Thanksgiving – an American Holiday
Thanksgiving, a uniquely American holiday, dates back to the first European settlers in North America.
After much hardship, illness and hard work, the Pilgrims were finally able to celebrate a successful harvest which they shared with their Native American friends who had helped them through their difficult beginning in America.
Today this day is set aside to feast and to give thanks-something we can all share, as we too celebrate our cross-cultural friendships.
Some activities to share with the children :
Maple-Nut-Berry Popcorn Balls ( for children ages 3 and older): Add some chopped walnuts and raspberries, blueberries or blackberries. Add enough melted butter to lightly coat popcorn. Stir. Pour maple syrup over the warm popcorn and stir until all the corn, nuts and berries are covered. Shape the sticky corn into balls and place on a plate to refrigerate until the syrup hardens.
Thanksgiving cards and place cards: Fold a piece of paper in half, place a leaf on the inside and close the card. Use a crayon to rub lightly across the front of the card in the area where the leaf is. The shape of the leaf will appear on the outside. Remove the leaf. Write a name on the front for a place card, or a message inside for a Thanksgiving card. Older children might want to make more sophisticated designs using more than one leaf.
Make a chain of paper doll (adults should do the cutting): Fold a piece of paper back and forth over and over again with a width between folds of 2-3 inches. With the paper folded cut out a shape of a person, make sure that the hands and feet touch the fold, but don’t cut through the fold. When you unfold the paper there will be a line of people holding hands. Children ages 3-10 can color the figures to look like Pilgrims(men wore big white collars, belts with buckles, and buckles on their shoes, pants to their knees; women wore white hats and aprons over solid color dresses) or Native Americans (draw feather headdresses and brightly colored geometric patterns on their clothes).
Tree of Thanks: This Thanksgiving tree is bound to become a new holiday tradition.
Trace leaves onto autumn colored craft’s paper and cut out. Punch a hole into the stem of each paper leaf. Measure and cut a 2” length of wire or twine for each leaf. Thread it through the hole and bend the ends to make a hook for hanging. Place the tree branches in a pot or vase. Let the children or/and guests choose a leaf or two and ask them to jot down things that they are thankful for.
Holiday Reminders for Au Pairs and Host Families
With the holiday season just around the corner, it is important to review this little reminder about program rules for holidays and vacations.
Holidays
- Host families are NOT REQUIRED to give au pairs any specific holidays.
- Each host family will make different arrangements on holidays, some au pairs will be off and others will be required to work.
- Au pairs should NOT make plans for holidays without checking with your host family FIRST.
Vacation
- Au pair earns 2 weeks of paid vacation during the course of her year.
- The host family can pick a week and the au pair can pick a week, if an agreement is not reached.
- All vacation should be preplanned (at least 4 weeks in advance.)
- All au pair’s friends and/or family visits/vacations should be pre-approved prior to purchasing a ticket.
- If an au pair travels with their host family, it should be discussed UP FRONT whether this is the au pair’s vacation or if she is working.
- If an au pair travels with the host family to work, the host family is required to pay for her transportation, lodging and meals.
Keep these things in mind as you plan your travel and we wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season!
Important: An au pair MUST have her DS2019 signed PRIOR to her departure from the US. More info. about this can be found on the right side of this page under “Travel Links for Au Pairs.”
Homework and Keeping Children Busy in the Car
Child Focus
Driving – Keeping children happy in the car can be challenging. One helpful approach is to engage them in car games in the safety of their car seat or seat belt.
I Spy: Very young children can play”” I Spy with my little eye”” and they say the color of the thing they are looking at and everyone else in the car needs to guess what it is. For example, “”I spy my with my little eye something red”” and people guess that the child is looking at a red car or red mailbox.
Alphabet Game- ages 3 and up – Children who can identify letters and can easily see out the window of the car can play this game. One child starts with A and has to find a word on a sign visible from the car with the letter A. The next child has to identify the B, and so on. Older children can play the Geography Game. One person starts by saying aloud a country, city or state and the next person must take the last letter to begin his country, city or state. For example: 1st person says New York and the next person can say Kansas and the next person can say Seattle.
Privacy, Personal Information & The Internet
Just a reminder about how important it is to respect your host family’s privacy and not share personal details and information. This applies to all kinds of situations, including: personal conversations, email and social websites.
For your own safety, it is a good idea to be careful what personal information you share about yourself as well. You should not be giving out information like your telephone number and address to people you don’t know.
Once you post something on the internet (even if you later delete it), it can show up elsewhere. Unless you have specific permission from the host family, you should not post pictures of them, their children or their home on the internet.
If you have a blog or website where you post in your native language, remember there is translation software. So, even if you say it in your native language, be sure it is not something you will regret.
HOW FAMILIES AND AU PAIRS HANDLE MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES
Miscellaneous Expenses
There are different ways to handle the little expenses that may 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 this kind of expenses. Here are some suggestions for avoiding problems with that.
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.
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.
Gas and Fare Cards
Host families are responsible for the au pair’s transportation costs:
- to and from classes and cluster meetings
- 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.