Lenya (22 / Ms. ), German, living in Germany looking for Au Pair & Caregiver for elderly job in Sweden for 1-9 Months

Dear Family,
jag heter Lenya och kommer från Stuttgart i Tyskland.
In this letter you can learn a bit more about me and my life.
It all started on the 16. February 2002 in the hospital of Filderstadt, where my mum Ilona, my dad Steffen and my big sister Lara were waiting for me.
Now I am already 18 and it’s my last year at school. My main subjects are German, English, Maths, Sports and Italian. I’ve learned English for 8 years and French and Italian for 5 years. In general, I am very interested in languages and gaining knowledge about other counties and new cultures. That is one reason why I would like to travel to a foreign country for a long time period.
But why do I want to be an Aupair in Sweden? Actually it’s an easy answer. I like to be an Aupair, because I really love to be with children and play with them. Besides, I think you can learn the most about a culture and it values when you live in a native family. The Aupair year is also a great opportunity for me to reach more independence. I choose Sweden as my host country because I am very impressed by its nature and I am also interested in the Swedish lifestyle and language. Since few weeks I am visiting a language course for Swedish level A1 and I really love the language, even as I only know some words and sentences.
I travel a lot with my family and every year we make vacations together. In summer vacation we often stayed in Denmark or the Netherlands, but also one time in Sweden, Norway and Italy. With my Classmates I travelled to France and Italy for an exchange program and sometimes I visit my friends in Italy. I also travelled with my Sportsclub to Spain, Hungary and Romania for some training camps. Every year in Winter me and my family are staying in Austria for skiing and snowboarding.
Now I tell you a bit about me and my character. I am an open-minded and optimistic person, who can sometimes be very creative. I love to laugh but I am also a “Thinker” which means I think much about my life, my friends and my family. I really love my family and my friends and therefore I spent much time with them in my spare time. When I am not outside with my friends or playing something with my family, I like to doing a jigsaw or drawing something while listen to music or a podcast. Once a week I have piano lessons and on Monday and Saturday I am going to swim training. I am also very often with our youth church group of our suburb.
In this youth group I’m taking part of many actions and programs for children and teens. For instance are we planning 6 church services every year. For this we meet two times a month and talk about our ideas for the next service and try to convert our ideas. In the end we always have a very nice service with themes for teens at the age of 12 to 16, but our services are also for adults. ?
Another program for teens of 13-14 years is our Trainee-program. This program is during one year and there are meetings every month. The teens are learning how to work with children and important skills for being a carer. At the end of the year they get a certificate for being a supervisor. I got this certificate by myself in 2017 and since 2 years I teach the new Trainees.
We also plan programs for younger children, like our summer and winter vacation camps. 2017 and 2018 I was a carer at the winter vacation camp the so called “Winterwaldheim”. It is for children between 6 and 12 years and it’s always for one week in the winter vacation. Every year has another theme which is always a childrenstory. In 2017 the theme was “Pippi Långstrump” and in 2018 the theme was “Sams”.
As first action of the day the carers play a part of the story as drama. The children love to watch us playing the story and we had always very much fun too, even if we had to practice the show in the evenings after long and exhausted days.
The story also pops up in other activities of the week. On one day, every year, we play the scouting game. On this day the carers dressed up as their role from the drama and scatter on the whole terrain. The kids have the task to solve a problem which the main character wants to solve and to get notes they need to search the other characters and need to play a game or solve a riddle for them. It’s lovely to see how much fun it is for the kids, running around and try to solve the problem as fast as possible. We are also going outside with the children and playing in the woods or, if there’s snow we do some snowball fight.
In 2018 and 2019 I was a carer in the summer vacation camp called “Waldheim”. It is a bit like the “Winterwaldheim” but much bigger. All in all, there are 300 kids and I was responsible for a group of 15-20 children with two other carers. In the first year the kids in my group were 10 and 11 and in the second year they were 7 to 9 years old. Every day in the “Waldheim” proceed the same, except you’re going to an excursion like the outdoor pool or the fire department. After the breakfast the groupprogram begins and all the kids going in their own group. In this time we mostly going outside in the forest and play games like “smuggler” or “capture the flag” or we play something on the great terrain of the “Waldheim”. On rainy days we stayed inside and tinker something or play some indoor games with other groups.
After the lunch is the lunchbreak, which isn’t loved by the kids, but it’s necessary for the kids to calm down once at this long day full of activities. In the lunch break they can plait some bands, read a book or playing cards with another kid or carer. After the break there is another phase of group program and after that the so called “Inclination group”. In this phase the carers provide different actions like painting the kids, playing soccer or writing letters for other kids and the children can choose in which group they want to go. They can also change the group every time or just playing on the terrain.
I really love to be a carer at these programs and I learned a much from all the years working with children.
In my daily life I babysit for 3 families. Mainly boys at the age of 5-8 and one girl at the age of 7. I come at the evenings and have dinner with the kids, when the parents are leaving. After dinner we normally have enough time to play a game like Uno or playing with their cars and helicopters. Sometimes we also draw pictures or tinker. When it’s time for them to go to bed I help them to attire their pyjamas and brush their teeth. In the end I read them a ‘good night story’ and bring them to bed.
I enjoy my babysitter jobs, because I love to play with the children and it’s always a pleasure for me to look after them.
In 10th grade I did a work placement at a primary school, because I thought about being a primary teacher after school, and it confirmed my considerations. I was in a third grade and were allowed to teach them some german lessons. It was awesome how they concentrated on what I said. I also helped them at other subjects when they had questions during the silent work.
This was a little bit information about me, sure, it wasn’t all, but I am looking forward to tell you more, and maybe you can tell me a bit about you and your family too? ?
Thanks for reading my letter, I hope to hear from you soon!

Your sincerely
Lenya