The Moloney Family

We are a family of 4. My husband Kieran, myself and our two kids Holly 7 and Abbie 4. We began hosting last year and have had a long term student who attended Scol Pol Secondary School in Kilfinane and we also hosted a short term student who came on work experience and worked with my husband doing farm work. We really enjoy hosting and we love to give the students an experience they will always remember. We took our summer student away with us in our camper van and showed him some of the beautiful sites our country has to show and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We live on the outskirts of a town called Kilmallock which is approximately 35-40 drive from Limerick City. We are walking distance from local bus stops etc which allowes our students to travel with friends on the weekends etc. The bus run for Scol Pol passes our door each morning and evening which is very convenient for students. There are a number of families locally which host exchange students. Both my sisters host students so we arrange weekend days out where they will all get together and go horse riding, mountain walking, hill climbing etc. Our only rule is that all students speak English only as this is the reason why they are here so no exceptions except of course for when they are contacting home. Ideally our students would be school going either transition year, 5th year or 6th year. As a family we enjoy going walking up the ballyhoura mountains at the weekends. There are some lovely routes which the kids are well able for and we all go. We also take holly horse riding at the weekend. We enjoy going out for a meal or ordering in a take away at the weekend and watching a movie together. During the week while the kids are in school we do not do a whole lot as by the time they are home from school and have homework done and then dinner there is not much time to do anything else so we make the most of our weekends. However, my husband enjoys all sorts of sports which include mountain cycling up the ballyhouras, hunting, fishing etc