YASMIN, 20 YEARS

Dear Host Family, With this letter I'd like to introduce myself and tell you a bit about my childcare experience. Who am I and where am I from? My name is Yasmin Neundorf and I am 18 years old. I live in a small village in Thuringia, Germany together with my parents Kristina and Danny, my two younger brothers Manuel (15) and Michael (11) and our dog Carlos. I went to school in a town called ‘Hildburghausen’ and have just passed my A levels. My favorite subjects were Drama, Art and English because I enjoy reading a lot and I like expressing my feelings through drawing and acting. I have three close friends who went to school with me. They are truly amazing people and we have lots of fun together. Growing up, I always liked taking care of my little brothers. I enjoyed being a big sister, reading them bedtime stories and helping them with their homework. My parents taught me from a young age to be independent, open-minded and self-sufficient by letting me make my own choices but also providing me with advice. I grew up in a house with a big garden so over the years I got to learn how to take care of different animals. I’m very grateful that both of my grandparents live nearby, because I get to visit them a lot. What are my hobbies and interests? I just finished high school and passed my A levels, so up until a few weeks ago a lot of my time was taken up by school. Now that I have more free time I like to spend a majority of it with my friends and family. We often have (Covid friendly) game nights, go on walks pr go swimming together. I also enjoy reading a lot and like to be creative in my bullet journal. Besides that, I’m interested in cooking and baking. I have recently completed an online course offered by the University of Stanford called ‘Child Nutrition and Cooking’ and trying out some of the recipes with kids I babysit has been a lot of fun. Ever since I was little I have loved music, especially dancing and singing. When I was six years old, I started to learn how to play the flute. I've also learned to play the piano a little by watching tutorials on YouTube. I have always had lots of different interests and researched everything from paleontology to how our solar system works. I’d love to share some of my hobbies and interests with your family! Why do I want to be an Au Pair in the USA? I have enjoyed taking care of my two younger brothers ever since the first one arrived on this earth. From learning to change diapers to supervising play dates, birthday parties or helping with homework, I always got to be there for them. An internship at my local kindergarden as well as regular babysitting made me realize that making kids laugh and teaching them new things brightens up my days like nothing else. Those experiences made me consider working with children in the future. I informed myself of the options I would have once I had finished school and stumbled upon Au pair. I instantly knew that was what I wanted to do. The decision to do this in America was an easy one too. Ever since I was little I’ve loved visiting new places and meeting new people. Because I grew up in a small village, I’ve always had a desire to see more of the world. My mom is a German and History teacher, so I always had lots of different books to read. I started learning English when I was about three years old because the Kindergarden I went to had an English program. So once I was about ten, I became interested in reading books in English. It is through the books I’ve read that I became interested in the American culture. I would love to actually experience the traditions, cuisine, music and arts I’ve been reading about for so long. My childcare experience Growing up with two younger siblings, I have learned from a young age to take care of children. I’ve always wanted to be the best older sister I could be. I was super excited when my second brother was born and I started helping my parents with things like changing his diapers or feeding him. I often helped my other brother with homework or walked him to school. As I got older, my parents allowed me to look after my brothers on my own, which helped me become more responsible.  A lot of my mom’s friends have younger children. Whenever they visited they would bring their kids and I would supervise them. At the age of twelve I decided I wanted to gain some work experience, so I asked my mom’s friends if they needed a babysitter. That’s how I started regularly babysitting Lilly (now 12 years old), Marie (now 8 years old) and later on Mia (now 4 years old) as well as Lasse (14 months old) and Leonard (7 months old). I quickly realised I enjoyed babysitting a lot. In 2018, I interned at my local Day care centre. Even though I only worked there for a week, I learned a lot. One of the most important things this experience taught me is that taking care of children every single day, especially multiple children at once, can be very stressful. Through observing how I dealt with these stressful situations I found aspects of myself that I still need to work on, like being more patient and staying calm in situations where I feel overwhelmed. This helped me to find a new appreciation for everything my parents and teachers have done for me. Besides that, babysitting different children taught me, that you can always find the good in every situation. Children are such pure bubbles of joy and energy. They see the world from a different perspective and can be amazed by the simplest things. Being around kids has made me a much more optimistic person and opened my eyes to the wonders of our world. If you're interested in getting to know me more and potentially hiring me as your Au Pair, feel free to message me any time! I look forward to get in touch with you!