Tag Archives: holiday

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Thanksgiving is a public holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November every year in the United States. It started as a harvest festival and has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789.  The most important part of Thanksgiving for American families is to spend family time together.

 

Here are some fun facts about this special holiday:

  • The first Thanksgiving was held in the autumn of 1621 and included 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians and lasted three days.
  • The first Thanksgiving was eaten with spoons and knives — but no forks! Forks weren’t even introduced to the Pilgrims until 10 years later and weren’t a popular utensil until the 18th century
  • Thanksgiving is the reason for TV dinners! In 1953, Swanson had so much extra turkey (260 tons) that a salesman told them they should package it onto aluminum trays with other sides like sweet potatoes — and the first TV dinner was invented
  • Presidential pardon of a turkey: Each year, the president pardons a turkey and spares it from being eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. The first turkey pardon ceremony started with President Truman in 1947. President Obama pardoned a 45-pound turkey named Courage, who has flown to Disneyland and served as Grand Marshal of the park’s Thanksgiving Day parade!
  • Why is Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November? President Abe Lincoln said Thanksgiving would be the fourth Thursday in November, but in 1939 President Roosevelt moved it up a week hoping it would help the shopping season during the Depression era. It never caught on and it was changed back two years later.
  • How did the tradition of watching football on Thanksgiving start? The NFL started the Thanksgiving Classic games in 1920 and since then the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys have hosted games on Turkey Day. In 2006, a third game was added with different teams hosting
  • About 90 % of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day
  • The ‘wishbone’ of the turkey is used in a good luck ritual on Thanksgiving Day.

Photo: Tim Sackton

Merry Christmas!

Every family and culture has their own Christmas traditions. Try some of these ideas with the children:

Art Activities

  • On a BIG piece of paper draw a fireplace and a mantle. Make a paper stocking (two halves stapled together) decorate with glue and glitter, write the children’s names on them and “hang” them on your fireplace mural. Use catalogs to cut out toys to put in the stockings.
  • Cut out a tree from green construction paper. Decorate your tree with colored ornaments, glue and glitter. Pieces of ribbon or wrapping paper.

Books to Read

  • Cranberry Christmas by Wende and Harry Devlin
  • It’s Really Christmas by Lillian Hoban
  • The Christmas Doll by Wendy Parker
  • ABC Christmas by Ida DeLage
  • Santa Claus Forever by Carolyn Haywood
  • A Forest Christmas by Mayling Mack Holm
  • The Christmas Party by Adrienne Adams

A Fingerplay for Fun

Five Little Bells

    • Five little bells hanging in a row
    • (Hold up 5 fingers)
    • The first one said, “Ring me slow.”
    • (Move thumb slowly)
    • The second one said, “Ring me fast.”
    • (Wiggle index finger)
    • The third one said, “Ring me last.”
    • (Move middle finger)
    • The fourth one said, “I’m like a chime.”
    • (Move ring finger.)
    • And the fifth one said, “Ring us all. It’s Christmastime!”
    (Wiggle all 5 fingers)

 

A Valentine’s Day activity for your family

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Have fun with these idioms. Which ones exist or don’t exist in your language?

List of “heart” idioms with definitions

to have a heart of gold – to care about other people
to have a big heart – to be giving, caring
to be cold-hearted -lacking in sympathy
to wear your heart on your sleeve- to let everyone know how you feel about someone
to cross your heart and hope to die -to promise
to cry your heart out – to cry a lot and feel really badly about something
to eat your heart out – to be jealous of someone
from the bottom of your heart – to really mean something
to have a change of heart -to change your mind
to have a heart – to be compassionate, to care about other people
to have your heart in your mouth- to be scared or nervous
to have your heart set on something – to really want something
to set your heart at rest – stop worrying about something
to be soft hearted – to be sympathetic
to take something to heart- to have your feelings hurt by something someone else says or does

Need some ideas?

Looking for ideas for what to get your au pair for the holidays?

