Michele & David Chazen

Date: Sunday August 22, 2010

Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

Place: Holmdel Park 44 Longstreet Road Holmdel, New Jersey

http://www.monmouthcountyparks.com/parks/holmdel.asp

We will be meeting near the playground at P2 ( parking lot 2)

(holmdel_map) please look for CCAP signs to find us.

Please join Cultural Care Au Pair for an International Picnic! We’ll all enjoy a wonderful day outside together, eating, playing and getting to know one another a little better. We will have a clown for the kids. Please bring a picnic lunch for your family

This is a great opportunity to meet other host families and au pairs in the area and will count as your attendance to one host family day conference during the year. Families interested in learning more about our flexible, affordable childcare program are also welcome to attend. So feel welcome to bring neighbors and friends interested in the program

Please RSVP to Local Childcare Coordinator Michele Chazen. Phone: 732-566-8937.

Email: Michele.Chazen@lcc.culturalcare.com. I look forward to seeing you at our Picnic!

Cultural Care Au Pair offers:

 * Flexible, live-in care for your children

 * $340 average weekly cost for 45 hours of childcare

 * Qualified and carefully screened candidates

Directions to the Park

Garden State Parkway to Exit 114. Southbound, turn right onto Red Hill Rd; northbound, turn left onto Red Hill Rd. Follow Red Hill Rd. to Everett Rd., turn right (heading west). Follow Everett Rd. to Roberts Rd., turn left. Follow Roberts Rd. to Longstreet Rd., turn right to Park on left.

State Hwy. 34 to Roberts Rd. (1.75 miles north of Rt. 520). Southbound, turn left; northbound, turn right. Follow Roberts Rd. to Longstreet Rd., turn left. Park is on left.State Hwy. 35 to Holmdel/Keyport Rd. Northbound, turn left; southbound, turn right. Follow Holmdel/Keyport Rd. to Crawfords Corner Rd., turn left. Continue to Longstreet Rd., turn right Park is on right

For our July meeting we will be playing Sand Volleyball
When: Sunday July 18 - 2 pm.                             
Location: Geick Park Route 516 East in Old Bridge next to Old Bridge High School      
4209 Route 516 East
Old Bridge NJ 08857

Now that summer is here many of the au pairs will be spending time at the pool or beach with their host children and families.

Below are some of the safety tips discussed at the meeting in June     

• Never leave a child unsupervised in or around water in the home. Empty all sinks, tubs and buckets immediately after use. Store all containers upside down and out of reach.
• Do not rely on a bath support ring to keep a baby safe in the tub without adult supervision.
• Never leave a child unsupervised in or around a swimming pool or spa, even for a moment. A child can drown in the time it takes to answer the phone. All wading and inflatable pools should be empty when not in use.
• Teach children to practice safe water habits. They should always wade into water first before diving or jumping to avoid hitting their heads on a shallow bottom. Children should not push or jump on others in the water.
• Children should never swim alone.         
• Never let older children swim in unsupervised areas like quarries, canals or ponds. Older children are at risk of drowning when they overestimate their swimming ability.
• Make sure children are swimming in designated areas in oceans, lakes and rivers. Look for clear water with little or no current and check the depth of the water before swimming or diving.
• Children over age 3 should learn to swim from qualified instructors but caregivers should keep in mind that lessons do not make children “drown-proof.” Never rely on a PFD or swimming lessons to protect a kid.
• Adults and children over age 13 should learn infant and child CPR.
• Children should not dive in water unless an adult is present and knows that the water is more than nine feet deep.
• Adults should not rely on pool covers to prevent children from drowning. Water must be kept from collecting on the surface of pool covers.
• Children and adults should wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved PFD when on a boat, near open bodies of water or when participating in water sports. Air-filled swimming aids, such as “water wings,” are not considered safety devices and are not substitutes for PFDs.
• Wear appropriate swim wear when suprervising children and pool or beach.

First I would like to thank all of the Host Families who participated in  the survey and provided us with your valuable feedback.

Background
At Cultural Care Au Pair, our priority is to provide the highest quality experience for our host families and au pairs. Since our program began over 20 years ago, we have found that the feedback provided by our program participants has been instrumental in allowing us to become the largest of the U.S. government-approved au pair sponsors as well as a leader in the au pair program community.

In a continued commitment to gathering feedback in a more systematic way, we developed an extensive customer satisfaction survey which was launched in the spring of 2008. Developed in partnership with Discovery Surveys, Inc., this survey seeks to understand the host family perspective on being a part of the Cultural Care program from how they feel about our printed materials to how they rate the quality of care they receive from their au pair. Our families embraced this new way to share their opinions, and their comments, positive or negative, continue to help us shape the future of our program and enhance the experience of our participants. The results have been incredibly insightful and we look forward to launching this survey each Spring and Fall of every year and developing ways to respond to the growing and changing needs of the Cultural Care host family.

Please take a moment to review some of the results of our first four customer satisfaction surveys. We think the results speak for themselves.      

Survey Details
In an effort to better understand the experiences that Cultural Care host families have at each stage of their program participation as well as to take steps to improve the quality of the services we provide, we launch a customer satisfaction survey to every host family currently hosting an au pair in the fall and spring of each year. Cultural Care uses an independent survey company, Discovery Surveys, Inc., to develop our Customer Satisfaction surveys and to certify the results.

