With their host families, tour companies, friends, or all by themselves, au pairs love to travel across the United States. This summer, Laura decided to leave hot and humid New Orleans for a vacation in Alaska. She said her experience was “awesome” and we can well believe, judging by her pictures.
(As per the Department of State rule, each au pair gets two weeks of paid vacation during the one-year-long match with her host family.)
The most crucial step that a host family and au pair must take to avoid problems is to talk to each other often and honestly! This point cannot be over-emphasized. Many families and au pairs have found out that a small problem had grown to major proportions simply because it had not been discussed in a timely manner.
(APIA guidlines for a successful year…)
Many au pairs have never experienced a school busing system; make sure they understand how it works and what to do.
Make sure au pairs know the car line rules.
If driving the children, new au pairs should know how much time it takes to get to the school and the directions.
Pack a healthy lunch, ask your host families to review what that is… an au pair once packed a can of tuna!
School children come home with lots of notes and letters, designate a place in the house for this important information so no-one misses it.
Au pairs and host families should discuss what is expected of the au pair regarding homework.
Au pairs’ visit to Satchmo Fest on the grounds of the LA State Museum’s Old U.S. Mint in the French Quarter started with sunshine and ended with pouring rain but was fun from beginning to end. In addition to enjoying local music, cuisine, laughter, and camaraderie, au pairs also visited current museum exhibition, “Race, Are We So Different.”
Goodbye, Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh.
Me gotta go, pole the pirogue down the bayou.
My Yvonne, the sweetest one, me oh my oh.
Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the bayou.
