I take great pleasure in providing daily, ongoing, local support to both Host Families and Au Pairs in Philadelphia and suburban, Montgomery, Bucks County and close NJ
Many Au Pairs have some experience working with children with special needs. Some Au Pairs are interested in working with special needs children and learning about special needs. They may want the experience for a future career and education.
Go Au Pair agency has many available Au Pairs who are willing to work with special needs children. The family can learn about an Au Pair previous experience of working with children with special needs during the matching process.
For example, an experienced with special needs children nanny and a teacher, an Au Pair from Mexico, Monica.
Monica is a 24 year old, a college graduate, and an infant qualified nanny. Monica has a lot of experience with kids all ages, she worked in daycare, as a teacher, and as a nanny. She has worked as a nanny with a kid that was handicap, and with children with down syndrome.
Monica loves kids, she said, “I really enjoy the time with the kids and I like being a role model for them. I studied psychology and I have been working with kids since I was 15. I always knew since I was little that I wanted to work with kids.”
Go Au Pair had a positive experience with the Au Pairs who were working with special needs children in the past. The agency had many Au Pairs who were doing a great job and went above and beyond what many nannies would do for children with special needs.
Read what the Rush family said about their experience: “[The Au Pair Mariela] quickly learned how to care for her expertly. She was so gentle the first time she taped the oxygen tubing to Serena’s face that I nearly cried. Mariela willingly participated in additional training in CPR and met with Serena’s Physical and Occupational Therapists each week to learn how to work with Serena. Each day she responsibly worked on the exercises the therapists assigned. Serena’s excellent progress (she was able to eat normally and began to gain weight) was possible only because of Mariela’s loving and diligent care.”
The IAPA Au Pair of the Year was awarded to one of Go Au Pair’s outstanding au pairs–Mariela Poveda. She cared for a special needs girl and did a great job. Please, watch the movie.
The best Au Pair ever – that is how one of the host families from the Philadelphia and NJ cluster who have had seven Au Pairs before, titled their nomination. “Throughout the past 8 years, I has met many au pairs in this program, so many of whom were wonderful young women. But I can say, without a doubt, that our Phila stands out as the best of the best,” the host mom wrote.
Go Au Pair agency supported the family opinion and nominated the Au Pair Phila Sozombile Go Au Pair 2012 Au Pair in Excellence Award.
Several Au Pairs from the Philadelphia NJ cluster were nominated by their host families for Au Pair of the Year Award this year. I am excited that the Au Pair Phila was recognized as Go Au Pair 2012 Au Pair in Excellence winner. Congratulations, Phila!
Phila’s Host Family wrote an amazing nomination essay that outlined the tremendous impact she has on their family, the hard work and dedication she provides daily and the wonderful connection she has formed with the kids:
“I know that the day that we matched with Phila was probably one of the luckiest things ever to happen to our family because of the light and love she has brought into our home and for the positive influence she has been on the life and character of my daughters.”
I really feel that many Au Pairs from my cluster are the outstanding Au Pairs and deserved the prizes also. They are providing not only a childcare but also are giving the kids their love and friendship, and being a role model for them.
Being a Local Area Representative for Go Au Pair for almost 4 years, I saw many happy families that continue with this program year after year and have unforgettable experiences. I see many families bond with their Au Pairs – after many years they stay in touch, visit each others and develop long-term friendships through this amazing Au Pair program.
The Holiday Season brings up many questions for host parents with scheduling and presents.
Host families may have more questions than families who have hired a nanny since an Au Pair should also be included as a family member in all of host family celebrations.
Holiday time is something that all Au Pairs are looking forward to. It is a unique experience for them and they are usually exited to spend Holiday time with their host families and new friends.
It is important to set expectations early and communicate with the Au Pair. Don’t forget that the Au Pair has full weekend off each month, 4 Holidays and two weeks’ paid vacation during her Au Pair year. The Au Pair may want to use some times off during the Holiday Season. Ask the Au Pair what the arrangement she wants to make on her holiday time. Your Au Pair should be free on December 15th, 2012, the day when we are going to have a huge Christmas party.
