I am a big cheerleader in cultural exchange programs. My husband was an exchange student. I have a Teacher of English as a Second Language certificate. For years, we welcomed foreign students into our home as a homestay family. This is why I want to share with my Toronto readers the ACCESS Toronto Demi Pair Program…as welcoming a young foreign student into your family is a wonderful experience.
As a former exchange student and TESL teacher, we always wanted to give back to the student exchange experience. Over the years, we housed many 20-something students from Mexico, Brazil, Korea, and Japan. Our students were polite, respectful, independent, responsible, and educated. We had some great cultural exchanges (a Mexican student taught the kids how to make a pinata and a Japanese student taught me how to roll sushi). At meals, we talked about language, culture, geography…it was very rewarding.
About the ACCESS Toronto Demi Pair Program
“Demi Pair” is a variation of the Au Pair program. In Au Pair programs, foreign young adults (18-30 years old) come to an English speaking country to help a family with full time childcare needs in exchange for room and board (and a small weekly salary).
Part of the Demi Pair’s duties may include: picking up the kids from school, helping to prepare dinner, setting the table, tidying up the kids’ toys, taking the kids to extracurricular activities, helping with homework.
Demi Pairs only work part time (20 hours per week) during the afternoons and evenings. They attend English class at ACCESS Toronto during the mornings. Demi Pairs are not paid a salary (as it is part time work in exchange for room and board). Most of ACCESS Toronto’s Demi Pairs come from France, Germany, Spain, Mexico and Chile.
Host family requirements:
- Provide a private bedroom
- Provide all meals (Demi Pairs often help with meal preparation and meal cooking)
- Provide a metropass for the Demi Pair
- Provide a welcoming and nurturing environment when the Demi Pair feels included as a part of the family
In our experience, my kids “adopted” the student as their distant cousin. They became very close knit (as did we as homestay parents). It grew my family’s interest in culture and the world around us.
If you are in need of part-time childcare in Toronto – look into the ACCESS Toronto Demi Pair Program.
My husband’s family always hosted foreign exchange students and I thought that was so cool because I had never known anyone who actually did that before.
That is so totally cool! If I ever have the opportunity to host a foreign exchange student, I’ll totally do it!
I love this! I made a lot of friends with some foreign exchange students when I was in school. I think it would be great to have a foreign exchange student in your home. It would be fun to have them around and have them learn as well as learning from them too.
This sounds like such a great program and I would love to host a demi pair in my home. My kids would love ti.
This sounds like a really great experience. It would be nice to get involved in this.
I’d love a demi-pair for me. lOL. WOuld they like to learn to blog? Actually sounds wonderful to a blogging mom.
I love that with a program like this, you can learn more about different cultures and how people on the other side of the country handle day to day living, holidays, and other issues.
This sounds like an amazing program. Wish we had something similar around here!
What a great program!!! This would be an amazing experience for both the family and the exchange student!
This sounds like a great cultural experience for all parties involved. It would great for the host and the demi pair to help eachother out!
Sounds like a very interesting program. i never even knew these existed.
What a cool program! We hosted a foreign exchange student when I was younger and it was an awesome experience!
I always thought this would be an amazing experience. A friend in high school had an exchange student live with him and it was a lot of fun to show him around.
I always wanted to host an exchange student! It was one thing I never got to do that I really wanted to!
I like the sound of this. You have the benefits of an au pair and a cultural exchange program all rolled into one.
This sounds like a fantastic program. I love to learn about other peoples cultures.
Hosting a foreign student is such a good experience!
Exactly!
do it! do it! do it!
We’ve seen both sides of the experience as my husband was a foreign student and we hosted students from all over the world.
That is so cool Aimee!
Glad I could help share the program with you 😉
It’s a smart way to help the students out with cost and help your family out with childcare
I can attest – our hosting experience was amazing!
Who knows – maybe it’ll come your way in the future…
We were amazed at food differences between cultures – we had a Japanese student who ate rice and shrimp for breakfast (as Canadians rice and shrimp is not exactly breakfast food).
We are looking at applying for this program as a host family. Has anyone participated in it? I would love to hear first hand knowledge!!