Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving and is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many people have the day off, which increases the number of potential shoppers. Many retailers open very early and offer door buster deals to draw people to their stores. Merchants and the media use the term Black Friday to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers are “in the black” or turning a profit.
Monthly Archives: November 2013
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving dates back to the first European settlers in North America. After hardship, illness and hard work the Pilgrims celebrated a successful harvest that they shared with their Native American friends. This national holiday is a day to feast and give thanks.
Visit the National Geographic site for kids to learn more.
And make some fun crafts from this link: http://www.bhg.com/thanksgiving/crafts/easy-thanksgiving-kids-crafts/
Happy Chanukah!
Chanukah also known as the Festival of Lights is a Jewish celebration. Chanukah starts at sundown today and lasts for eight days. It is a celebration of religious freedom based on historical events of more than two thousand years ago. It is traditional to exchange gifts or gelt (Yiddish for money) in the form of real coins or chocolate wrapped in gold foil, to play a game of put-and-take with a four sided top called a dreidel, and to light candles each night. Traditional foods include donuts and potato pancakes.
See www.holidays.net/chanukah/index.htm for more information, recipes, and crafts.
Do you have the world’s best au pair?
We’re excited to announce the opening of the 2014 IAPA Au Pair of the Year award! The International Au Pair Association (IAPA) hosts this award every year as a way to celebrate au pairs around the world and enhance the public’s awareness of this enriching cultural exchange opportunity.
All of the information host families need to know can be found at http://aupairinamerica.com/aupairoftheyear/2013.asp.
Submitting a nomination is easy- host families simply must email their nomination essay to aupairoftheyear@aifs.com no later than Friday, January 10th. Photos and videos are welcome in addition to the essay.
Do you want to take the UCLA online class?
The Winter 2014 course dates are January 6, 2014 – June 2, 2014.
Enrollment is opens at www.uclaextension.edu/aupairs.
The cost is $500 and au pairs earn 6 credits upon completion of both the online and community-based requirements.
What’s it like to be an au pair?
Find out by following Nicolle, from Australia who is coming to the USA to be an Au Pair in America au pair!
Here is the link to her blog:
Claude Monet was born today!
Monet, a famous French impressionist artist, was born in 1840. He would often paint the same scene in different lights for different effects. Look at some examples of this at http://www.ibiblio.org and then download a coloring page of the same painting for the children to color athttp://www.enchantedlearning.com. Encourage them to color it their own way, not to copy Claude Monet.
Going unplugged –
Au Pairs – Imagine for a moment that you went to the hospital and you were in the care of doctors and nurses. How would you feel if those doctors and nurses who were there to care for you were more interested in texting or using their personal computer than caring for you? How would that make you feel, about yourself and about them? Would you think that you were getting the treatment you deserved? Would you feel like paying the bill after your stay?
Life as an au pair, it is a fine balance between employee and family member. You live with your host family and participate with them as a member of the family, but you also have clear responsibilities as a childcare provider. Being a childcare provider is truly one of the most important jobs I can think of, because you are helping to shape our next generation. What message are you sending them when you would rather interact with a computer than with them? How will they feel about themselves and about you? Children feel as though everything is about them. They will see this as a rejection of them and they will be more likely to act out.
It also poses a safety concern when you are not paying enough attention to the children in your care. Accidents happen, but when an adult care giver is close by and appropriately supervising the chances of a major injury dramatically reduce.
During work hours, the following would not be considered acceptable:
-Texting
-Talking to friends on the phone
-Chatting with friends online
-Using Skype
-IMing
-Emailing
-Updating your status on Facebook or your mood on MySpace
-Checking in on Orkut, Studivz, SiempreGente or any other social media site
-Watching videos on YouTube
-Tweeting on your Twitter
-Uploading photos
-Anything else on the computer unless it is going to Nickjr.com together with your host children
Think about this — even if you work 45 hours a week, that leaves you 123 hours per week for all of that other stuff, or about 70 hours (if you are getting the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep per night.)
Host Parents – You need to be clear about what you consider acceptable during work hours to avoid misunderstandings. Also, please understand that you are dealing with a new generation of people who are very accustomed to being plugged in at all times. Their intention is not to be rude, they don’t necessarily realize how their actions will be perceived. Please use this information as an opportunity to begin a dialogue on the issue.
Gymnast Nadia Comaneci was born today!
Nadia, born in Romania in 1961, was the first gymnast to ever score a perfect 10 at the Olympics. She scored seven of them before the games were over in 1976! You might want to do a mini Olympics at your house. Create medals with ribbon and cardboard in advance so that you will be ready at the end of the ‘competition.’ The children can help you make them. The competition can be simple races (running, jumping, hopping, or rolling – compete by time or by endurance) or games or throwing or lifting.
Do you like to race cars?
In the United States there is a car race almost every week of the year between February and November. Now that the professionals are done, your children ages 4 and up can make some races of their own. You need a small toy car and a pencil for each racer and some string cut into equal lengths. Younger children should use short string; older children may have the patience for longer pieces. Tie one end of the string to the front of a car and the other end to the middle of the pencil. Pick a starting line at one end of your room and put the cars down. Now walk away as far as the string will let you. Move the cars toward you by rolling the string up on the pencil. How fast can the car go? The winner is the first racer who gets the car back to where he is standing.