Host Family Testimonial

We received this lovely feedback from Frederique, host family in London about Jessie, her Dutch au pair:

Hi Nicole – Actually I kept meaning to email you to wish you a Happy New year and let you know that things are going fantastically well with Jessie. She is such a sweetheart and is the best au pair we have ever had – and being forever the optimist, I am already worrying about the next one not being as good!

With Kind Regards

Frederique

News Article on British Nannies

From The Times

January 4, 2008, article by Rosemary Bennett

Today I read this in the paper and I really wanted to share this with you…

“Supernanny and other reality television shows about how to bring up children have pushed demand for British nannies overseas to record levels. Competition for good British child care is now so fierce that a fully-trained and experienced nanny can command an average salary of £40,000, with perks such as accommodation and food thrown in.

Jo Frost, from the original Supernanny series on Channel 4, has taken the English-speak-ing world by storm with her down-to-earth advice on dealing with tantrums, sleep problems, fussy eaters and potty training. Her shows, which include the BBC Three programme The House of Tiny Tearaways, have championed old-fashioned rules and routines for children.”

to read the article see:

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/article3129064.ece

This is one of the reasons why being au pair in Britain combined with the government funded childcare qualification that we offer are smartaupairs is such a great idea. If you are serious about a career in childcare, no matter where in the world, British trained nannies are high in demand so why not use your au pair experience to train and become a qualified nanny!

tips to work on your language skills

How to…

…improve your language skills

• read children`s books- you are at the source as an au-pair!

Especially those dealing with world literature are recommendable. When you come back you know all about Hamlet and Shakespeare`s tragedies plus the most important quotations – and by learning that you had an easy time reading illustrated easy-to-understand books.

• The supermarket is the most effective vocabulary trainer: Each fruit and product is labelled, so that there is not even a translation necessary!

• Join the local library club.

• Before you watch the news in your aupair-country, inform yourself on your native newspage, e.g. www.tagesschau.de. That will help you to adapt new vocabularies more easily. It is also interesting to see how each nation has other centres of gravities in the news. Apart from that, news presenters have got an excellent style of speaking.

• You are having a nice conversation with your host family and then this accursed- sorry- this one difficult word won`t come to your mind? Ask if you can deposit you dictionary right at the table- as most conversation will take place at lunch/-dinnertime.

• This trick of enlarging you vocabulary is similar to the one with the news, but it is equally effective:

If you have read one international bestseller in your native language you can probably find it in your local library maybe even as spoken word on CD. Because you already know the story it will be easy to understand.

• Inescapably you will learn a whole bunch of new words, because you will encounter so many new customs and national pecularities.

These tips were kindly provided by Evelyn Eveslage, who was au pair in Kent in Summer 2007 , she has some more to follow!