"Hola!" - single meets double

Welcome back! Today we’ll be travelling to new countries, exposing our children to new cultures and helping pay the mortgage in this new abode for the mini people (a.k.a. our kids and this new over-large house of ours).

So FUN! We would let out the rooms we have in the bright and sunny basement of our new behemoth of a house to foreign students. We have friends who have done it and managed to put a dent in their financial woes. Their kids loved their new friends from abroad and the students were all pleasant meal-time conversationalists. FUN!

We interrogated our friends first to learn how to get started. They were very helpful (see “getting started” list below). There are loads of ESL schools on-line, so it was easy to figure out who to call/email or fill out the on-line form for offering our rooms….problem was we’d missed one important detail – TIMING.

As it turns out, the schools only add new people to their roster in early Spring (because the largest influx of students are over the summer months) and we’d missed the deadline. Sigh. Our first “get debt free” plan was off to a less than ideal start.

So, it took a couple of months longer than we’d hoped, but a lovely man from Mexico eventually did move in. My kids loved him on sight (big sigh of relief). When he moved in they entertained him with impromptu cooking shows and the occasional tea party and he regaled them with tales about life in Mexico.

The kids learned to tiptoe through the room situated directly over his in the early morning so he wouldn’t be disturbed and to never to go in his room. My husband and I tiptoed too and did our best to be perfect parents all the time (with 3 wee kids – easy as pie right?).

Our new friend went back to Mexico after 4 months when we'd just started seeing the rewards of this endeavor. The thought of starting the process again was daunting.
Plus, as much as we liked to have him around most of the time, it was the all-of-the time that got to my husband. Turns out, no matter how nice the person was, my chatty and super-social hubby still didn’t want to have a stranger around when he got home from a long day at work.

I think I was the most disappointed. This was a bit of a detour on our simple “get debt free” plan, but I was game to get creative… next week you can hear about my adventures in babysitting (let’s just say 3+3=a whole lotta kids)

AS PROMISED - GETTING STARTED
If you think having students might work for your family, here are the basic things you need to consider when getting started:

1. Talk through the impact this will have on each of your family members. You will need to consider how comfortable everyone is with having a female or male student (you can specify), the impact on each persons privacy (you will need to spend time each day talking with the student to help them improve their English), impact to meal planning (you can provide 2 meals a day or none, but if you don’t provide meals they need to be able to use your kitchen), impact to laundry facility access, etc.
   
2. Put together a list of ESL schools in your area or a local website where you can advertise yourself as a Homestay provider. The internet and yellow pages will have a listing
   
3. Ensure you have a clean room with a bed, storage for student clothing, lamp and desk with access to laundry and cooking facilities as well. Most schools want these to be already in place when you call as they will want to book a time to come out and inspect the premises as soon as possible.
   
4. Confirm that there is transportation available for the student to be able to get to and from school
   
5. Time your request to the ESL schools for early spring to have the best opportunity to fill your rooms in the coming months (for the schools summer is a busy time and the already existing homes aren’t enough to meet demand). If you aren’t able to meet this timeline, you may have better success with the Homestay websites where you can advertise your availability to students
   
6. Be patient. It may still take a little while for your home to be needed. The students will also come and go. The length of a students stay can be anywhere from a couple of weeks to years (very rare).