Cultural Care Au Pair Icecapades!

Cultural Care au pairs in Greenwich and Stamford, CT took to the ice for an au pair meeting in January. The result? Nothing but a whole lotta fun! In fact, Local Program Director Lee Anna Whitely got lots of feedback from her group about their skating adventure.

What was the funniest thing you overheard out on the ice:
The funniest thing I overheard was a Brazilian au pair saying: “Hey, easy like Sambaaaaa” right before she fell down! -Elisabeth Leiss from Austria

I was too focused on not falling that so didn’t listen to much out there. :) -Taylah Bell from Australia

What was your best move out on the ice?
Holding on to the rail and the people around me to avoid falling. That would be my signature move. -Taylah Bell from Australia

That must have been my pirouettes! -Johan Dagmar from Sweden

I didn’t try to make any special moves because I was just happy that I didn’t fall, because I haven’t been ice-skating since several years! -Franziska Kirchner from Germany

What was most fun about this ice-skating adventure?
My favorite part was when Johan “Superman” Dagman fell twice on the ice, like a real princess! -Tobias Johannson from Sweden

I got back into ice-skating without falling over, I got to meet new au pairs and see my awesome LCC and I got to experience winter in fine form ice-skating its self! it was an AWESOME meeting! -Taylah Bell from Australia

It was my first au pair meeting here in the U.S. It was fun getting to know all the other au pairs from this area and at the same time having fun on the ice! -Franziska Kirchner from Germany

Answering Difficult Questions

While the media continues to cover the devastation in Haiti, au pairs may be faced with some difficult questions from the host children about what happened and what it means. The au pairs are undoubtedly having their own personal response to this tragedy and they may appreciate some guidance or direction from their host parents about how they would like them to deal with these kinds of questions. In addition to providing an opportunity for your families to make a donation, if they so choose, through the fundraising initiative we announced last week it may be helpful to also suggest that this issue be a topic of discussion between host parents and au pairs so that everyone can be on the same page regarding how this should be handled. The devastation experienced by the people of Haiti is unimaginable, but understanding how to talk about it is important and that’s a personal choice for every family. If you have any au pairs in your group that are having any difficulty with this situation and would appreciate the support of one of our Program Counselors, please reach out to your Program Director and we would be more than happy to make this resource available to them.

Happy winter...and prayers to Haiti

Hello guys!! Sorry it’s been a while but with all the holiday stuff and my birthday (yay finally 21!) I was pretty busy.

I hope you enjoyed Christmas and New Years as much as I did!! I had my friend Robert from Germany over to visit me and we had a really fun time! I showed him all around Boston and we also took a weekend trip to New York. We were very lucky…the hostel we had booked had to close because they had some issues with the police…so they put us in a hotel for the same price. We also got Knicks tickets for free! It was great! My host family welcomed him very nicely, so he had the opportunity to stay with us for 10 days and celebrate an American Christmas! He had a blast and will hopefully come back soon!

On the occasion of the earthquake in Haiti, which sadly happened on my birthday, I want to appeal to all of you to spend some money!! They really need it! It’s awful!! I have some Haitian friends here and it’s horrible—none of them has heard anything of their families yet!! So please help them by donating some money…you can easily do it… just send a text with “HAITI” to 90999 and $10 will go to the Red Cross Relief Efforts!

At last I’ll give you some tips for activities with your kids in this cold weather! I just joined a “music together” class where I go every Friday with Henry…you can find these classes, or gym classes everywhere…they’re fun and not outside!! At home just pull out some board games…I’m sure there are a lot you might have never tried before…go ahead and try them! My kids really get into that!! Also you can bake, do arts and crafts…for example your own board games! And I’m sure your kids have gotten a lot of toys for Christmas to play with anyways. If you’re kids like being outside, go sledding, skiing or ice-skating!!

All the best and prayers to Haiti!
Larissa

Haiti Disaster Relief

At Cultural Care Au Pair and our parent company EF Education First, we believe in connecting people as citizens of the world, and breaking down barriers of language, culture and geography. Never is that mission more important than in a time of crisis. In order to reach out to the people of Haiti, EF Education First will match up to $100,000 of employee, student and customer donations made through the American Red Cross. We believe this is our responsibility as a company, as educators and as global citizens. We hope you will join us in our effort to aid the millions of Haitians who need our support. Together, we can make a difference.

