Seeking an Organized, Fun Loving Soul for Help in our Home in San Francisco, Cailfornia, USA

Details

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  Description

  Energetic, active, social, creative family of four want to share our happy lives with you! You will experience an amazingly interesting area of America and daily life in California, USA. We prefer responsible, mature FEMALE visitors who can stay a minimum of three months and desire to become an integral part of our family. If you love to cook healthy meals and be around kids, we really will appreciate your skills!!
  
  We live in a large house on an island suburb of San Francisco (a 20 minute ferry ride to SF city) and 5 minutes to Oakland International Airport, 30 minutes to SFO & San Jose, CA. We experience a mild climate year round in our safe, friendly neighborhood.
  
  Family includes a sixth grade girl (age 11) and seventh grade boy (age 13) and busy mom (former event planner and now managing apartments), and dad who works in Banking/Real Estate in the SF Financial District. We have been married 24 years and enjoy stable, honest relationships. We are highly educated and hard working, but we love to laugh, travel, explore, and each day is an adventure! We would like to share our friendly home with someone who is respectful, honest, organized and kind. Reliability and dependability is a must!
  
  We have raised our two kids speaking some Spanish, but we would like to practice more. Our daughter is also beginning Mandarin and plays the piano. She enjoys ice skating, gymnastics & theater (acting/singing). My son likes running, lacrosse, crew & computer games. The kids ride bikes to school Monday through Friday. Our neighborhood is friendly; walkable paths on lagoons, with water views (including gorgeous San Francisco Bay!) We live on a quiet cul-de-sac and other workaways are staying in this mid-sized town too. You can walk less than one half mile to the passenger ferry to San Francisco! You can also take a commuter bus or train to San Francisco. We have a bike to loan you while you are here.
  
  We have been hosting workaways for several years now, and have welcomed visitors from France, Spain, UK, Hungary, The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Peru, Argentina, Australia, Belgium and Swtizerland. Some have traveled with us to spend the holidays or vacations with relatives and we look forward to staying in touch with our new friends that have become part of our family. Many of our visitors have made new friends with other workaways they met here and all have enjoyed traveling and exploring Yosemite, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  General Maintenance

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  Language practice

  Art Projects

  Help with Computers/ Internet

  Teaching
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  You will have a lot of experience speaking in English, and learning the American way of life. You will not feel like a tourist, rather you will be living as a typical American citizen! Converting measurements while cooking, mapping out distances in miles, getting around on public transportation, sharing our casual jokes and customs - all things texbooks can't teach. You will become an integral part of the family, sharing many important conversations and activities. Your organization skills with be tested in keeping the kids on schedule and the tasks completed, but its all manageable. Negotiation skills will be sharpened as our very creative kids insert spontaneous interruptions or distractions. I work from a home office and am around for additional help and direction as needed. It's a great balance of volunteering, learning and playing.
  
  We love to explore so you will be introduced to many activities with us, or on your own, or with other workaways your age. This exchange is what you put into it...and so much more than you can imagine!

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  We would like help getting our two kids ready for school, riding bikes with them to school & then helping kids afterschool for 3-4 hours with homework, chores, dinner & bedtime routine. We especially appreciate help with cooking and meal preparation, as the kids are now old enough to work mostly independent (with some supervision & reminders). It would be a bonus if you could speak Spanish or Mandarin with them, but this is not mandatory. Perhaps you have a skill (piano, singing, dancing, art or a sport) that you would like to share with them? Most of the daytime would be open for exploring, time at the gym, etc. while the kids are in school.
  
  Your primary responsibility is to ensure the kids are safe, and keeping them on their daily routine. Also, preparing & cleaning up meals and assisting with light chores in the house.
  
  In winter, we are looking for someone to help teach our kids to ski on weekends (we would travel to our mountain house). In summer, the hours will vary as kids wont be in school. We will need your help with creative activities (arts, sports, languages and outings to the parks, museums & exploring). You must enjoy being with kids...keeping them on a routine/schedule when required, enforcing the house rules, and being present with them. We are looking for ways to enrich their lives by exposing them to new cultures, people and healthy experiences.
  
  We also have apartments we rent, so a handy person who can do small maintenance projects or help on computers/bookkeeping would be considered. We prefer females at this time.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  You would stay in our large guest room with Queen size bed, and own TV/DVD. The guest bedroom is private and we have 4 bathrooms. We have free internet access in the house. You would enjoy access to our gym membership to include swimming, pilates, yoga & other fitness classes.
  
  We eat am/pm meals together at home (lunch is on your own). We cook fresh foods and eat very healthy. Some weekends, we travel to our cabin in the mountains, so you could come with us to ski or enjoy the Sierra Mountains, or have time on your own in the San Francisco area. There are other workaways in our neighborhood which we can connect you with.

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  What else ...

  The town we live in is Alameda, CA. Must be fluent in English.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  we have fast, unlimited wifi

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  One

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  Hours expected

  School year 7-8:30am and 3-6:30pm M-F. Weekends mostly free unless need arises. Summer hours may vary.

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