Also for the holidays you may want to offer a gift, a greeting card, and a family Christmas photo. A few other great ideas for the Au Pair are time off with pay, Gift Cards and a gym membership.
My suggestion would be to let your Au Pair’s holiday schedule and bonus reflect the unique needs and nature of your family.
Holiday Time together with the Au Pair may be one of the best and most memorable experiences you ever have!
How many friends do you have on Facebook? 50, 100 or 1000? Many of them you might have never even met. How many Au Pair friends do you have there ?
And how many sisters do you have? I have the only brother, but always dreamed about having a sister. The Sis with whom I can share my thoughts and have a good time together.
My new Sis will help me and give advice if I need one. I can also participate in many interesting activities and have fun with other Au Pairs- my Sis’ friends. She will coordinate book clubs and fitness challenges, help with craft and game ideas. I love cooking and my new Sis will post recipes from around the words. Aupairsis can answer all my questions and I can even ask her privately.
How many real good friends do you have? It is usually easy to count; in general a person has between 18 and 30 friends.
Do you know how many friends has an average user on Facebook? An average user has about 200 or more friends. It is almost impossible to have so many friends in real life, right?
But it is possible to make a new friend, the Au Pair Sister on Facebook. I did! It was very easy, the Aupairsis accepted my request right away and now we are friends on Facebook .
You can have the Sis too She is a big help. You cam learn a lot from her and have fun together with her and her hundreds friends.
I am pleased to host a guest blogger and a personal chef from NJ, Debbie of Debbie’s Home Cooked Meals. Debbie is working to incorporate recipes that help host families and Au Pairs in teaching us how to create kids friendly and healthy food.
I started Go Au Pair blog almost two years ago to support Host Families and Au Pairs in Philadelphia and suburban, Montgomery, Bucks County and close NJ. It took me one and a half years to reach 20,000 page views of my blog and it took less than 6 months to have another 10,000 views.
I reached 30,000 page views of my blog! Another blogging milestone. I’m excited to receive this many page views. Thank you to everyone for spending a little time with my blog. I would like to thank Au Pairs and Host Families who contributed to my blog by writing interesting posts.
I hope that my blog is helpful and Host Families, Au Pairs and my readers found much useful information here. My blog contains 29 pages and 172 posts now. I recently added a new page Popular posts where you can see the most readable posts on my blog. You may have noticed that I created the sidebar with The Host family Libraryand The Au Pair Library for my readers’ references.
Who are my readers? Of course, first of all, it is Au Pairs and Host Families from Go Au Pair. Most of my readers live in the USA: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, New York, Utah and Virginia.
My blog is also read by people from 125 countries around the world. WOW, it is exciting! Many readers are my former Au Pairs from Colombia, Germany, Brazil, South Africa and China. Hi Guys, I miss you!
As my cluster expanded very fast, I believe this blog helped many families to get to know the Go Au Pair cluster in the Philly and NJ area better and make the decision to join us as a host family.
Thanks for checking out this blog and come back to my blog soon!
Au Pair child care is a cultural experience through full time live-in child care. Cultural exchange is the foundation of the Au Pair program. Host Families welcome an Au Pair from another country into their home and learn about another culture from their Au Pair.
An Au Pair has the chance to learn about life in the U.S. while exploring the country, attending classes and immersing yourself in the English language. Learn more
Being an Au Pair is a learn and earn opportunity for young people who are looking to get the chance to earn money and learn new experience in a family setting.
First of all, this is a responsible job. According to US Department of State AU Pair Program Regulations, Au Pair participants are obligated to provide child care services to not more than 10 hours per day or more than 45 hours per week.
Secondary, Au pairing is about the experience of living in another culture. Au Pair program is an opportunity to learn language and explore a new culture. Au Pairs enjoy the experience of a lifetime living with a Host Family, speaking English, being able to study in an American University, and volunteering with friends.
