The Center

Yesterday I went to the center for after school program. I work with the kinder kids, 2 to 5 year olds. I help teach with Joana, a girl my age who´s attending college for her degree in early childhood education. I love teaching with her because she´s a native Bolivian, so her Spanish is perfect and she´s amazing with the kids. She has really creative ideas for teaching and preparing them for life.
Because most of these kids come from less than supportive homes, our lessons include basic living standards along with educational and Biblical teachings. We´re going through the colors, numbers 1-10, songs, and prayer. These first few weeks, we are focusing on dental hygiene. We taught them how to brush using a giant toothbrush and a picture of Garfield cheesing: ¡arriba, abajo, izquierda, derecha! Up, down, left, right! Now, when they arrive at the center each day, we take them to the sink and brush each of their teeth. It´s so fun to see their reaction to our command, ¡muestreme tus dientes! Show me your teeth! Smile! They love to show off their work.
Also, I made name plates and pictures of animals for each student to put on the wall. It is to help them recognize their names and for collecting themed stickers for when they master a task. Yesterday, Esther went absolutely nuts when she realized she had the little dog, un perrito. She was showing everyone and was so proud of her perrito. ¡Es mio! Then, after we learned the color yellow, we blew up balloons (globos) and played with those for about 20 minutes. Miguel was doing headers with me :) We have snack, refrijerio, each day at the end of our session. We have to encourage them to finish their drink and snack, especially since some of the kids don´t eat every day.
The center is a very difficult place to work because of the inconsistency of home life and attendance to the center, but it is so encouraging to see the kids answer questions correctly, share, find the right puzzle piece, volunteer to pray, and actually finish their refrijerio. As we lead the kinder kids every day before prayer, ¨¡Manitos, manitos! Juntos. Oremos.¨ We show and wave our hands, put them together, and pray.
If you´d like to pray for my class, here they are: Samuel, Dennis, Miguel, Esther, Dana, Katie, Cristian, Angel, Nicol, Yuri, Sheila, and Carlos.