes to celebrate Pie Day (January 23, not to be confused with Pi day, which is March 14th.) The link to January’s calendar is here .
Have fun!
Au Pair in America includes first aid training in our orientation, which all of our au pairs attend when they first arrive in the U.S. We also offer a scholarship which will pay for Infant and Child First Aid and CPR training through the Red Cross. We want all of our au pairs to be the most highly qualified in the industry, and we provide ongoing training to help meet that goal.
We also offer ongoing training quarterly during our au pair cluster meetings, and we have regular webinars for the au pairs on a variety of topics.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to reach out!
There are so many fun things to do with kids in Minnesota! We have apple orchards, pumpkin patches, haunted houses (some of which aren’t too scary, but some are, so be careful!) beautiful drives through changing trees, football games, and all kinds of Halloween activities.
It’s also a great time for au pairs and families to talk about fall in other countries. Some places don’t even have fall! So this could be the only chance she has to see leaves change from green to red, orange, yellow, or brown.
Take a look around your community and see what kinds of things you can do, that you haven’t taken advantage of in years past. I bet everyone can find something new. Comment on your best idea of how to celebrate this amazing season!
I love the fair! I go (almost) every year. I go on the rafting ride, eat at least one ear of corn, go on the giant slide, get some honey lemonade, pick up a bunch of swag in the Education Building, pet a few animals, listen to live music — I know I’m forgetting something. Oh, yeah, Sweet Martha! Mini-donuts! Rides! Corn dogs!
If you haven’t been to our State Fair, you’re in for a treat. We have the biggest (in terms of daily attendance) and best fairs in the country. Minnesota has such a proud agricultural tradition that we in the metro might take for granted, but when you see 4H kids sleeping with their lambs, then crying when the lamb is sold, you understand how important this lifestyle is to all of us.
But it’s not all educational. Every kind of food you can imagine is sold at the fair. They have live music on three different stages all the time. There is a parade every single day at 2. The art exhibit has some amazing stuff, and the home ec quilts blow my mind.
I hope every au pair gets a chance to experience the Great Minnesota Get-Together. It runs from August 25th to September 5th. Park and ride at area malls and wear comfortable shoes.
See you at the Fair!!
It’s getting to be that time, isn’t it, when kids start to whine about being bored. Personally, I haven’t been bored in about 25 years, but kids, you know…
If you’re looking for ideas on things to interest kids, Au Pair in America has a Pinterest board with great ideas for themed ‘Camp Au Pair’ weeks. Each week has a variety of ideas for activities for children of all different ages and interests. Some of the themes are Outer Space Week, Backyard Beach Week, Dinosaurs Week, Kids Cooking Week, Cars and Trucks Week, Pirate Adventures Week and Olympics Week (especiallly fun this year!.)
The APIA Pinterest Boards can be found at APIA Pinterest Boards and you don’t need to join Pinterest to browse through them. We also have boards on many other topics of interest to parents and caregivers.
Enjoy our wonderful summer!
It is absolutely important to keep kids safe by the water. That means NO using cell phones, NO running inside “just for a moment,” and NO getting so caught up in conversation that you aren’t watching them 100% of the time. If you are swimming with little kids, you need to be within arms reach at ALL TIMES and if the child is too little to swim you must be touching them at ALL TIMES.
Even big kids can get in trouble. This link is something I shared a year ago, but it’s so important I want to share it at least once a year. We think we know what it looks like when someone is drowning and we are WRONG. Please take the time to read this. It only takes a minute for a child to get in trouble in the water and this could literally help you save a life.
http://tinyurl.com/kd8mltf
The Aquatennial is coming! Minneapolis celebration of summer is a little shorter this year so make sure it’s on your calendar so you don’t miss it! There are all kinds of fun family-friendly events including the Torchlight Parade through downtown Minneapolis on 7/20 (with a Family Fun Night beforehand at Loring Park,) the Twin Cities River Rats Waterskiing Show on 7/21, the crowning of the Queen of Lakes on 7/23, and the Target Fireworks Show on 7/23. The fireworks show is considered one of the top 5 fireworks shows in the country!
Get the scoop on all the fun at http://www.aquatennial.com/events/
Au pairs come on a 12 month, J-1 visa. If they complete the requirements for their first year, they can extend with the program for up to a second year. This can be great for families who want to have the continuity of two full years with the same person. No learning curve!
Au pairs can choose to change families for their second year, instead of staying with their first family. This is generally because they would like to experience another part of the US. Their host family writes a recommendation for them and their profiles become available to families seeking a new au pair.
Second year au pairs can work out very well for families. The au pair has already gotten through the worst of any homesickness, and she understands exactly what the job of an au pair in the US is. They have probably been driving in US traffic, and their English has improved. Some families really enjoy these benefits. The only drawback is that the au pair can’t extend again, so it’s not for families who are looking for two years with the same caregiver.
You can see mini-profiles of many of the au pairs interested in extending by going to http://www.aupairinamerica.com/aupairs/available_year2.asp
February has been known as Black History Month in the US since 1976, when it was recognized nationally for the first time as part of the US Bicentennial. The contributions of African-Americans are often left out of history books, and this is one way to focus more attention on them.
Children can learn about Black History Month at their own level. Little kids might just want to color a picture of Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass, or listen to someone read The Sneeches by Dr. Seuss, while older ones would gain a lot by learning about Jackie Robinson or the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. There have been movies made about certain aspects that would be great for the right ages, including 42, the Jackie Robinson Story (it does have some swearing in it,) or The Help. Even Hairspray can be educational for older kids.
The great website Family Education, http://tinyurl.com/2s5eu4, has a page with all kinds of activities for families to do together to learn more about Black Americans and Black History Month.
There are a bunch of misconceptions about au pairs, so I thought I would try to put together one document that clears up the ones I personally hear most often.
First, having an au pair is affordable. An au pair costs about $370 per family per week (plus room and board.) The average cost of care for an infant at a center in the Twin Cities metro area, according to mnchildcare.org, is $321, and $179 at an in-home daycare. This is per CHILD, not per family. So for one child, ihaving an au pair is slightly more expensive but significantly more flexible. For more than one child, it’s actually less expensive!
Second, au pairs do not come here to get married. They come to do child care, to improve their English, to share their culture and learn about ours, to take classes – many reasons. While some of them do end up falling in love and marrying, the vast majority stay for the duration of their visa and then go back home. The State Department is constantly reviewing all au pair programs to ensure this is the case.
Third, au pairs are experienced, caring child care providers who love children. We exhaustively check childcare and personal references and provide transcripts to prospective host families. We give them personality tests and physical exams, and we are careful to select only candidates we feel will be successful with our host families.
Fourth, au pairs are good drivers. They all come with either an International Drivers License, or their home country’s license if they aren’t able to get an IDL where they live. So they all have passed at least one driving test. It is true that some of them have difficulty transitioning to our roads. We offer a course at our orientation that helps with that transition.
If you have questions about au pairs, please let me know! I’m happy to answer anything!
