Children’s day special

We know we were two days late but I wanted to celebrate and have fun with the kids and we did!
Thank you very much to Amanda didi for all the stationary which she gave us to use with the kids.
First all the kids sat in a circle and we took their attendance. I was pleased to hear, ‘yes sir, yes bhiya’. We had planned few activities like balloon races and candy races for the young ones below 5 years.
There were so many older kids that we had them in three groups junior, sub junior and senior according to their height!
 

The young kids had fun opening candy and then running to get a balloon from Shanker. Some were too young so they were enjoying blowing balloons and eating candy.
The older kids had to run around 100 meter race. The senior boys had to run to a truck and come back .We had 3 rounds which was fun when the other kids were clapping and cheering the participants. We only had one group of girls who participated in the race.
(surprise )They didn’t know that they were going to get a prize!
We distributed the prizes -1 prize was one copy and pen with 4 candies, 2nd prize was one copy and 2 candies, 3rd prize 2 pencils and 5 candies.
After this we distributed a candy to all the children, some of the elder boys helped.
Then we talked with the elder kids and thanked them for their help..

'Attendence'

We want to get to know details about the kids who we are teaching.Every time we go there we see a new face and some who we’ve seen before don’t always show up.We want to find a way to keep track of the kids.
It was amazing asking their parents name their age and if they go to school .
One of the kids said, ‘ I come to your school only’.
I felt sad hearing some of the kids didn’t have one parent (died).
Some of the parents were around and they wanted us to write their kids name first .
We didn’t have much time today so didn’t get all kids name yet .
In the end we talked with one of the parents and he told us some things which he felt were responsible for the kids not talking studies seriously ( family problem, parents can’t afford school fees, most of the time kids are playing in the fields. Kids are in lower classes according to their age, getting addicted to tobacco ). He also mentioned that some kids are very good in studies too like Vikas who is in class 4 in a government school. Before this he was in a boarding school (may be an orphanage) in Dehradun but now they have started charging money for their expenses which his parents couldn’t afford so he is back in the slums. He liked our idea of helping the kids, he wanted us to come more often.

Happy Diwali.’ D’ For Diwali

Happy Diwali.’ D’ For Diwali
Started with circle time, played fruit salad. Snjeet helped in explaining the game in the beginning.
We had separate groups for boys and girls.
I was alone with around 35 boys and Amanda didi, Deepa and Abbey were helping the girls.
We were teaching them the alphabet, letter D for Diwali. I did it my way and shouted out loud! Before this I told them how we should celebrate Diwali carefully because I  knew that last year, 3 kids died in a fire accident during the celebrations .
 The girls did phonics sound, ‘dddddddd’, for drum, it was such fun helping the kids. Deepa helped one young married girl with the same activity.
This time I got help from the young boys who had been watching us from last week. Anil is one of them. His basic education is only basic up to class 5. He works in a factory near by. He was a great help to me.
At the end of the evening, we wished them all a very happy and safe Diwali..

There are many children who do not go to school....

       Alphabet “ A for apple and shout out load with me and write it’ .This sounds like I am back in play group…
Circle time activity: action song ( thanks toVijay )it was in Hindi.
Then we handed out paper and asked them to write ‘A’ 5 times and draw an apple.
They all wrote it some wrote it properly and most of them needed help so we went around to help them. It’s not an easy task alone so Shanker and Vijay were a great help today.
Vikas’s dad came to talk about our work and was thankful to us which was  real encouragement for me. People are noticing our work in the neighbourhood.  
In the end all the kids said thanks to us.

We went to meet our brother in Christ he has asked to pray for his mother and family.
We had a short prayer time with him and some other kids also came along with me to his house.
So please keep praying for us.

Art

I am thankful to God for our blessings today as we went to visit out in the slums. After one month I took a step of faith to work with more kids. Our brother in Christ has exams going on but he was not at home.
Today we had 50-60 kids and just three of us. I was praying and hoping that every activity would go well with them.
The things I observed; Shankar and Amanda didi were there to help.

  
1. We saw only a few kids around and I was wondering if they would come or not.I went around and called Vikas,Jetender and.Permod. They called all the young kids who were inside their houses and near the field.
2. We called and went to a corner of the field to play. We held each others hands and got in a big circle.
Amanda suggested we should play duck and gooses with them. They ran around, it was fun but them I had come with an idea to play a game with the alphabet and they all enjoyed shouting .A.B.C.D.
3. Then we played a new game in which we had to tell every one our names. It kind of worked, they all said their names in a very soft voice and most of the kids were enjoying the game.
4. I don’t remember their names but slowly I will. Then we told them about ourselves. Some of the kids knew my name which was fun to know and I told them in the future we will have more fun game times.
5. Then Amanda, Shanker and I distributed the white sheets to all the kids who were sitting on the ground and we also gave them 1-2 coloured crayons and asked them to draw anything they liked. I gave examples of mango flowers and houses so most of the kids chose to draw one of them.
6. The winner of the art competition was Rajesh he is in class 6, Ranjeet class 3 and Vikas, class 4.Amanda didi gave out a pencil to each of them.

Walk around the slum date 27/10/2010

Walk around the slum
It was so nice to walk around the slum this evening. After that I went to talk with Jeetender’s dad and Shankar went to teach our brother in Christ.
The things I observed: Jeetender was not feeling good to day( he has eaten a lot of tobacco) and his dad has also got injured in an accident.
So many good houses are built around the slum.
Women were working to sort out the scrap at home.
Young kids got on my bike and were having fun, I asked them to get off it. One of the boys asked if we would please teach them too. So I asked them all to come on Thursday and they will do drawing.
They all were so happy to hear it.( please pray that it works out).
Again as it is the start of the winter season the young kids are making fire places to sit near it but I told them to put it off and if they need to sit near the fire, use wood not plastic etc.
When we left they all ran after us to say bye –bye .

Amanda didi visited.

Thank you very much for your visit Amanda didi.

It is holiday for Rajan and Sanjeet tomorrow so they have more time to prepare for their exams.

Rajans next exam is for Sanskrit so I could not help him much but I have marked some off important questions for him to study  and also for English, he has exam for it on the 26-10-2010.

Amada didi helped Sanjeet with his math work, she was real blessing for him.

The things I observed: Rajans family members were busy building or repairing the house.

Ranjans uncle explained to me how young kids are affected with uses of tabcco in the community.

Jeetnder came to see me when we were leaving and asked me when I will start teaching him too.

Please pray for us.