Dear-Hostfamily-Letter (DHL)

Dear Host Family,

My name is Christin, but my family and friends call me Tini. I’m 18 years old. I live with my mother and my sister in a nice small village called Gnutz (1000 inhibitants) which lays in Schlewig – Holstein in the north of Germany. My parents got divorced when I was six years old. My mother Sabine is 42 years old and works as a bank employee.My father Ruediger is 44 years old. He’s a policeman. He lives together with his new partner Heike and her children Soeren (19 yrs) and Linda (16 yrs) in a small town near by. Therefore we can see each other very often. I think I have a very good and trusting realationship to both of my parents.They support me in everything I do. We naturally do have little arguments once in a while but I think that’s just normal. My sister Neele (16 yrs) is like a very good friend to me. We always have lots of fun together. Neele has a learn disability and a slight speech defect because she was born 5 weeks too early. She also has to take a daily medication because of a epileptic convoulsion she once had. Since I can remember I have always wanted to protect her and have felt responsible for her. But there was rarely a necessity to do it because everybody likes and accepts her because of her very kind and charming character. She goes to a special school for children with disabilities and because of that I often have contact to other children with disabilities.

In my spare time I’m busy with lots of things. I really enjoy spending time with my friends, especially being around my best friend Nantje (19 yrs). She has already spend a year in the USA and told me a lot about it. We like to go to the movies, to clubs and parties (I love dancing), to meet to play some games, to cook together or just to hang out together for talking and laughing. Music is very important to me. I listen to music whenever I’m able to and I’m interested in several kinds of music. I love to visit musicals and concerts. At the age of eleven years I started playing keyboard and after 4 years I switched to piano. I ‘m still taking piano lessons. I have also been playing the guitar for 4 years in a group with four other girls and it’s lots of fun. I wouldn’t say that I´m very talented, but I’m always trying to make the best out of it. Making music is the most important part and not necessarily being successful.Another thing I’m fascinated by is sign language and the culture of deaf people. Unfortunatly there is no possibility to take sign language at school here in Germany. Therefore I have been taking evening classes in an adult education institute once a week for 2 ½ years by now to learn German sign language. I really enjoy doing this. I often don’t have enough time to do sports, but I’m trying to go to the arobic lesson here in Gnutz once a week and to go jogging regularly.If I find enough time I really enjoy to read a good book, to watch a film or to be creative in doing hadicrafts. I also enjoy taking photos and  filming special events with my camcorder.

After primary school I attended high school and got my high school cerficate 10 years. Afterwards I changed to a secondary school – sixth form and just gained my high school cerficate 12 years. At this time I’m studying to get my A Levels because after the year as an au pair I want to go to universtity in order to become a primary and jounior High School teacher. I feel as if this will be the right job for me because I have always enjoyed teaching, tutoring and helping others and of course beeing around children. Besides that I would love to have children of my own in the future.

Now I want to tell you some details about my experiences with children. I always wanted to care for them and at the age of six I started to stay home alone with my little sister and took responsibility for her, firstly only in the afternoons of course, but soon also in the evenings. When I turned nine I babysat my cousins. At the age of twelve my dream came true and I got my first real babysitterjob. The child and I spent a lot of time outside especially at the playground. Therefore many people saw us and in the course of time more and more parents asked me to look after their children. At the moment I have 5 babysitterjobs and all in all I’ m looking after 13 children at the age form 1 to 12 years. The youngest child I have ever been responsible for was 3 month old. The families I’m working for have 1 to 3 children. I have never done the babysittingjob only for the money, though it’s nice to earn some money ,but for me it has always been a great pleasur to take care of the children. I take care of the children in the afternoons, but at this time mainly at night. Sometimes some of the children also spend the night at my house if their parents get home very late. It’s always a lot of fun. That’s how a typical day or evening looks like: We often play outside in the garden or games inside the house. Some of the children really like hide-and-seek and other imaginative games, others prefer to puzzle or to paint and to do some creative things we come up with together. I’m always trying to keep the kids busy. When it’s time for dinner I’m preparing some snacks and if there is a younger child I feed it, change the diaper and put it to bed. Later I’m checking that the others put on their pyjamas and brush their teeth and of course I’m helping them if they need help. Before the children go to bed I usually read out a book to them or we tell each other funny stories. For me it’s important that we are doing sth. calm the last 15 minutes before sleeping time because that’s the easiest way to get them to sleep. When they are in bed I spend some minutes with each one individually and we sing a song, say a prayer, talk about what we experienced that day. Sometimes they also want me to play a song at the piano before falling asleep. Of course sometimes it’s hard work and emotional stress to care for all these children but when I bring them to bed and get a hug or a kiss I forget everything about their bad behaviour on that day and the efforts I had. For me it’s the greatest feeling when I want to leave the room and there comes this one little silent question : “Tini, you know what?…I love you!” Each of them is an individual and needs a special treatment and attention and I’m always trying hard to comfort their needs. So it’s never getting boring with “my children”.

I also have experiences in tutoring children. From 2002 to 2004 I tutored Katharina (11 yrs)  who had problems in maths and german at primary school. When she changed to junior high school this problems faded away, so that she didn’t need my help. Since Febuary 2003 I’m helping my couisin Johannes(15 yrs) with his homework once a week. I also help him study for his english and maths tests.

In January 2002 I did a practical training in a daycarecenter for disabled and not disabled children. Together with the pedagouges I supervised a group of about 15 children at the age of 3 to 6 years for two weeks. I loved to play, to read out books, to play musik and sing, to paint and to do other creative things with them. Seven month ago I also did a practical training at a school for deaf children at the age of 6 to 17 years. For one week I observed how teachers and children work together. I helped the students when they had problems with their exercises, practised mental arithmetic with them and supervised them when they had to work silently. Both trainings were very interesting and I learned a lot.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      I  I also read some books about upbringing like e.g. “The 5 languages of love for children” or “Family Conference” because I’m very interested in this subject.              

The reason why I want to become an au pair is because it will give me the opportunity to care for children a whole year through and to see how they grew up and develop. At the same time I will have the chance to improve my English skills in a practical way and to get to know the “American Way of Life” a little better which I know only  from movies and books. I suppose beeing an au pair will be a great and important experience for my personality and helpful for my future.

I’m really looking forward to become a part of your family and hope to talk to you on the phone soon.

Yours sincerely,

Christin