As an au pair you will be expected to entertain and stimulate children and give them good care. One way to become a special au pair is to make a babysitting kit. Your entetainer kit can be a bag of games, books, and toys that you can use when you deal with your host kids. Interesting games arouse children’s curiosity, and playing with something new can divert their attention if they become upset when the parents are leaving.
Use the following suggestions to create a kit. Be sure you know what age each activity is suited for. Present the activities one at a time, and have hours of fun on the job! Then collect your items and replace them in the kit for the next babysitting job.
Suggestions for your kit
- Small paper bags and coloured paper or crayons for making hand puppets
- Old magazines, glue, and paper for making scrapbooks
- Flannel board with shapes, colours, or characters to tell a story
- Small books to read or a book made by you
- Play dough
- Soap bubbles for outside play
- Homemade jigsaw puzzles
- A book of pictures to feel (use fur, satin, velvet, sandpaper, and other interesting textures)
- A dress-up kit containing old hats, scarves, belts, jewellery, and so forth
- Homemade paper dolls and scraps of fabric for making clothes
- Homemade card games using index cards and washable markers
- Collection of balloons, pipe cleaners, clothespins, and assorted items
- Soft bean bags and a decorated bag for playing toss games
- Lacing cards made with colourful decorations and shoestrings
- Old socks or paper for making hand and finger puppets
- Mobiles made from clothes hangers, string, bits of coloured paper, and similar materials
- Nested cans for stacking and rolling
- Brightly painted, empty thread spools for stacking or stringing together
- Smelling box containing familiar, pleasant smells that children can guess
- Stuffed toys
Items best suited for ages 2 to 3 and 4 to 5
- Hand puppets
- Stacking blocks
- Playing cards
- Measuring cups
- Stuffed toys
- Stacking cups
- Measuring spoons
- Play dough
Items better for older children
- Board games
- Construction paper
- Puzzle
- Playing cards
