We have been hosting a 8-year-old "Fresh Air" child from New York City for the past week. He leaves on Monday. The Fresh Air fund is a not-for-profit agency that provides summer vacations in the country to thousands of New York City children from disadvantaged communities. We are one of many volunteer host families in 13 states and Canada.

When we met with our local representative in May she told us that there are far more Fresh Air kids than Fresh Air host families. We had arranged this initial meeting to find out more information about the program but, after learning about the gap, we signed up. (My husband was quite skeptical.)

It's been really fun showing him the area. He's petted miniature horses at a beautiful farm in Bucks County, PA, swam 7 hours at my children's birthday party, went on a picnic in the country at a lovely, old farm house, bicycled 3 miles to our favorite ice cream shop and, yesterday, took his first horseback riding lesson. He's also seen a snake, 3 frogs, thousands of upside-down hanging bats at the horse farm and spiders and bugs galore and spent a week with 4 lazy Labs at our babysitter's home.

Besides having two, high-energy boys running around the house, there have been no downsides. My kids now have the experience of living with an African-American child from the Upper Eastside and our guest will have had the experience of living with two spoiled brats from the country :-)