After being an au pair for one and a half years, the most exciting question you could ask me is:
‘What did you do after high school?’ Whoever asks this, opened a can of mesmerizing and fun memories I’m excited to share especially how it has impacted my life.
I’m Saskia Le Peißker, 25 years old and it all begun in summer 2013. It hit me like a lightning –
I wanted to take care of kids in America! Considering that I have experience in taking care of kids for many years already, why not try it in a whole different, for my part yet so unexplored society?
Frankly speaking, I thought I knew ‘how kids work anyway’. ‘Ha’ I now think to myself… ‘should’ve given that a second thought’!
My adventure with Expert AuPair started early 2014: Goodbye Germany, goodbye old Saskia!
Hello San Francisco! I still couldn’t believe how lucky I am to take care of two lovely toddlers in a different part of the world. Stumbling through first communication lacks, I learned that I have to put effort in learning the language: Because it’s you, the au pair, who has to teach and entertain your host-children, follow the kids’ schedule, and take care of your own business like insurances and tax return. All these tasks made me an incredibly independent person.
While being independent made me stronger, I also learned to think as a team more than ever since my host-kids and I spent much time together. We always found extraordinary activities as a team!
Most impressive things we did? Museums and exploritories. America is rich in adventures when it comes to teaching and entertaining kids!
Totally different from my first impressions with one family, was the second part of my au pair experience. I was now taking care of two older kids who were in elementary school. Different family, different schedule.
Here I am believing I know how kids work yet seeing that not only kids in different parts of the world but even in different families will need to be treated with different approaches. That I took to heart and I find myself now taking care of kids way more intensively than I did before.
Being in a new family means stepping into a whole new world. In my case, that whole new world became my everyday world since we’re still in touch!
Not only have I found a sweet host-family, I also discovered my career path; I want to become a teacher! Family and friends had always told me: ‘Saskia, being a teacher would suit you so well!’. At that time, I would say that I would never even consider being a teacher and that it wasn’t the right path for me. Little did I know, that one evening with my host-child would change everything…
She had trouble solving her math equation and became frustrated and I thought of ways to make it approachable for her. I wanted her to figure it out by not giving her the answer; instead, I focused on giving her ways to solve it herself. By making math visual, it made her understand more vividly. She suddenly became happy and less frustrated. Seeing that changed my life. I learned how I had the ability to impact my host-child and that certain approaches can change a student’s mindset on solving a task. I knew that is what I want to do – to provide students ways in making subjects less stressful. I’m currently enrolled in University to become a Math and English teacher!
Being an au pair has impacted my life a lot. It helped me to learn, grow and become a person with a path ahead that I already have a great passion for.
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