Ramona's Letter

Hallo You,

I am the Betts-LaCroix second Au-Pair and I will tell you about my year as Au-Pair in their family which was one of the best that I had in my life so far. Imagine you were in my possision while you are reading the following text.

After a long flight from New York to San Franscico I finally arrived at the airport in San Francisco. They picked me up at the airport with a sign that said „welcome Ramona“ they were dressed very colorful and Kaizen(9years at this point) forgot to wear his shoes. My first dinner in their house was quinoa and broccli. After dinner I went upstairs in my room and the first night I didnt know on which side of the huge bed I should sleep. The first couple days Michaela, the previous Au-Pair,was still there and she showed me around. To say goodbye to her and welcome to me we went all together to Alcatraz. After she left my real life as their Au-Pair begun.

Every Sunday I got my workplan and it changed a little bit very week but the plan is not going to tell you exactly what you have to do on Monday, Tuesday,.... sometimes Lisa is going to tell you with what she needs help but often you should come up with you own creative ideas for the kids or sometimes you should see oh the dishwasher is full and empty it while Lisa spends some time with the kids. I never really had the role of a typical Au-Pair which means to start working in the morning when both parents leave the house and give the kids back to their parents when they come
back at night. I was a partner with Lisa, we helped each other if one of us needed help. One fixed task was to make the kids laundry and to cook an easy dinner for them on the days when I had to work late. I also helped them to clean the kitchen and to organice their house that doesent mean that they treated me like their housekeeper but it could be that I helped a little bit more in the househould then other Au-Pairs do.

It was typical for me to spent more time with Soleil than with Kaizen, the reason is that Kaizen has more classes all over the Bay Area whereas Soleils classes are not so far away. It was common that Lisa drives Kai to his classes and is gone almost all day while a was watching Soleil. Important for you is that you can drive and that you are spontanious. Often I got to be asked in the last moment if I could pick up Soleil or Kaizen because Lisa has still some work to do. I liked those unplanned things, even though I have to say sometimes they made me nervous, but they were a small
challenge for myself and they make the day more interesting.

Kaizen liked to play all different kind of games with me and one of his challenges at the end of the year was to find a magic trick with which he could trick me.He also likes to go bowling,swimming and to play games on his computer. Normally he shoudnt play a lot on his computer but Lisa tries not to give you the task to be the computer police but she would not like it if you let him play on the computer all day long.The family has no TV and the kids do not watch movies very often. Kaizen is very picky and I needed a lot of patient to find out what he would like to eat, chickensoup was his favorite food and very often I helped to prepare the soup. One thing that is special about him is that it takes him a really long time to get close with other people, it took almost 6 month with me. One thing that was hard with him was that I had to tell him a lot of things more then once because he forgot or he was reading a book and couldnt come to an end etc..He is a very nice kid and he helped me when I didnt know where to find for example the salt and he also told me when I said things in english wrong.I almost forgot he loves to read books.

Soleil, she is my little sunshine but she doesn't always smile. She knows what she wants and if she doesnt get it you have to deal with her. There were some hard situation for me but I learned pretty fast how to deal with those emotional situation.
I played a lot with here and made arts and krafts and many we did a lot of crazy things together. If you do something with her that is fun for you too, she will love it. I played games with here, I read stories, sometimes I made stories up for her and she could decide which characters were in the story sometimes she could even decide what they woud do next. With her you have to use your fantasy because she has a lot of fantasy and she want to use it. „Lets pretent.......that we are........“is one of

Soleils favorite sentences. She loves animals and she also really likes to go to the ocean and play there.I also gave her baths and played with here in the bath and washed and brushed her hair which she really didnt like that is why i turned it into a game.One of the tricks that made my life with her a lot easier. I also drove her
to her activties and friends and sometimes I watched her friends in our house.

Lisa is the best hostmum I can imagine, she is very warmhearted and she is interested in you and your needs.She always tried to make it right for everyone ind the family including me. We had a very good realtionship I can talk with here about everything. She was very flexible and gave me a lot of freedom because I was flexible. I think we both „gave and took“. Communication is very important for here if something isnt good the only solution is to talk about it and try to find a solution togheter. If you are flexible and open to try something new you wont get in trouble with her.

Joe is a awesome person and he has his own humor which I really like. I think he is very interested in other countries so that we talked a lot about the diffrences between USA and Germany. I also did all different crazy things with him and Soleil like „vinegar tasting“ or going on top of the roof. During the summer I traveld with them but those trips werent always only „fun trips“, they were also learning camps. I one of those camps I watched a whole group of small kids. But we also did
fun trips the last one was a camping trip. You should like camping and you should be adventurous because that is the way they are..If you dont like travelling I think this family is not a good match for you. I also traveld a lot in my free time which was very important for me.

One thing which is important to know is that almost all their food is organic, whole wheat and as fresh as possible. I enjoyed this because I dont like fastfood but if you want white pasta and rice dont pick this family.

Their house very often busy there are classes which are in their house, friends come over for dinner etc. I was always welcome to stay with them or do my own thing. I really appreciated that all my friends were welcome in their house too. If you are looking for a calm family this is the wrong family.

They had two cars while I was there and most of the times when I needed the car in my freetime I was able to take one but you have to ask you wont have your own car.

Ask yourself whether you liked what I have written?

If you have question which you want to ask me, ask Lisa for my e-mail adress and write me.

To have a really good experience in the USA you need to have the right family. This family was perfect for me, they are my second family, but this doesnt mean it is perfect for you!

Think about it and pick carefully. If you worry about anything talk to Lisa and Joe about it before you close the match so that you know what to expect.

I had a perfect year because I had a very good match. I wish you good luck.

Ramona

Michaela's Letter

Family Letter

Hello my name is Michaela H. and after my A-Level in Germany, I spent a Au Pair year from September 2007 until September 2008 in the Betts Lacroix family. This was my best year in my current life. The kids are really sweet and lovely. As an au pair you have a lot of opportunities to do with them, e.g. do handicrafts, go to the playground, library, museum, cinema and a lot more. In this family it was never boring, they are in a lot of different and interesting communities, to which you can go with the kids or the whole family. You have to be open minded and like to have people around you. Lisa and Joe are always willing to help you and do everything that you have a great time. Next to the childcare you should try to organize the house a little bit, help cleaning and cook for the kids. Sometimes it´s a little bit different to find food that both of them like, but I guess that´s normal for children.

The Family is very open minded and I learned a lot about childcare and healthy food. They are not really a typical American family, but for me it was the perfect. They are including you in every family activity and treat you like a real part of the family. I could always invite friends over to their place and had a lot of freedom. It´s important that you are not too shy to say what you think and respect everybody as they respect you. I was really lucky and traveled a lot with them; I met wonderful people over them and had so much fun.

At the beginning I was a little bit curios about they are homeschooling, but I learned that it is not like the most people think. They are not sitting alone at home and study by their self. The kids are going to different classes or met at home with a lot of other children and learn all together. I think it´s perfect for Kai and Soleil it´s a really nice learning atmosphere. This family is very childcare and learning orientated and you can learn a lot too.

I really love this family and can´t tell anything bad about them. We are still in contact and they are like my 2nd family now. I am trying to go there ones a year, because I miss them a lot.

If you have any further questions, please don´t hesitate to ask me. If you want we can talk more about my experience with this wonderful family.

Warm Wishes

Michaela