Homestay Program

 Living with a Host Family

The Study Manitoba Homestay focuses on the homestay experience. There is no better way to learn or improve your knowledge about a culture and a language than to live with a family and experience every day life first hand. By living with a family, you are given the opportunity to share in meals, conversation, and daily activities. You will have your own bedroom and full board (3 meals a day). Host families are motivated by the idea of making cross–cultural friendships. They do not see themselves as a hotel. Families want to get to know you as a person and hope to continue the friendship after the homestay.

Homestay Fee: (Room and Food) $600.00 per month

Locations

International students are placed in safe rural communities all around South-Western Manitoba. It is important to be flexible about which town you’re placed in since we are unable to take your location preferences into account. Our priority is to identify a host family and community that is the best match for you. 

Accommodation and Meals

Students accepted to Study Manitoba School Divisions have profound opportunities for cultural immersion by living with a well-screened host family while attending a local high school in Canada. For decades, the cross-cultural homestay has been considered the best educational vehicle for the development of real international understanding.

Each host family agrees to provide its international "son or daughter" with meals and his or her own bedroom. Every family is different.   You may have younger, older or no host siblings. 

Host families do not want or expect a "boarder," but rather a new friend and family member. You may find your host parents in Manitoba quite protective, but as long as you stay within family rules, your host parents will be flexible. Most parents work outside of the home; expect a busy, lively household where mealtime is the chance to catch up with everyone’s daily activities. 

Independent Travel and Visits from Family 

Family members or friends are welcome to visit the student in Manitoba once their program with Study Manitoba School Divisions is complete. 

Visiting home or receiving visits from home during the course of a progress like this is extremely disruptive to the program of the student. Such visits very often cause the student to feel homesickness afterward, which means going through the challenging adjustment period experienced at the beginning of the program again after the visit. These reactions to visits are hard on both exchange students and host families. Because we truly wish for all of our students and host families to have positive experiences, we seek to minimize activities that threaten to detract from the positive experience meant to take place between exchange students and host families such as visits to or from home. 

As such, receiving visits from friends or family during your program is not permitted.

Traveling independently outside the host community is not allowed unless it is with an adult chaperone and is approved by the host family, natural parents of the student, partner organization and Study Manitoba School Divisions. Exploring your local host community after class or on the weekends with friends or your host family is encouraged, as it is a great way to soak in Manitoban culture. Your host family is a great resource to find out about any interesting events going on in the town. We only ask that students find a balance between spending time with new friends and with their host family.