Philipp Hoffart (Germany) - December 2016
We would like to nominate our au pair Philip Hoffart for Au Pair
of the Month!
When we were on the search for our fourth and final au pair
there were a few males available…we had always had female au pairs
and to be honest we both shared the view that this was the best
option for our two boys Levi and Jay. Unfortunately, New Zealand
doesn't have many males in childcare roles, it is very rate and
almost foreign and this was influencing us to only consider female
au pairs until our Placement Manager at the time suggested we
interview a male and after convincing ourselves to give it a try we
set up a Skype interview with Philip from Germany.
It was safe to say our perception had changed after one
interview and we knew Philip would be a great fit for our family
and our two boys! He shared so many interests and interacted well
with the boys over Skype. His English was fantastic too J
From the day he arrived he has made a real effort to interact
with the boys - his love of football and sport has made a huge
impression on the boys….what's better than having an older boy in
the house to kick goals with, shoot hoops, play rough and tumble
and ride bikes.
Philip has also made quite an impression with his fantastic
cooking skills making dinner for our family most week nights when
he is working…which for a full time working parents has been
wonderful and means we can get home and spend some quality time
with the boys! He has even shared some of his German recipes with
us which we have all enjoyed.
Our youngest has been recently referred to a speech therapist
and Philip made time to attend the first meeting with the therapist
to learn about how we could all assist him to improve his speech. I
could tell Philip was genuinely interested in how in his role as
our au pair assist with Jays therapy. This was so good to see and
every day Philip spends some one on one time with him on his
therapy activities.
Philip is often sharing his language with our family - the boys
in particular. He has been teaching Levi (our oldest) how to count
in German. So far they are up to 30 and when Philips parents visit
NZ in February Levi is going to proudly show them what their
son/our au pair has taught him!
Philip is also very flexible which is so valuable. If we are
running late from work it's no problem, if we need other jobs done
during the day which are un-related to the children like taking our
dog to the vet it's no problem. He even starts at 6am some mornings
so we can exercise!
Philip is always included in family activities/events and is
keen to be part of them which is great and I think one of the
reasons he has slotted in with our extended family so well. They
love him just like we do!
We would strongly recommend getting amo-pair to any family - in
particular those with boys. When Philip leaves us in May we will be
saying good bye to our host son and big brother but can only hope
his time here with us has been a memorable one and one that he will
treasure just as we will.
From Devine-Collins whanau