Originally Posted by tdgiffin
We have a sisteen year-old student from Germany that will be coming here to live with us on Saturday. His name is Johannes, and he seems very nice. I would love to hear your stories if your family has done this. We have never done anything likie this before so we are very excited, and in my case, a little apprehensive! :-)
We have had 4 exchange students live with us: 1 from Brazil and 3 from Germany. We enjoyed all of them, but the kids from Germany seemed to fit in better. I guess my biggest piece of advice is this: As hard as it is, do not treat them like company, especially if you have children of your own at home. If your children have chores, make sure that Johannes has chores. The one thing my daughter was a bit angry about with our first student was that we let him get away with more things without the same punishment that she would have received. I "justified" it because he didn't grow up with our rules so he needed time to learn our rules. That's OK a couple of times, but don't let it continue. Best thing you can do is encourage them to get involved in clubs or sports at school. It's a lot of work, but soooo worth it. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
Marlys