Check out the latest APIA Pinterest board:

http://pinterest.com/aupairinamerica/gift-ideas-for-au-pairs-from-host-families/

And here are some ideas for au pairs to get for their host families:

http://pinterest.com/aupairinamerica/gift-ideas-for-host-parents-from-au-pairs/

5 Thanksgiving Tips for Au Pairs & Host Parents

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year. Even though a few other countries also celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s still considered a uniquely American holiday, one that the au pairs look forward to experiencing. You can learn more about it here.

“I really enjoyed Thanksgiving with my host family. It was as I imagined! So much food to try. Everyone got dressed up and shared what they were thankful for. It was so warm and special. The next day we began to prepare for Christmas. It was magical.” Selina from Germany

Below you will find some tips to help you have a terrific Thanksgiving experience.

 

Host Parents

1.  Please plan to include your au pair in your Thanksgiving celebration, if at all possible. Thanksgiving with an au pair offers an opportunity to consider the relevance of the history and meaning of Thanksgiving as you compare the hospitality offered by the Native Americans to the recently arrived Pilgrims and the hospitality you offer your au pair.

2.  If you are traveling or will not be able to invite your au pair to join you for Thanksgiving, give her plenty of notice and help her make alternate plans. You don’t want to leave your au pair alone over the holiday.

Au Pairs

3.  If you are invited to attend dinner, please let your family know within 5 days of the invitation, whether you are planning to attend. It is considered rude in America to accept the invitation for dinner and then change your mind later in the month. Please be thoughtful.

4.  Make sure to discuss time off during this holiday weekend. Many host families work the Friday after Thanksgiving so do not assume you have this day off or the entire weekend. Talk to your host family, BEFORE you make any plans.

5.  If your host family is unable to include you in their Thanksgiving plans, please let me know if you have trouble making other plans. You may be able to join a friend and their host family for the holiday dinner.

Bonus Tip for the Kids

If you are looking for a fun recipe to make with your au pair, check out these turkey cupcakes. Find more fun activities and recipes on the Au Pair in America Fall Holidays pinboard.

Photo: Tim Sackton (Flickr)

Halloween safety tips

Have a safe and fun Halloween! 

  1. Make sure to inspect the children’s Trick Or Treat candy to make sure everything is in a sealed wrapper and appears safe.
  2. Small children should not eat hard candy because of chocking.
  3. Children should be supervised when they go Trick-or-Treating.  Many parents will come home early from work on the day to go with their children.  Check with Host Parents about this.

 

Halloween Safety Tips for Drivers

Halloween is a wonderful holiday, but because of increased foot traffic and that Trick-or-Treaters are out at night, the potential for automobile related accidents with young pedestrians increases four times on this night according to a CDC (Center for Disease Control) study.

Streets are literally crawling with all sorts of witches, ghosts, goblins, vampires and all other sorts of costumed people. This makes for added responsibility for drivers to make sure that they drive safer than normal.

In many areas, people drive their kids into subdivisions and let them out to walk from house to house. Usually the parent follows behind in the car. This can cause traffic jams in small areas and much confusion as kids dart between cars on the streets going from house to house. A driver is already distracted because they are trying to keep an eye on their own kids and usually aren’t paying attention to much else.

Children and adults tend to be preoccupied and may not pay as much attention to safety as they should. They may not see your vehicle or just assume that you see them automatically. Stay on the defensive and you shouldn’t have a problem while driving on Halloween night

* Don’t use a cell phone or other electronic device while driving on Halloween night. You shouldn’t be doing this anyway, the rate of cell phone related auto accidents has jumped dramatically since the use of cell phones and texting has risen so high. Some states have already made laws concerning this and others are working on it.

Make sure your child carries a flashlight, glow stick or has reflective tape on their costume to make them more visible to cars. Left them know if they carry a flash light to never shine itin the eyes of a driver. This can cause blindness on the drivers part temporarily and they may not see your child.

Drive below the posted speed limit in residential areas during trick-or-treating hours. This will allow you time to break if you see a child dart in front of you.
   
   
   
   
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Welcome March! It’s almost spring!