After a three week window of time, the survey period concludes and the results are analyzed so that we can utilize the abundance of information host families provide in order to commit as an organization to specific ways to improve the host family experience.

For complete details about the survey and results please visit http://www.hostfamilysurvey.com/

In April at our Au Pair meetings we discussed Playground Safety. These are just a few of the things that we went over 

Public Playground Safety Checklist

• Surfaces around playground equipment have at least 12 inches of wood chips, mulch, sand, or pea gravel, or are mats made of safety-tested rubber or rubber-like materials.
• Protective surfacing extends at least 6 feet in all directions from play equipment. (For swings, be sure surfacing extends, in back and front, twice the height of the suspending bar.) 
• Play structures more than 30 inches high are spaced at least 9 feet apart.
• No dangerous hardware is apparent (like open “S” hooks or protruding bolt ends)
• Spaces that could trap children, such as openings in guardrails or between ladder rungs, measure less than 3.5 inches or more than 9 inches.
• There are no sharp points or edges in equipment.
• Absence of tripping hazards, like exposed concrete footings, tree stumps, and rocks.
• Elevated surfaces, like platforms and ramps, have guardrails to prevent falls.
• Remember, check playgrounds regularly to see that equipment and surfacing are in good condition and carefully supervise children on playgrounds to make sure they’re safe.

 Ways to Prevent Playground Related Injuries

• Always supervise children when on playgrounds. Maintain visual and auditory contact at all times.
• Ensure that children use age- and size-appropriate playground equipment.
• Prevent unsafe behaviors like pushing, shoving, crowding and inappropriate use of equipment. Continually enforce the rules of safe play.
• Remove hood and neck drawstrings from all children’s clothing. Never allow children to wear necklaces, purses, scarves or clothing with drawstrings while on playgrounds.
• Tie shoelaces to prevent tripping and entanglement in equipment and look for trip hazards on the playground.
• Make sure that children use playground equipment in a safe manner. They should use ladders to get on slides, slide feet first; sit on swings; and not jump off moving swings or walk in front of or behind moving swings. In addition, children should use handrails and guardrails on equipment and should not climb or sit on top of elevated bars.
• Make sure the surface of any playground on which children are playing is safe. Acceptable surfaces include loose-fill materials maintained at the appropriate depth, usually 9-12 inches, such as hardwood fiber mulch or chips, pea gravel or fine sand. Shredded rubber, rubber mats, synthetic turf and other artificial materials are also acceptable surfaces. Asphalt, concrete, grass or soil are not acceptable surfaces. Surfacing should extend a minimum of 6 feet in all directions around stationary equipment and further around swings and other moving equipment.
• Check for unsafe design elements on the playground, such as open “S” hooks, equipment which is not securely anchored, openings between three and one half inches and nine inches which could allow head entrapment, inadequate spacing between equipment, platforms with no guard rails and protrusions or sharp edges that could cut a child or catch a string or item of clothing. Any problems should be fixed immediately or reported to the playground’s maintainer.
• Make sure playground is regularly maintained.

Just want to wish all the Mom’s out there a Happy Mother’s Day

Cultural Care Au Pair is excited to invite families and au pairs to participate in our first-ever Cultural Care Au Pair Video Contest! Do you have something interesting, funny or inspiring to say about the au pair program? If so, we want to see it on film-and we’ll give you the chance to win an entire year of free childcare (for host families) and $1000 (for au pairs) for sharing it with us and the rest of the world!

Step 1: Get Creative!
Encourage everyone - kids, parents, au pair - to participate in sharing your experiences through video.

Step 2: Upload your video!
Go to our video contest page and submit your family’s video through our easy registration process. http://contest.culturalcare.com/

Step 3: Spread the Word!
Share the link to your video with your friends and family- they’re our judges! The host family and au pair with the most votes for favorite video will win the Grand Prize - a year of free childcare and $1000!

Check out the contest requirements and other exciting prizes at http://contest.culturalcare.com/rules and get out your video cameras! Good luck! We look forward to seeing your family’s video!

Lights! Camera! Action!

There will be 2 options for Au Pair Meetings this month.

With the weather getting warm many of you will be at the playground with your host children. We will be discussing playground safety. Bring your best tips to share with your fellow Au Pairs.  

Sunday April 11 - 1 PM                                                                                           
Location: Geick Park Route 516 East in Old Bridge next to Old Bridge High School      
4209 Route 516 East
Old Bridge NJ 08857
 
or
 
Tuesday April 20 - 8 pm
Starbucks- Route 9 & 33 connected to the Barnes and Noble
 
You  may attend either or both but please let me know which one you will be at so I can plan accordingly.

Cultural Care Au Pairs from Central New Jersey went rock climbing for our March Meeting at Garden States Rock.

A great time was had by those who  participated. Here are just a few of the pictures for more please visit the photos page.

While filling out census forms for the 2010 census, some host families have been asking us whether or not they should count their au pair as a household member.

The answer is : In the first section where it asks about household members there’s a separate box for live in babysitters and others who may live in the home but may not be members of the family and that’s where an au pair can be counted.

If you have any further questions, you can go to the census website.