It is also chance to travel together with new friends through the US and explore a new country. Au Pairs love meeting new people, experiencing new things and making new friends.
Au Pairs provide live-in child care for their Host Family in exchange for room, board and a small weekly stipend. Au Pairs are responsible for all the children in their Host Family. There is not a limit to the number of children an Au Pair may be responsible for.
Since the foundation of the Au Pair program is cultural exchange, Au Pairs are meant to become part of the family and be a big brother or sister.
Au Pairs are not maids and cannot perform any tasks not directly related to the care of the children, even if they are paid more to do so.
Au Pairs can care for children 3 months to 18 years of age.
Child care responsibilities can include, but are not limited to:
General supervision
Driving
Homework help
Meal preparation
Light housekeeping related to the children
Light housekeeping related to the children means Au Pairs cannot be responsible for the overall housework or cleaning for any of the adults in the home, other than themselves. Light housekeeping includes tasks such as the children’s laundry and general tidying up in the children’s areas.
A terrible car accident happened last week in Philadelphia. Fortunately nobody was seriously injured.
An au pair from Go Au Pair agency, Sharon Lizcano Tellez, was taking a walk with 8 month old twins she cares for. Sharon was carrying one twin in a sling, and her friend au pair Maria was pushing the second baby in a stroller. They were crossing a street at a cross walk when they were hit by a distracted driver of a van.
When Sharon realized that the car wasn’t stopping, she protected the baby with her own body, receiving the impact of the crash on her left side. Both au pairs were struck to the ground by the car and injured, but both babies survived the crash relatively unharmed.
Au Pairs are doing better, but are still recovering from the accident. They are expected to make a complete recovery, but it may take a long time.
The heroism displayed by Sharon is extraordinary, but those who know Sharon are not surprised.
Sharon’s host mom said, “Sharon is a very loving and caring Au Pair with a lot of experience. I am not surprised that she saved my child’s life because of the type of the person Sharon is. We are extremely lucky to have her as a nanny for our kids and as a family member as well.”
The family is very thankful and said that Sharon deserved to be honored and rewarded. They are looking forward to extending the Au Pair program with Sharon for another year.
Sharon is an Au Pair from Colombia, she worked as an Au Pair in Holland before coming to the USA. Sharon is a very giving person. She loves children from her heart and cares for them as if they were her own.
The whole purpose of the Au Pair program is to build long lasting relationships that go beyond child care responsibilities. Go Au Pair is extremely impressed and appreciates Sharon’s great courage.
But what can you do if you have the pickiest eaters on the planet and every meal becomes a battle?
Read more on the host mom’s from Go Au Pair blog post Toddlers and Picky Eating about her kids and her helpful tips on proper response and attitudes to the picky eaters.
Au Pairs may teach host kids about food groups, nutrition, and do fun food activities to help their children eat healthy food. As a new project, an Au Pair with kids may open a restaurant in the Host family’s kitchen, in the play room or even outside and play cafe with kids. It’s a lot of fun and very educational for kids.
Kids will learn reading, counting, fractions, budgeting, weighing, measuring, problem-solving, sharing, fine motor skills and much more – eating fresh healthy food. An Au Pair helps make an assortment of healthy items for play — fruits, veggies, and cheeses.
Kids and Au Pairs may take turns being the cook or the customer or may cook together with toys. Playing together with kids provides a natural way for the Au Pair to discuss healthy food and nutrition and teach kids healthy eating skills through play. As a result, kids will be more likely to follow the suggestions to eat something healthy during their meals.
When kids play restaurant and cook healthy food for toys or family members, there are fewer mealtime battles and more willingness to eat healthy and to try new foods. Finally, one day host families will have fun eating healthy meal with their kids.
If you are looking for a high quality care provider consider Go Au Pair. I will help your family have a flexible, live-in childcare for less than the cost of a nanny that will also expose your children to new cultures.
She is a big help. You cam learn a lot from her and have fun together with her and her hundreds friends.
