I just love kids!

This morning started out as usual. It’s nice to be really into a routine now. Up, shower, breakfast and read a little bit before tutoring. Sam was the only one at first, so we worked on some worksheets together. He is a very smart boy! He told me Raphel wasn’t coming today so I thought the one on one tutoring would be a nice treat for him. But about 20 minutes later Raphel did come. He is so cute! He is a shy but smart little boy and very eager to learn. So he did a little bit of catching up on the worksheets but then we just ended up merging together ‘til the end. We did flashcards for a while and sang a new alphabet song that I found on YouTube which they love and then did a bit of math. They seemed a lot more talkative today and there were more giggles than usual, which was fun.

In English we had our final spelling quiz for the week and then continued with the household chores worksheets. There was a page with pictures of different chores and part of a daily routine like: take a shower, make the bed, eat breakfast, send my children to school, set the table etc. They looked at the pictures and we came up with the short descriptive sentence about it. I also found a PowerPoint online that we did the same thing for. Then we took a little diversion because I brought my computer with me and wanted to show them pictures of their children I had taken and also the video I took of their kids dancing at preschool. Oh my goodness did they love this! They were laughing just as hard if not harder watching their children dance. After this little intermission for fun stuff I showed them a PowerPoint I made about my daily routine. I had one slide per thing, with a picture. So the first slide said “I wake up at 7:00am” and had a picture of someone waking up. I had about 10 slides with different things I do all day. They read them to me in English. Then I wanted them to write down their routine. At first I thought they’d just write sentences like I did, but then I decided this could be a good way to get them speaking, so we ditched the writing and I just went down the row having a little conversation with each of them, asking them about what time they do things, what they make for lunch and supper, what they do when their kids are at school etc. It was repetitive because most of the ladies have similar schedules but it was good for them to hear things repeated over and over again. It was also good practice for English speaking, which they said they wanted to do more of. Overall, today’s lesson seemed pretty laid back and fun. I also gave them no homework for tomorrow which they were very happy about. J

For lunch, Anne came over with grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato and onions in them. So, so good and such perfect timing because we are out of peanut butter. It is just ridiculous the amount of peanut butter we eat. I always thought I was a peanut butter fan, and had never really met someone (other than Dave) who eats it way more than I do until Erika. She is a crazy peanut butter fan!! We have been here almost 4 weeks and have gone through at least 1 if not 2 big jars of peanut butter a week. We eat it in our oatmeal (which is a new thing Erika’s got me hooked on). For breakfast I cook up a bowl of oatmeal and put a couple spoonful’s of peanut butter and a drizzle of honey in it. It’s so good! Then for lunch we usually always have a PB&J because it’s easier than always buying meat and cheese and other sandwich fixings. PB is also sometimes an afternoon snack spread on a cracker or two. So now you see why the avocado sandwiches and now the cheese and onion sandwiches are such a refreshing change. J Tomorrow when we head into town for visas we’ll ask to get dropped off at the mall so we can stock up on some groceries so we have food when we get back from our holiday.

Preschool went really well today. It’s the best I think it’s gone for us. We were by ourselves today, Charity and Bridgette didn’t come. The kids were mellow and cute and the time went by quickly. It was just a good day. We were all together in the beginning and then we split into groups and I took the young little munchkins. We did the letter “b” today, but it was mainly just free coloring and drawing and singing songs J. It's so easy entertaining the little kids. All I have to do is sing the alphabet in a weird voice and they giggle like crazy. They make me laugh too. Corn, who always only speaks to me in Chichewa, would randomly burst out "yelling" at the other kids "SPEAK IN ENGLISH!" Ironic? Yes. We finished together with some more songs and then went outside for more songs and games. It’s amazing how well they know all the songs I’ve taught them. It’s only been a couple weeks and they already know them. Their favorite is Ram Sam Sam. It’s so cute hearing them sing this song because it’s all gibberish words, so we finally are speaking the same language.

Usually we’re supposed to have a half hour break between preschool and tutoring but my girls have a habit of showing up early. Today they came right at 3:00, and preschool doesn’t get done ‘til 3:00. So no rest for me. I worked on more sight words and letters with Chipo and Mwandida. I actually didn’t mind too much that they came early because then I can let them go early and I’m done with my day.

Today was such a good day overall with everything I taught. I love days like this, where I feel like my kids, ladies and I are actually making some progress. It’s been chilly and cloudy again most of the day but right when my last tutoring group left the sun came out. So it’s a good way to end the day.

From 5-6pm I didn’t feel like doing any work so I went wandered the seminary grounds looking for children to play with. I didn’t have to travel far before I found Paul, Brian and Steward playing hide and seek/tag. So I joined in and we played for a while. Before too long I had a whole bunch of kids following me. We walked into the woods to go “monkey hunting”. We didn’t find any, but we did find a lost shoe and a broken mug. We also played fish and crocodile in the empty ditch that runs through the woods and then when Erika joined us we played hide and seek. I love seeing how comfortable the kids are with me now. They are always so eager to play with us. They chatter away to me in Chichewa thinking I fully understand what they're saying--it's so cute. When Brian fell down and got hurt I picked him up and cuddled him and his tears stopped. Kids are kids no matter where you are. Play with them and love them and they will love you! Such a fun way to spend the afternoon!! These kids have won a huge place in my heart, I love them all so much!

Supper was delicious pasta with chicken and cooked cabbage and eggplant. We ate and watched our usual episode outside since it was such a lovely evening. After supper I chatted a bit with my mom online and I should have done planning for tomorrow but I wasn’t feeling very motivated. Instead we started looking up stuff for our stop in London on the way back. Not sure what my lessons will have in store for me tomorrow. I hope it ends on a good note for the week. J I’m thinking we’ll touch on past tense verbs and do some more reviewing with the ladies and with my tutoring group we’ll do some more worksheets and maybe have a fun little game of Banangrams or something.