The Little Children

May 9, 2010

This morning was my second time helping out in the 2-4 year old Sunday School room at church. Things were a lot crazier today as there were more than 20 children of various ages and several who had no desire to sit and follow instructions or participate in the group activities. There were four children from the US who speak very little Spanish so I end up providing translation for them of the lesson (when they are listening that is). I am glad that my English does come in handy because so often I just wish that I could speak Spanish fluently, without having to think, and I forget to be grateful that I do know English very well (except when it comes to teaching the grammar rules as the youth often ask questions regarding their homework and I do not know the names of verb tenses, etc...) and Spanish fairly well.

On Wednesday of this past week, I finally had opportunity to make some finger paints to share with the two youngest boys at La Casa de Mi Padre. Ricardo loved the paints and ended up making footprints as well. He was pretty much covered in paint -- head to toe. Emanuel, on the other hand, was not so excited about the texture of the paint and after a brief encounter with it, he tried to stay out of sight in the corner so that he would not have to touch the gooey paints. When I made play dough the other month, Emanuel did not like that texture either. He is the one who is most delayed in his development and so we are looking for ways to stimulate him. Both boys loved the big pieces of white paper that I taped to the floor. They laid on them and I realized that we might have to take a pretend trip to the beach or something, using our imagination, "beach towels", and who knows what else. We will see what we come up with for this coming week.

One other event from this past week -- I was reading with a young girl named Elba who is in third grade. I found a book about "Frog and Toad" (which I remember from my childhood) in Spanish. As we were reading the short stories and then discussing them to see if she was comprehending what we read, I discovered that the characters can teach some good life lessons about perseverence, fear, failure, etc... With Elba's younger sister, I am hoping that the story about "The Little Engine That Could" will give her a little encouragement to keep moving forward even when things get tough and not to give up so quickly. I love to read and so it is fun to share a bit of that love with the children.