Celebrating Valentine’s Day with friends from different countries shows that the festival of love is popular across many different cultures.
Category Archives: Fun Things We Do
Discussing Healthy Snacks at Whole Foods
One of au pairs’ responsibilities is preparing food for their host children and keeping healthy snacks on hand in case kids get hungry and need a quick bite to boost their energy. Au pairs discussed the pleasures and challenges of fixing dishes that make kids go: Yum!
Handling Expenses
Host parents often ask for suggestions on how best to handle common expenses that occur as au pairs are caring for the children.
Miscellaneous Expenses
There are different ways to handle the little day to day expenses that come up. Things like when an au pair takes the kids out for ice cream or picks up a gallon of milk. Some families keep a cookie jar fund, a little cash that they set aside weekly or monthly for these types of expenses. Others give their au pair a prepaid debit card for this purpose. Below are some suggestions for avoiding problems with expenses.
Host Families
- It’s important to be clear about how long this money should last and what types of expenses are approved.
- Let the au pair know whether or not you expect receipts.
Au Pairs
- Only spend the money on approved expenses.
- If it is something you are not sure about, ask first.
- Put your receipts in the cookie jar in place of the money to avoid any confusion.
Gas and Fare Cards
Host families are responsible for the au pair’s transportation costs: to and from classes, cluster meetings and when driving the kids.
It is a good idea to figure out how much gas an au pair will use for these trips and either put gas in the car or give a gas allowance. If your au pair is riding to classes or cluster meetings with another au pair, you should offer to share the cost of gas.
Au pairs are responsible for their own transportation at all other times. You should replace the amount of gas used for personal use.
Photo: Andrea Travillian
Happy Holidays 2016
Au pairs celebrated the holiday season with gift exchange and party games. They chatted about their memorable experiences with host families and kids and shared hopes for the future.
Picnic in Audubon Park
With holiday season approaching, au pairs took advantage of beautiful weather to have a picnic in Audubon Park and talk about Thanksgiving and work on a turkey themed craft.
Lynnesse Is Nominated for Au Pair of the Year 2016
Congratulations to Lynnesse for having been nominated by her host family for the Au Pair of the Year 2016 award!
Lynnesse is a second year au pair from South Africa. Her host parents say she felt like part of the family from the start and their three young children think of her as their wonderful big sister and love to spend time with her. In addition to providing excellent care for the kids, Lynnesse enriched the family’s life by sharing her South African culture and different perspective while herself learning about the life in the United States.
Au Pair of the Year is a yearly contest. For more information please visit
http://www.aupairinamerica.com/aupair_of_the_year/index.asp
Oak Street Po Boy Festival
Which po boy to have? Oyster, shrimp, beef or sausage? Or perhaps one of the several more exotic varieties? Should it be dressed or not? Shared with a friend or gobbled up by one hungry self? These were the big questions facing au pairs who attended Oak Street Po Boy festival, an annual po boy extravaganza in one of the funky New Orleans neighborhoods.
Beignets at Café du Monde
There is not a better and more iconic place in New Orleans for au pairs to reacquaint themselves with city after summer vacation than Café du Monde in the French Quarter. Excitement about new schedules, plans and goals both for au pairs and their host kids was enhanced and yes, sweetened, by copious amounts of sugar poured lavishly over delicious beignets.
All at the Mall
Au pairs met at the mall, the Lakeside Shopping Center to be precise, to reconnect after summer vacation and greet newly arrived “comrades in arms.” After sharing happy memories of summer escapades, both with host families and on their own, au pairs fanned out across the mall to compete in Scavenger Hunt. The winners enjoyed scoops of ice cream and plenty of accolades.
Back to School Tips
The new school year will start shortly. The transition from a more relaxed summer time to the busy school year can be challenging for all – kids, parents and au pairs. Here are a few tips for making it as easy as possible for everybody.
- Discuss changes to the daily routines in advance and mark children’s after school activities on the calendar
- Make sure au pair is familiar with the system of dropping off/picking up children (including NOT leaving kids in the car when picking up siblings)
- Put au pair’s name on the list of people allowed to pick up the children from school
- Provide au pair with the list of emergency contacts, including doctor’s
- Prepare a list of acceptable foods for breakfast, lunch and snacks
- Designate a spot for kids’ backpacks, school projects and sport/extracurricular activity items
- Discuss children’s after school routine (rest, playtime, use of electronics, homework)
- Remind au pair that it’s illegal to pass a yellow school bus if it has the STOP arm raised