Measuring plants, feeding rabbits, doing puzzles

 

Today may have been our first day of school at our village of hope.  Yesterday all but 2 of our children were sent home from the community school because of conditions on their scalp, a result of poor nutrition before they came to us.  They were told not to return until it is gone.  So since we were having questions about some of things that the children were being taught, we decided that this gave us the reason for starting our own school now rather than waiting until September. 

 

Today our 3 young women who are volunteers from the states taught the older 8 children for 3 hours.  Sena and I taught the younger group.  The older group mapped out the village and talked about community, counted beans for math, and talked about the parts of a plant and then went out into the fields to measure the different kinds of plants.  Our younger group had a music class (my area of expertise), did puzzles – a first for them – for about an hour, colored a little, and ended the school day by walking ½ mile to the market to feed and observe the rabbits and the chickens.

 

We have a great place for hands on learning: animals, crops, nature to explore.  For now we are meeting in the 2 houses where the children live.  But the land has been cleared, and designs have been drawn up for our school.  We were planning on opening in September.  So our timetable has been pushed forward.  Now we will begin to identify a couple of teachers while we work to finalize the curriculum.

 

Of course the biggest need right now is for the funding to build and equip the school.  Compared to the US, the cost is not great.  We have a committee in the US that is working on curriculum, planning, materials, etc.  Until those things are finalized, we will be exploring our world, and in the process learning English, getting to know one another, and demonstrating how fun learning can be.