Dear future Hostfamily,
My name is Maria, I`m 23 years old, live in Nishny Novgorod, Russia, and I`d love to become an Au-Pair in your family.
Without modesty, I can say that I have had quite a lot of experience with children throughout my life. I`m glad to be an elder sister of a very talented and beautiful girl Anastasia. My sister is 18 now and we live together.
I've worked twice in summer camps (in 2015 and 2016) with groups of children as a camp-leader. Both summers were filled with activity, games, constant movement, music, dancing and friendship. For the second time in my group there were boys hockey players, so I started to like hockey. Of course, sometimes it was hard, because you have to watch not two or three children, but a whole group of 20 people, but it was worth it.
In 2018 I gained experience teaching German and English at the gymnasium. I was a teacher of the 5th grade, of children aged 11-12, and taught foreign languages to a group of 10 people. They were fun, active children, who were interesting to work with, but also very challenging, because you always have to attract the child's attention to the lesson and come up with something new every time. I also have experience of teaching children of different age in a private language school.
And now a few words about my most unforgettable experience - my year in Germany as an Au-Pair, where I lived for almost a year in the city of Kerpen (near the beautiful city of Cologne) in a family of German parents and their three children, whom I had to take care of. They were two boys, Leo and Lasse (12 and 4 years old) and a girl, Lisa (10 years old). My duties were to get up in the morning and prepare a small breakfast for the children, set the table, unload the dishwasher, get the youngest child ready and take him to kindergarten. Then I had quite a lot of time to clean the house, go shopping, feed the animals (we had rabbits), cook dinner and feed Leo and Lisa, who were coming home from school, then make sure that they followed their schedule (Leo and Lisa had quite a lot of extracurricular activities). At about 2 pm I would pick up Lasse from kindergarten, and we spent the rest of the day together: playing, walking in the garden, taking care of rabbits, making paper toys, learning to ride a bicycle, drawing, dressing up as pirates and vikings, reading books, learning new words of the Russian language, playing hide-and-seek, baking pancakes together, or going to visit neighboring children. When my hostparents came home from work, we often spent time together - eating dinner, talking, playing the piano, watching movies, and I sometimes helped Lisa with her homework. The experience of international childcare was one of the most important and incredible experiences in my life, and now I know the concept of the program, and I want not only to acquire something new in working with children in your family and country, but also to share my emotions, ideas, energy and cheerfulness.
As you can see, I love working with children and I love any kind of activities with other people, I`m always open for new experience and impressions, I`d love to meet new people of other cultures and spend as many time together as possible to really know and feel your and your child`s personality. I have a lot of ideas and a lot of energy to bring into your home. I could describe myself as a kind, optimistic and loving life, disciplined, curious, tolerant, open-minded, compliant, honest, punctual and flexible person. My major hobbies are learning languages (I currently learn English and a little bit Norwegian and Spanish, and I already speak German, so if you wish, I could teach your children some German or Russian!), reading and travelling.
I`m really excited about the opportunity to live with you and spend with you this year, which is got to be wonderful for both you and me. Can`t wait to meet you soon!
Maria