Tips for Preparing for the Holidays:
- School breaks during holidays; ask your host family how your schedule will change during the break to make sure you and they are ready.
- Talk to your host family about how they celebrate the holidays.
- Share some holiday traditions from your country with your host family.
- Ask your host family which activities they really want you to join in; dinner with relatives, holiday gatherings, baking, decorating, and religious services.
- Discuss your plans for the holidays; parties or events you wish time off for well in advance, so your host family can plan.
- Be careful, accidents happen when children are very excited. Know when to calm them down, so you can avoid accidents before they happen.
- Try to keep the kids on as much of a regular schedule as possible. Kids will get over tired and cranky if there are too many activities in one day or several days in a row. Try to help limit the activities to a few a day or week.
- Give kids downtime with quiet activities, like reading a holiday story or watching a holiday DVD.
- Make sure you and the kids get plenty of sleep.
- Remember to prepare some gifts for your host family, especially for the kids. I recommend books, crafts, or games. You can read the books, do the crafts, play the games with them.
- Take some time for yourself; to shop, to spend with friends, to call home. Remember it is a stressful time, even if it is fun and exciting. You are far from home and you may feel a bit homesick.
- Don’t make promises to the kids that you can’t keep. Don’t promise to go to an event and then cancel because you would rather be out with your friends.
- Go to your host children’s school holiday activities, the class party, the winter concert, etc.
- Offer to talk to their class about how you celebrate holidays in your country. Do a craft with the class. Earn a Global Awareness letter or certificate. Ask me for help.
- Participate in family holiday traditions whenever possible. Be available to help the parents watch the kids while they decorate the house, prepare holiday foods, or attend holiday parties.
- Come to our cluster Holiday Party!
