Homesick exchange student - any ideas how to help

[Patch66]

We have an exchange student with us for just under a week. Poor girl is only 12 and is homesick.

She's rung home twice and we got together with a friend and her exchange student this afternoon but still seems unhappy.

Any ideas on what might cheer her up?

[roisin]

I think encouraging her not to phone home would be a good idea, especially not late in the evenings when she's tired.

What is the schedule for the week? I would suggest lots of activities, plenty of fresh air, so that she gets tired and is more likely to sleep.

When did she arrive? When will she go home?

[Milliways]

We went through all our DVDs looking for ones with French subtitles, then let the student choose one and we all enjoyed a film that night.

Doing something silly broke the ice as our student was VERY shy. We played Rockband on the PS3, it was hysterical and really got her laughing as well.

I must admit though, EVERY night she was on the laptop on facebook, MSN etc chatting with her family! Kept her happy though

[Patch66]

Thanks for your thoughts. She's with us until Thursday afternoon. There are activities planned Monday onwards but it is up to us to entertain her over the weekend.

My dd has already checked out most of her dvds - I think I need to look through all of ours as well.

Just had a great plan to go to local entertainment centre for a couple of hours but its closed for a private function.

[brimfull]

god they're alwys miserable ime

give her chocolate and a french dvd-that's all they want

am assuming she's french

[southeastastra]

my german penpal cheered up after we let her watch poltergeist

[southeastastra]

maybe let her watch something in her language on youtube?