My kids rock as host siblings to our international students

My kids are so important to our homestay students and their experience in Adelaide and here is why..

Kids, especially young children are non judgemental

I loved watching our 3 year old play cars with our 14 year old student from France last year. It was such a beautiful moment and my son was just giddy with joy that such a big boy was taking the time to play with him.

Unbeknownst to him, my 3 year old was doing so much more than he realised, our student was practicing English conversation, learning new words and creative ways to interact with a child.

The same student was also happy to speak with my 9 year old in French, because that is the language she learns at school.

She was so excited he bought her a French cookbook as a gift and she couldn’t wait to show her French teacher and share what she had learnt.

Nans was our French student who was patient with our children. We enjoyed taking him to Cleland Wildlife park to meet some Australian animals.

Imaginative and creative

I can remember seeing one of my Japanese students sitting on the floor in the hallway one morning.

it was a little strange to see, so I enquired what she was doing, she cheerfully informed me that she was “at school” and my 5 year old was the teacher.

Later that week, she was on the hallway floor again, this time getting her hair styled by the same 5 year old who had abruptly decided to change her career and was now in the hair and beauty industry.

It was so much fun to see and our student was just so engaged and excited to play with my daughter.

Aya enjoyed playing with our children, and followed their lead with different games they wanted to play with her.

Kids are playful and fun

And this is what they want when they come to Australia.

When we get a new student it has become almost an initiation into our family, for them to go on the trampoline with my kids and later, to watch my middle 2 children do their tricks on the monkey bars.

This is Such a great ice breaker for our new Students, and often later on, because it is so much fun, they ask their friends around for a turn.

We love to celebrate our students birthday when they have their birthday in Australia. We usually play games, have cake and the kids get so excited and enjoy the party games, like this game of “keepy uppy“, which makes it so memorable for our students.

It is more comfortable to ask a kid if you are unsure.

I was surprised one day to learn that my 10 year old is often asked by our students if they are allowed to eat something, or where something is, like a bowl or utensil.

She happily tells (or shows them) the information they require and it builds her confidence immeasurably.

Trang was always good with my children and, despite the language barrier, would always know how to help me, and my kids.

This is just a short list of some of the many benefits there are for our homestay students when sharing their lives with my 4 Kids,

And in turn, my children get to experience new cultures, expanding their understanding of the world we live in.

If you would like to have a similar experience in your family, please follow the link below to find out more.

https://www.homestaynetwork.org/partner-not-so-stay-at-home-mum/