If you would like to make a donation, please click or paste the following link in your browser:   
http://american.redcross.org/efeducationfirst-emp

Cultural Care Au Pair survey results keep getting better!

This past fall, Cultural Care Au Pair launched another customer satisfaction survey to our host families…and the consensus is that they are overwhelmingly happy! To share few of the stats:

• 96% of host families are satisfied with the quality of childcare that their au pair provide
• 95% are satisfied with the support provided by their Local Childcare Coordinator
• 97% are pleased with the choice they made to use the services of Cultural Care Au Pair
• 96% would recommend the services of Cultural Care Au Pair to other families:

We’re thrilled with these results, which are certified by independent survey company Discovery Surveys, Inc. In fact, our participation rate (52% of active host families this time around) and the results themselves have improved each of the four times we have administered the surveys (spring and fall of 2008 and spring and fall of 2009). For more detailed survey information, visit our website.

Thank you to our current host families for partcipating and for helping us to further improve our program!

Year In Review

Each month you make calls to each of your host families to check in and to see how things are going. You undoubtedly have some updates or upcoming meeting dates to share during these calls, but try asking them to share one thing that’s going well and one challenge they’ve had over the past month. Take note of these for each family and at the end of the year as they prepare to welcome a new au pair, share their year of feedback. It may be helpful for them and may help to set them up for even more success having been given the gift of perspective of a year in review. It’s also an incredibly helpful tool for you as an LCC and can assist with additional talking points during the repeat family interview or even the orientation meeting once the au pair arrives.

New Year, New Plans!

The New Year is a perfect time to finally transform some of those long time ideas, thoughts, and intentions into plans. Au pairs have one year to do all of the things that they hope to and that time can fly by very quickly.  Unless they are extending, their year could be coming to an end and it would be a shame to not do all the things they dreamed about at the beginning of their year.  At your next monthly meeting hand every au pair a piece of paper and have them write down 3 things that they want to do before their year ends.  Then, have everyone put a date by which they commit to making that happen.  If they feel comfortable, have them share their list with the group.  Some au pairs will realize that there are others in the group who have the same goals as they do and they can team up to achieve them together.  Now is the time to make those plans and to have that weekend trip, visit that museum, or go to that show that they had thought about for so long.  With a little encouragement from you, they will be one step closer to making it happen.   

Au pairs share unique holiday traditions

Lisa Scadden, Blaire Martin, and Sara Torkelson (left to right) do their best “Charlie’s Angels” impression at a dinner for North Shore, MA au pairs last Wednesday night. Scadden and Martin are from Australia, while Torelson hails from Sweden.

Cultural Care Au Pairs on the North Shore of Massachusetts are in the Salem Online News today after sharing their thoughts on spending the holidays far from home. A reporter from the publication interviewed some of the 40 au pairs who attended the holiday dinner at Prince Pizza to which they brought desserts native to their home countries. A portion of the interviews is below:

Mengue Zhang, 23, from China
Au pair in Georgetown

What do you like about being an au pair?
“I think of how the families raise their kids and I learn a lot. I really appreciate it. I think Chinese kids are very spoiled.”

Differences in Chinese and American lifestyles?
“We make most foods from scratch.”

What Chinese holiday dish did you prepare?
“We don’t have Christmas, we have Chinese New Year. I made a Chinese dessert: egg tart. That was my first time baking.”

Graziele Alves, 21, from Brazil (raised in Austria)
Au pair in Manchester

Do you like being an au pair?
“I’m very excited every day. Every day you learn something new about the American way.”

Why, what do you like?
“I love Dunkin’ Donuts,” she said with a laugh. “I die for it. And Burger King is also better than in Austria. … I’ve been to New York three times; it’s good to travel around.”

Is it hard?
“You miss your family. At home, I can do anything, and here I have to be a little bit careful what you do.”

Caroline Akerlund, 20, from Sweden
Au pair in Boxford

What Swedish Christmas food did you bring?
“Saffron buns and ginger bread.”

Differences from life in Sweden?
“The food, especially how they cook here. Everything is so quick, and how you buy it done.”

Do you like Boxford?
“I love it. It’s true country. I’m from the country with horses, dogs, woods and hills, and I love it … It’s great to have two families: one in Sweden, and one in America.”

Cultural distinctions?
“How American people raise their kids. They’re so overprotective here. It’s always, ‘Careful, careful!’ They can’t see kids fall down, but they have to fall down to learn.”

To read the whole article, visit Salem News Online.