Dear Au pair,

Hi!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about our family and for considering joining us as our au pair in New Jersey for the year or more. Both my husband I went to Israel for a year when we were 18, a million years ago. This for sure is an exciting time in your life, to leave home, travel, work and be a student abroad. Thanks for thinking about spending some of your time together with our family.

A little about us.....

There are 4 of us in our family;

David, my husband, is a quantitative analyst and works for an energy company in New Jersey. At heart, he is a scientist and is very curious about everything, the kind of guy that enjoys and knows how to take everything apart and put it back together.

I'm a family medicine physician and I see patients online from home. I wanted to be a doctor since I was a child and now and as mom with small kids I really enjoying being part of their daily routine while doing the job I love.

Shoshi, is our sweet, giggly, bubbly, energetic 9 year old. She is like her dad, curious about everything and loves to sing and dance and ask a lot of questions. When she was born she was a little over 4 lbs.... a little preemie, I had never seen such a tiny baby!! She has had some delays in her development, this is typical for preemies/babies born early, and is seeing a physical therapist and speech therapist...its almost hard to notice anymore as she is making such progress, thankfully. She really likes everything, music , singing, dancing (she takes hip hop and gymnastics), doing hair and make up, reading, loves movies. She loves helping in the kitchen, making pizza, bread and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving. She loves to face time and loves to do knock knock jokes with Siri on my i phone. She also loves going to all of the playgrounds, pool and pizza afterwards, our usual Sunday activity.

Rahmi, our now 7 year old boy, is a bouncy bundle of blonde curls and full of life and energy. He is always on the move, turning everything into a toy and game. He is his own little person and loves to watch his sister and try and do everything she does. He is a big talker, loves to read and draw and typically when we get him up in the morning he will ask for his ipad to do Lexia, a reading program. He loves cars and knows all the car models. He has does karate, he is now an orange belt, and gymnastics. which he also really enjoys.

Both kiddos love their friends and having playdates. Both kiddos love rollercoasters. We take a big trip every winter and a smaller trip every summer. We took everyone to Disney January 2024 and they went on all of the rollercoasters. We went to California January 2025 and had a great time as well.

We live in a very family oriented community behind a nature preserve with lots of kids, turkeys, deer and rabbits running around. Its the kind of place where you don't need to lock your doors....and we are 8 miles from times square in New York City so we live in the middle of the woods and close to enough to all of the fun of one of the greatest cities in the world.

Our life really revolves around our kiddos and there are so many great activities here its easy to have fun. In the summer, we really like being outside, hiking, swimming and they are both good swimmers hoping to become strong swimmers, BBQ and eating meals out on the deck, biking, going to the zoo and park, play dates, etc.

In the winter we like to take the kiddos outdoors, sledding building snowmen and when its really too cold or too hot there are some fun indoor playgrounds. Next year when our son turns 7 we will take them to ski and snowboarding school, cant wait to do that!!!
We are Jewish, keep a kosher kitchen and go to temple/synagogue on our Sabbath. This is a day of rest for us where we relax, unwind and literally unplug from the world. We don't drive, cook, work or use any electronics so we can really just focus on the family. (Of course anyone who stays with us is free do as they choose). We like to have meals with friends and family in the neighborhood and celebrate the holidays together. On the Sabbath we like to read, go for walk or hike in the nature preserve and really just play and be with our kiddos, friends and family.

On Sundays we like to go to the park and usually go to the JCC ( Jewish Community Center) to swim and have pizza afterwards...actually, pizza was one of our daughters first words!!

We love music and movies. The kiddos have favorite songs and the favorites these days are anything by the Ninja Kids and they are both Swifties.

I think we have a healthy routine for the kiddos and they have a very do-able schedule for school which just fits well with our work schedules.

Both kiddos will have school 830 - 330 and we have after school activities (dance, karate. gymnastics) a few days a week and sometimes she just comes home and says, "I want to relax" and will ask for some snow for her snack, we have a snow cone machine and she loves it...after watching the movie frozen a zillion times you can imagine snow is one of her favorite things!

Rahmi will also have school daily 830 - 330, the same hours as his sister. He loves being part of the group and participates in all of his and his sisters activities like music class, gymnastics and karate. He is a favorite at the local donut store and gets a big "Hi Rahmi" when we go.

We have 2 cars, you would use my car for taking the kiddos to activities, school, errands, gym and on your free time. There many schools close by and lots of students, nannies and au pairs in the neighborhood...so lots of new friends to make.

We are very close to New York City, My husband lived in NYC as a graduate student, knows the city very well and would be happy to talk about all of the fun things to do and see. For me, one of the most exciting things to do is just have a coffee and walk around/explore, people watch, get tickets to a show or a tv show and be in the audience, go to museums, watch the street performers, try new food, Shakespeare in the park....the possibilities of fun are truly endless!!!!

After school, my daughter has after school activities dance, piano, gymnastics or play dates. Rahmi also has after school activities, basketball, karate, gymnastics cooking and computer class. We will continue with swim lessons this summer at a friends pool 2 - 3 days/week over the summer. The rest of the time we go to the park, do arts and crafts, bake, go to trampoline parks, watch movies, go for walks in the nature preserve or play on the swings and slides at my brother and sister in laws home, they live one street over.

You will have an easy time making friends here, our neighborhood is just full of kids and most families have nannies or aupairs. Our community is full of parks and hiking trails.

Well that's a little about us. Looking forward to learning more about you and talking together soon.
Best wishes in your search for your host family and enjoy your year in America!!

Warmly,
David, Laura Shoshi and Rahmi Chasman