We have been lucky to have had a mild winter, but I am still looking forward to spring.  This year Spring begins March 20th, the signs of spring are already beginning.  Take your host kids on a nature hunt for the signs of spring in your garden!

March

MARCH IS:

Happy St. Patricks’s Day!

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In honor of St. Patrick’s Day wear green today!

Facts about St. Patrick’s Day Holiday

  • St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
  • In Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, people traditionally wear a small bunch of shamrocks on their jackets or caps. Children wear orange, white and green badges, and women and girls wear green ribbons in their hair.
  • Many cities have a St. Patrick’s Day parade. Dublin, the capital of Ireland, has a huge St. Patrick’s Day festival from March 15-19, that features a parade, family carnivals, treasure hunt, dance, theatre and more. In North American, parades are often held on the Sunday before March 17. Some paint the yellow street lines green for the day! In Chicago, the Chicago River is dyed green with a special dye that only lasts a few hours. There has been a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston, Massachusetts since 1737. Montreal is home to Canada’s longest running St. Patrick’s Day parade, which began in 1824.

Facts about Saint Patrick

  • St. Patrick was born in 385 AD somewhere along the west coast of Britain, possibly in the Welsh town of Banwen. At age 16, he was captured and sold into slavery to a sheep farmer. He escaped when he was 22 and spent the next 12 years in a monastery. In his 30s he returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. He died at Saul in 461 AD and is buried at Downpatrick.

Facts about the Irish

  • 34 million Americans have Irish ancestry, according to the 2003 US Census. That’s almost nine times the population of Ireland, which has 4.1 million people.
  • Some American towns have “Irish” names. You could visit: Mount Gay-Shamrock, West Virginia; Shamrock Lakes, Indiana; Shamrock, Oklahoma; Shamrock, Texas; Dublin, California and Dublin, Ohio.
  • The harp is the symbol of Ireland. The color green is also commonly associated with Ireland, also known as “the Emerald Isle.”
  • The Irish flag is green, white and orange. The green symbolizes the people of the south, and orange, the people of the north. White represents the peace that brings them together as a nation.
  • The name “lephrechaun” has several origins. It could be from the Irish Gaelic word “leipreachan,” which means “a kind of aqueous sprite.” Or, it could be from “leath bhrogan,” which means “shoemaker.”Facts about Clovers
  • According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14!
  • One estimate suggests that there are about 10 000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.
  • Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.

It’s President’s Day!

Today is President’s Daypresidents-day-coloring-page
School is closed today! President’s Day is a Federal holiday created to commemorate
the births of former Presidents George Washington (Feb. 22) and Abraham Lincoln (Feb.
12). Throughout America, Presidents’ Day is observed by big sales in the stores, closed
schools and no mail delivery.

Things to do with children: The United States has had more than 40 presidents. How
many can the children name? Who has been president during their lifetime? Take a look
at American coins and bills; who are the Presidents pictured on each coin and bill?

Valentine’s Day history

Every February we celebrate Valentine’s Day by giving flowers, candy and cards to those we love. We do this in honor of Saint Valentine. You may be wondering, “Who is St. Valentine”? Time to brush up on your Valentine’s history!

Legend has it that Valentine was a priest who served during third century Rome. The Emperor at that time, Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those that were married. With this thought in mind he outlawed marriage for young men in hopes of building a stronger army. Supposedly, Valentine, decided this decree was not fair and married young couples in secret. When Emperor Claudius II found out about Valentine’s actions he had his head cut off making him a martyr of love.

Another legend has it that Valentine was an imprisoned man who fell in love with his jailor’s daughter. Before he was put to death he sent the first ‘valentine’ himself when he wrote her a letter and signed it ‘Your Valentine’, words still used on cards today.

Perhaps we’ll never know the true identity and story behind the man named St. Valentine, but this much is for sure…February has been the month to celebrate love for a long time, dating clear back to the Middle Ages. In fact, Valentines ranks second only to Christmas in number of greeting cards sent.

For some fun children’s activities including crafts, coloring pages, games, puzzles and poems goto:

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/valentines/index.htm

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/valentines-day/