Amy Bryan, Local Childcare Coordinator

Local Event - Delaware City Day

Posted by: Amy Bryan on June 27, 2008

Check out more information about this event on 19 July!

Delaware City is a town not far from us at one end of the Chesapeake & Delaware (C&D) Canal.  Many of you have probably driven over this canal on your way north to the Christiana Mall, or for those of you in Bear, on your way south to Middletown!

This one day festival is a celebration of this town and a good chance to experience “small-town” American life.

There is a parade, food, crafts, events and fun stuff for kids.  You can even watch (or if you’re 21 or older!) participate in a crab-ball eating contest!

There will also be fireworks at dusk by the river, which should be really nice.

For more information or details, see www.delawarecityday.com.

Cheap Transportation to NYC

Posted by: Amy Bryan on June 17, 2008

One of our current host families has recommended this — their au pair has used it quite often to go back and forth!

Check out the Chinatown Double Happiness bus route from downtown Wilmington to New York City.  The website is http://aabus.com/.  The ride is about 2 and 1/2 hours (which is about how long a regular drive would take anyway) and costs $20 one-way and only $35 round trip!  That’s cheaper than filling up your own gas tank and driving yourself. Plus you don’t need to drive into the city, figure out parking…it takes a lot of the headache out of traveling to the city.

The bus picks up passengers at 4th and Market Streets in Wilmington (see map at http://www.gotobus.com/busstation/89484.html).  It’s not far from the Greyhound station.  There are 2 dropoff points in NYC — one is right at the side entrance of Macy’s department store at 34th and Broadway; the other is on E. Broadway, near the (in the ?) Lower East Side of Manhattan.

The people I’ve talked to who have used say it’s a really good service and that the buses are really nice.

If you are looking to visit New York, this sounds like the way to go!

Maps of dropoff points, schedules, and reservation information can all be found on their website.  I’d encourage you to take a look!

Blue Rocks Game!

Posted by: Amy Bryan on June 16, 2008

Thanks to all au pairs and host families who joined us today! Hope everyone had a great time in spite of the hot weather and Happy Father’s Day to all our dads out there!

The game was a little confusing!  When we got there for the usual game start time, they were already playing!  The end of yesterday’s game was postponed due to weather, so they finished up the last few innings today prior to the start of our game.

For those of us who made it til the end, the Blue Rocks ended up winning 8 to 3, scoring 6 runs in one inning.

I hope those of you who came had a fun time, whether or not you’ve ever experienced a baseball game before.  Even if you’re not a big sports fan, it’s still an American tradition, so I’m glad you at least got to experience it!

I posted some pics from today’s game; if anyone else took any you’d like me to add, I’d be happy to — just email them to me!  I tried to get a picture of the screen when they announced Cultural Care, but my camera shut off :(  Maybe next year!

Don’t forget our July meeting is our summer CEP.  Check earlier posts for details!

Profile — Delaware Technical and Community College

Posted by: Amy Bryan on June 10, 2008

Find out all about this affordable option for credit and non-credit courses in the area!

Del Tech has several campuses throughout the state of Delaware.  Three of the campuses are relatively convenient to the Middletown area.  There is a campus in downtown Wilmington, one in the Stanton area of Newark, one in Dover called Terry Campus and one in Georgetown called Owens Campus.  Stanton is the closest campus to our area, but Dover and Wilmington are within a decent driving distance.  The Owens campus in Georgetown is located in the southern part of the state and would not be convenient for au pairs around here.

Del Tech offers a large selection of credit and non-credit courses.  Non-credit courses can be counted toward the 72 hour equivalent for your educational component.  You also don’t need to be enrolled as a student at the school, so it makes registration easier.

You may take any course you find interesting to fulfill the educational component.  English classes or childcare classes would certainly be appropriate, but you can use this opportunity to take a course in anything that interests you.

If you’re confident in your English skills or are a native speaker, Del Tech offers other language courses for around $120.  For the fall, they are offering various levels of American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Russian and Spanish.

You can take just about anything; there are practical courses for career-related enrichment or if there’s a subject you’ve always wanted to learn more about — they offer arts & crafts courses, personal enrichment courses, American studies courses — take the time to explore what they have to offer and research the individual course before committing to it!  Talk to someone at the school about the class you want to take to find out if it’s worth your time and money.

You can find course descriptions and offerings here:  http://www.dtcc.edu/allschedules/.  Just find the time of year you would like to look at and get started!

A few things to consider:

~~Make sure the class is offered at a convenient time for both you and your host family.  You have to consider travel time to and from; this is especially important if you share a car with or get a ride from your host family.  Although completing your coursework is very important, it should not be an inconvenience or interfere with the schedule your family has set up for you.

~~Check that the course is offered at a local campus.  Some courses may only be offered at certain campuses, so it’s important to make sure the course you want is available at one of the campuses convenient to where you are.

