By on February 5th, 2016

Host Families with Children

When considering hosting an international student or intern, whether you have your own children can make a big difference for your decision, especially if they are younger children. It’s natural for a parent to be concerned about bringing strangers into the house with children, but the potential benefits your child can experience from being exposed to other cultures and languages are worth weighing.

Young Children

Young children, in the preschool or early elementary ages, are just starting to understand the differences between people in all ways. The differences between “family” and “stranger”, “boy” and “girl”, and different races are only just becoming clear in their minds. As they start to understand and classify, they are naturally subject to prejudices that may be subconsciously presented to them through media or cultural attitudes. By allowing them to grow close to a person of a different culture, religion, language, and race than their own, you allow them the chance to form their own opinion, and to learn that everyone is different no matter what category they belong to. Exposing young children to new languages has been shown by many studies to improve their memory, math skills, musical prowess, and their academic performance overall.

Older Children

Your tweens and teens are heading into a work force that is more diverse than it has ever been. The restrictions of the geography and social patterns that have been ingrained for decades, the schools and neighborhoods they grow up in are not always the best representation of the population they will be a part of as adults. It’s important to instill a sense of cultural acceptance while your child is still at home, before they face the rigors of the work force. Not only will hosting an international student be the perfect opportunity to teach by example, it will also provide a chance for your child to make a lifelong friend that can open their mind to new ideas and experiences. The home environment is a safe place for your child to ask questions and have their basic beliefs turned upside down as they learn to value cultural sensitivity.

Benefits to Your Host Student

Being welcomed into a home with children can help the host student or intern just as much. While all families, traditional or not, have something to share with a host student, the familiar atmosphere of parents and children may make some students feel right at home, especially if they came from large families. Children have a way of asking questions and speaking their minds unabashedly, so this is a good opportunity for your host student to speak frankly. Children are also great language-learning buddies, having infinite patience for learning games, and limited vocabularies themselves. Finally, when no reassurances that homesickness will soon pass make your student feel any better, children often have a way of distracting and comforting that may make all the difference to your host student. They’ll gain a pen pal, and the mentor/mentee relationship between your host student and your children can give the host student confidence in a situation where they are often beginners at everything.

Before applying to become a host family, sit down with your children and ask for their opinions. Explain where the host student will sleep, and how the daily routine may or may not change. If you do decide as a family to host a student or intern, try to learn a little about the student’s culture before they come so your children will already have questions and interest to share.