Tag Archives: live in childcare

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

Winter driving safety tips

Driving safely on icy roads

  1. Decrease your speed and leave yourself plenty of room to stop. You should allow at least three times more space than usual between you and the car in front of you.
  2. Brake gently to avoid skidding. If your wheels start to lock up, ease off the brake.
  3. Turn on your lights to increase your visibility to other motorists.
  4. Keep your lights and windshield clean.
  5. Use low gears to keep traction, especially on hills.
  6. Don’t use cruise control or overdrive on icy roads.
  7. Be especially careful on bridges, overpasses and infrequently traveled roads, which will freeze first. Even at temperatures above freezing, if the conditions are wet, you might encounter ice in shady areas or on exposed roadways like bridges.
  8. Don’t pass snow plows and sanding trucks. The drivers have limited visibility, and you’re likely to find the road in front of them worse than the road behind.
  9. Don’t assume your vehicle can handle all conditions. Even four-wheel and front-wheel drive vehicles can encounter trouble on winter roads.

It’s John Philip Sousa’s birthday!

John Philip Sousa was born in 1854 and is famous for composing over 100 marches – classic American patriotic music. Make a marching band with the children (you might need to invite some friends) and have a parade. Children love to make noise, so you don’t need fancy instruments. Try two pot lids as cymbals, a stick and an empty cardboard or plastic container as a drum. Sandpaper rubbed together makes a great noise too! Homemade flags or paper hats would dress up your parade even more.

Hints for Success – Homesickness/Culture Shock

heart hand byAlmost everyone experiences culture shock when they come to a completely new environment. Everything is different: the language, the food, and the people.

Here are my Top 5 Tips for
Dealing with Homesickness

1. Make Friends – Don’t wait for other au pairs to reach out to you, reach out to them. There are other lots of new au pairs who are feeling the same way you are right now. Set a goal to reach out to a few of them each day. Some will respond and some will not. Don’t let that discourage you. No one will ever be mad at you for sending them a message to say hello or ask if they want to do something together. Make friends from various countries and you will also get a chance to practice your English skills together.

2. Stay in touch with your home country, but not too much. Skyping or talking on the phone every day with your family and/or friends back home normally makes homesickness worse. Try emailing instead and reduce the Skype and phone calls to once a week, until you feel stronger. It’s much harder seeing the faces and hearing the voices of those you miss.

3. Get out of the house (or your room specifically) – Go to cluster meetings, have coffee or movies with other au pairs, join a gym, go to the library, go for a walk, visit the mall, get a manicure, visit a museum. If someone invites you out, say “yes.” Also, don’t be afraid to do the inviting. If your host family invites you to do things with them, say “yes.” This will help you get to know each other and contribute to your overall happiness.

4. Realize that it definitely gets better – All au pairs experience homesickness and nearly all of them stay and have a successful year (some stay for two years.) So, it must get better, right? Once you get past the initial homesickness, most au pairs report how quickly the year goes by.

5. Make Plans – Create your own Au Pair Bucket List (places you want to go, new foods to try, new things to experience during your year in the U.S.) and start doing them now. Post on our cluster Facebook group to find others who may want to join you on your adventures.

Photo by:  Shimelle Laine (Flickr)

It’s Grandparents Day!

National Grandparents Day

Take some time today to make a surprise for Grandparents Day, celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day. This is not a widely celebrated holiday, but most grandparents would still appreciate being remembered and would particularly enjoy a homemade gift or card. Work with your children to create a simple but special surprise. Use a photo of the child or the child and the grandparent to make it even more special.

Feeling homesick?

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Almost everyone experiences culture shock when they come to a completely new environment. Everything is different: the language, the food, and the people.

Here are my Top 5 Tips for Dealing with Homesickness

1. Make Friends – Don’t wait for other au pairs to reach out to you, reach out to them. There are other lots of new au pairs who are feeling the same way you are right now. Set a goal to reach out to a few of them each day. Some will respond and some will not. Don’t let that discourage you. No one will ever be mad at you for sending them a message to say hello or ask if they want to do something together. Make friends from various countries and you will also get a chance to practice your English skills together.

2. Stay in touch with your home country, but not too much. Skyping or talking on the phone every day with your family and/or friends back home normally makes homesickness worse. Try emailing instead and reduce the Skype and phone calls to once a week, until you feel stronger. It’s much harder seeing the faces and hearing the voices of those you miss.

3. Get out of the house (or your room specifically) – Go to cluster meetings, have coffee or movies with other au pairs, join a gym, go to the library, go for a walk, visit the mall, get a manicure, visit a museum. If someone invites you out, say “yes.” Also, don’t be afraid to do the inviting. If your host family invites you to do things with them, say “yes.” This will help you get to know each other and contribute to your overall happiness.

4. Realize that it definitely gets better – All au pairs experience homesickness and nearly all of them stay and have a successful year (some stay for two years.) So, it must get better, right? Once you get past the initial homesickness, most au pairs report how quickly the year goes by.

5. Make Plans – Create your own Au Pair Bucket List (places you want to go, new foods to try, new things to experience during your year in the U.S.) and start doing them now. Post on our cluster Facebook group to find others who may want to join you on your adventures.

Photo by:  Shimelle Laine (Flickr)

September 3rd is Skyscraper day!

bulding blocks by Ella Novak

Take out the blocks and see how tall you can build a skyscraper.

Or try this…

Make your own large size blocks:

  1. Wash the inside of half-gallon size cardboard milk or juice containers
  2. Carefully cut off the folding top portion of each container
  3. Put one container completely inside the other with the two closed ends facing out.  These are strong enough to stand on!

Photo by: Ella Novak (Flickr)

Have you been to the Motts Run Reservoir Recreation Area?

MottsReservori

This 860-acre natural area including the 160-acre reservoir, is a haven for fishing, boating canoeing, hiking and picnicking. It also serves the residents of Fredericksburg and parts of Spotsylvania County with drinking water.

You may bring your own boat (ELECTRIC MOTORS ONLY) to launch on the lake, or fish from the banks. Fee charged for fishing and boat launching. No swimming, horseback riding, biking of any kind, or all-terrain vehicles permitted.

The park has jon boats and canoes available for rental, picnic grills and tables, and over 4 miles of hiking trails.

Motts Reservoir is OPEN Thursdays – Mondays April 1 – October 31 from 7:00am – 7:00pm; the Reservoir is CLOSED on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

If the weather is questionable, call before coming (540) 786-8989.

As a cost saving measure, when the weather is bad we reserve the right to close the reservoir early.

Make a fossil!

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For children ages 4 and older.

Mix together 1/2 cup of plaster and 1/4 cup water in a clean plastic container (or follow package directions).

Cover a seashell with petroleum jelly (Vaseline). When the plaster begins to set (thicken and harden slightly), press the shell into the plaster.

Let it dry overnight and then remove the shell (it should slide out easily).

Use the plaster mold to make clay fossils.

You can also use plaster to preserve a child’s hand or footprint. The plaster washes off skin easily with warm water, but make sure you run lots of water down the drain!

Handprints make wonderful gifts for parents and grandparents.

Let’s have a picnic!

Plan to have lunch or breakfast or dinner outside. Spread out an old blanket or sheet on the ground and have a picnic! Good picnic foods include sandwiches, cut up fruits and vegetables like carrots, peppers and berries, and chips. Remember to bring plates and something to drink. No picnic is complete without the ants! Here’s a fun guessing game with a picnic theme.