Join our busy family of 4 on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, Canada

Details

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  Description

  We are a family of 4 living on the beautiful west coast of Vancouver Island, the Unceded Traditional Territory of the Lekwungen People . We acknowledge and respect the ləkʷəŋən peoples on whose traditional territory we live, work and grow upon, and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
  We have a family dog, Ruby a 2 year old Cavapoo and a 9 year old cat Winky. Our home is situated in a beautiful quiet neighbourhood between UVic and Cadboro Bay area of Victoria BC. We enjoy finding beaches, parks, hiking a new trail, indulging in a coffee shops & bakeries, finding a cool book at the library, biking to school & work and supporting our community. Rob works full time in downtown Victoria, Kristin is a self-employed therapist, our son is 14 years old and in Grade 8 (he loves to play soccer, video games, bike, read, chess and board games) and our 11 year old daughter is in Grade 5 (she loves to craft, play soccer, card games, sew and bake). We are needing extra help around the home and hoping to find a hard working person who can step into our family and help with household chores such as; meal planning, cooking, and gardening and helping out around the house- it would be so appreciated! We love to strike that balance of accomplishing tasks but also rest, recovery and solitude is important.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  House sitting
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  Interests

  

  Sustainability

  

  Technology

  

  Politics / Social justice

  

  Pets

  

  Culture

  

  Self development

  

  Movies & TV

  

  Animals

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Books

  

  Plant care

  

  Gardening

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Mountain

  

  Cycling

  

  Hiking

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Water sports

  

  Winter sports

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Team sports

  

  Nature

  

  Fitness

  

  Camping

  

  Beach
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Our family loves to travel and we've been to the UK a few times to visit family (Rob is originally from the UK) and most recently travelled to Paris with the kids which gave us the travel bug! Rob and Kristin have travelled and backpacked (New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Europe, Japan) before we had our children and appreciate learning from other cultures and hearing other people's stories. We all enjoy food and nutritious home-made meals and this is very important to us to eat together whenever possible. We have a wonderful renovated kitchen to prepare meals in. We have no food allergies (dairy aware) and try to eat more vegetables & vegetarian/vegan as much as possible. We are happy to try different types of dishes from other countries, although our 11 year old daughter sometimes finds flavours too spicy (!) we're working on this!
  We would love to share stories about our travelling adventures, time with family and friends and last summer a challenging 3 day canoeing trip we did as a family. This summer we hope to do some back country hikes and camping at Strathcona Park.
  We have a 14 year old son and 11 year old daughter who love playing card games, board games, soccer, badminton, going for walks with the dog, biking around Victoria. We enjoy hosting our family ( both sets of grandparents live on Vancouver Island) and other families or friends for dinners and having potlucks and sharing food. We hope to learn about your family, life, culture, travel experiences and differences to our Canadian one!

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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 are a busy family and needing help with #1 meal planning & prepping during the weekdays, #2 cooking during the week if possible, #3 weeding and gardening the front and backyard and DIY projects for anyone who is handy, #3 help around the house washing windows/cleaning the deck and lastly #4 childminding, our kids are pretty independent but whenever possible initiating an activity to keep them occupied or off screens is a priority

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  French: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  Our 11 year old daughter is in French Immersion and would like to practice her French language skills.
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  Accommodation

  We gaurantee a private room and half bathroom for anyone visiting. Some months we also have a basement suite with a seperate entrance downstairs, full bathroom and kitchen availability depends on our home exchange or monthly renting possibilities. All bedding and towels are provided. The rest of the main house- kitchen, living room, dining room and main bathroom, deck, outdoor hot tub & pool are available for your use.

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  What else ...

  We have a standard 2010 SUV that could be utilized by a workaway if they have a current drivers licsense and they can drive standard (stick shift). Depending on your height, we have a bicycle and helmet available, Victoria is a very bikeable city with more and more AAA bike routes being introduced. There are also buses, uber and taxi's for getting around for transportation.
  Fun places to visit close to us: Gyro-Cadboro Bay, Telegraph Bay, Mystic Vale, Finnerty gardens at UVic, view point at Mt. Tolmie, Willows Beach, Oak Bay Ave for shopping and restaurants, downtown has the Royal BC Museum, IMAX, Victoria Art Gallery (free on Thursdays and first Sunday of the month!) , Victoria Parliment Buildings, Victoria Harbour, Historic Downtown and Chinatown, Songhees walk, and Dallas Road for a scenic drive home :) There's also lots of free concerts in the parks around Saanich & Oak Bay and a popular free yoga in the park as well!
  
  House rules are absolutely no smoking, drugs, vaping or parties in our home or on the property, we are quite sensitive to smoke. We try to do unscented products as much as possible (ie. laundry soap/aftershave/perfumes) due to fragrance sensitivities- no dryer sheets!
  
  House rules for technology: we also try our best to keep technology (cell phones/tablets) to a minimum around the kids as this can be a distraction for attention (we're always working on this!) so having mindfulness around these devices is also really appreciated.

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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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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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