Family 1
Dear Au Pair
Welcome to America and to our home. We are thrilled that you are considering a year in our family. We want you to feel comfortable and happy during your stay so we though a few details might help you with
American life.
We have two children, aged 7 and 5. They are adventurous, active and curious kids.
They love playing outside on the swings, climbing the jungle gym, riding their bikes, building forts, running races,
playing soccer etc. Inside they like cooking, dancing, doing puzzles, art projects,
playing with legos, playing ‘make believe’. The basic rule of thumb
is they’ll try anything once. On the quiet side they enjoy reading books,
drawing and building with blocks.
Our son is an active boy. He is on the go most of the day, asks lots of questions and wants to be included in everything. He is curious and has an active imagination as well as being sympathetic with other people. Something you can count on is that he likes to help whenever and wherever he can. Our daughter is also curious but in a less demanding way. She
loves playing dress up and could spend hours drawing, painting or listening to music.
She can be extremely silly. She enjoys projects such as cooking or journal
writing.
My husband and I enjoy sports like running,
hiking, biking, sailing, kayaking, skiing, swimming and we try to do these things as much as we can. When we take a vacation we like to take it somewhere we can do one or more of these activities. Our apartment in Boston has 3 bedrooms and is right downtown. From
our apartment it is a 5-minute walk to the subway and buses. We spend our time
between here and Connecticut. Our house there is in a small village about 1 hour
from New York City and right on the water. The ‘big’ kids are in
school 5 days a week from 7:30am until 4pm. There are also some after school
activities 1 to 2 times a week. In addition to doing drop off and pick up you
will need to help get them ready some mornings and organize dinner and bedtime between 4 and 8pm.
As our au pair you will have your own room
and bathroom in the apartment and the house in Connecticut. You will have a TV
and access to the Internet to stay in touch with your family and friends. Our
experience with au pairs has been excellent. We are honoured to host another
au pair in our home and look forward to the exchange of ideas and customs that an au pair situation affords. We believe it is fundamental to the education of our children that they understand and appreciate people
of all cultures.
Family 2
Hi There!
Let us introduce our family to you. Our
eldest is 11 months old, loves music, picture books and exploring everything in her environment. She is crawling, pulling to stand and cruising. She babbles
and delights us with her sounds and smiles. We can’t take her out without
people stopping us to admire her beautiful face and long hair!
Our 7-year-old middle daughter is a sweetheart
and loves to play with her toy horse and cars, enjoys puzzles and drawing. She
has a great sense of humor and smile that can light up a room. She is smart,
creative, determined and always sympathetic to others. Our oldest daughter is
9 years old. She is creative, studious, loves music and art, and loves to read. A school bus picks her up at around 7:30am and drops her off around 4pm. Her after school activities include dance and piano lessons.
We are both very hands-on parents with our
kids and our home. Both of us prepare meals, do the dishes, give the kids baths,
change the baby’s diapers; drive the kids to their activities etc. We feel
it’s very important for children to have two parents who are ‘present’ and involved in their daily lives. We eat dinner together most nights of the week and make a big deal out of celebrating
big and little holidays. We take a lot of photos and like to appreciate the moment
as well as plan for the future. We are an active family and believe in exercising
our minds and our bodies and we try to limit television and computer time. Our
girls are involved in sports, arts, dance and music. We do take a few family
trips each year, the longest being a one to two week trip during the summer. We
would hope our au pair comes with us on this trip as it’s a very special and unique place.
We’re very fortunate to live in a
spacious new home and in a beautiful and friendly neighborhood. Our au pair will live in a lovely private bedroom
and bathroom on the lower level of the house. We live just a few minutes from
the beach and are about 10 minutes from the train station.
Through Au Pair in America we hope to locate
a warm and caring au pair with an upbeat and positive attitude, maturity, good judgement and a willingness to help out. The cross-cultural exchange and education is an integral benefit in our minds. We feel it will be a very positive experience for our children to get to know someone
from another country and culture.
We look forward to embarking on this adventure with you!