~~Your host family is only responsible for up to $500 of your educational component.  Keep this in mind when choosing courses.  Choose courses wisely; if you use up all of your allotted money on one class, it’s up to you to fund any additional credits you need.  Your host family is not required, nor should you expect them, to pay more than their share of these expenses.  If you do your research, you can get your educational component completed for not a lot of money.  It’s important to discuss this part of your program with your host family!

~~Keep good records of any credits or credit hours you have completed.  You will need to submit official documentation from the school at the end of your year, so be sure that you get this at the completion of your course.  Don’t wait until right before you leave; get it as soon as the course ends!

Explanation of Acceptable Courses

Posted by: Amy Bryan on June 10, 2008

Here are the types of courses au pairs may take to fulfill their educational requirement. Courses may add up to 6 credits or 72 non-credit hours.

Au pairs are able to take credit courses, non-credit courses, or credit courses not for credit. Only if a course is a non-credit course are we able to count the classroom hours.

• Credit Course: Generally any course that is offered to a full time student which a school has assigned a set credit value that the student will receive upon completion. Cultural Care will count the credits that the school assigned to the course.
• Non-Credit Course: A non-credit course is a course that a school has not assigned a set credit value to. These are usually offered through the community or continuing education departments of colleges and universities. Cultural Care will count the classroom hours of the course since no credits are assigned to the course and go by the educational standard that 12 hours = 1 credit.
• Auditing Courses: Some schools allow students to take a credit course, but the student can elect not to receive a grade or be awarded transferable credits. This is usually referred to as auditing a course and some schools allowing auditing for discounted rates. Not all schools allow people to audit courses and it is often at the discretion of the teacher and based on space available. If an au pair chooses to audit a course, Cultural Care will count the credits that the school assigns the class (even though the au pair is not being graded nor actually receiving transferable credit.) Au pairs cannot count hours for an audited class that has credits assigned by the school.

The following options are not allowed:

• Online or distance learning courses (including hybrid courses)
• Study tours such as Trek America
• Volunteering
• Internships

All au pairs are required to complete this educational component by the United States Department of State.

I need to submit proof of your course completion to Cultural Care at the end of your year, so please make sure you have documentation to show that you have completed the courses you’ve taken.  A transcript, certificate of completion or receipt are all acceptable forms of documentation.

I cannot allow your deposit to be released at the end of the year if you do not have paperwork to show that you have taken and completed your necessary coursework.  It is your responsibility to complete this requirement.

In my next few posts, I’ll be highlighting some options for you.  You can take courses in any subject area you find interesting.  If there is anything specific you would like me to research for you, let me know!

English Course Options

Posted by: Amy Bryan on June 10, 2008

If you are looking for a course to help you improve your English, Delaware has some good, affordable options.

The first is at Delaware Technical and Community College.  Many people refer to this as a shortened form–Del Tech.  Del Tech has campuses in Wilmington, Newark and Dover, all of which are in our area.  The Wilmington and Newark campuses offer a great course especially for au pairs and people who want to build on their basic English skills.  The current class already started on June 3rd and runs through August 6th, but I’m sure it will be offered again in the fall.

Here’s the course description:

Improving English Language Skills for Non-Native Speakers    $225

The course is a beginner class focused on integrated skills-reading, writing, listening and speaking. This course is a great opportunity for Au Pairs and others whose primary language is other than English.

At $225, it’s a pretty good deal!  Plus, it will count for your educational component since it’s offered in a college setting.

They do offer beginning levels of other languages as well, for a little more than $100, so if you’re confident with your English or are a native speaker, they also offer courses in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

For more information, go to http://www.dtcc.edu/ccpsw/languages.html#eyh635.  There are contact numbers on this page if you want to find out when the next English courses are offered.  You can also contact Kathy Linsner at 453-3072; she’s the contact person for the English language course.

The English Language Institute at the University of Delaware also offers English courses for non-native speakers in the evenings.  These are offered either on Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays.  All classes run from 7 pm to 9:30 pm.  The next session begins September 2nd, so now is the time to check into it if you wanted to take a class there in the fall.

These courses are a bit more intensive and more expensive (about $530).  They offer different levels based on your skills and au pairs must also register for an independent study portion.  Details can be found at http://www.udel.edu/eli/programs_evening.html.  The contact person for these courses is Laurie Fuhrmann at 831-2674 or you can email ud-eli@udel.edu.

It is summer break, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get immediate responses from people!

Some of our current au pairs have taken the class at the ELI and some are currently enrolled in the DelTech course; so far I haven’t heard any complaints from anyone!

If you are in Maryland, or very close to the Elkton area, Cecil College offers very cheap English courses.  I don’t know if any of our au pairs have taken this course; if you know someone who has, please let me know!

***I don’t know if they are courses for credit or not, so you would have to check with them if you are interested in this course.  They are only $35, so they may not be!!!

The more advanced courses cost a bit more; again, I’m not sure whether you would get credits for them or not.

There are more details at http://cecil.edu/community-resources/special-programs/adult-education/english-second-language.asp or you can contact Carolyn Fletcher at 410-287-1000.