Pre-Departure Orientation Project

An important part of your application is the "Pre-Departure Orientation Project". It will help you to better prepare yourself for your au pair stay in the USA. While creating your project you will acquaint yourself with the following topics:

• your new home and environment for the coming year
• cultural differences between your home country and the USA
• games and activities for children of all ages for rainy days, sunny days, afternoons during the holidays, hours at home, etc.

By giving some thought to these topics before your programme year begins, you will be much better prepared for your host family and children.

General details about the project:

• you will create this project after you have matched with one of our registered host families but before you depart for the USA
• the project should be presented in form of a folder
• you should spend at least eight hours preparing the project
• be creative - feel free to include pictures, photos, songs, stories, fairy tales, recipes, activities and games which you can share later on with your host family and your host children
• be prepared to share the information you have collected with other au pairs and your AuPairCare Orientation instructor during the four day seminar in our AuPairCare Academy in the New York area.

Don't worry - there is no "right" or "wrong" for this project, as every host family and every au pair is different and unique. We will help you to prepare for this project. Your AuPairCare handbook contains a whole section on how to create your Pre-departure Orientation Project.