This year the Arlington County Public Schools reached out to the Arlington Community Counselors asking for Au Pairs to present during their Global Village Summer Camps at the Arlington Traditional Elementary School.Thea R. from Germany and Martina C. from Italy did a fantastic job sharing about their own countries.

Thea presented to 3 classes of ages 6-8 years old.  Besides sharing some basics about geography, the flag, and traditional Germany dishes, Thea also taught the children a mini language lesson.  Thea shared with us: ” My favorite part was the little song we sang called “Mein Hut der hat 3 Ecken” or in English “My hat it has 3 corners”. First we practiced the moves and lyrics in English and then we tried it in German, which actually worked pretty well! I really enjoyed my stay at the Elementary School. It wasn’t just fun teaching the kids something of my home country but also a rewarding experience for both sides. It was great to learn more about American education and especially thanks to my experience as an Au Pair I didn’t just learn so much about a different culture but also about the importance of multi-cultural understanding, diversity and appreciation. I hope with my presentation about Germany I was able to bring all this a little closer to them and maybe helped to spark an interest in different cultures.”

Martina presented about Italy to two different classes ages 8-10.  She started off her presentation asking the students what they already knew about Italy and she was surprised to learn that they already knew some things that she was going to talk about that day.  Some of these things were food, flag, and the shape of Italy.  What impressed Martina was that some children even knew that ancient Roman architecture influenced the world.  The children were especially eager to talk about food, soccer, and holiday traditions.  Martina ended by playing hangman in Italian which the children really enjoyed.

Martina shared: “This experience has been one of the most incredible things I have ever done. Talking about your own country, trying to get others to know it, makes you appreciate the most where you come from, but most important, makes you happy seeing how people can be very interested and curious and those kids were both of those things! It made me very satisfied seeing what good listeners they were. Their faces were mesmerized by the pictures I showed. I have always worked with kids and every time they have this incredible capacity of leaving their mark on you, their curiosity and involvement on what you say and make them do is unbelievable, and with small and simple things.”