our first summer program: in the books!

We did it: a five-week summer program for 25-30 kids in the community. We felt pretty good completing it, I must say.

To finish strong, our last day was focused on learning currency. We reviewed Thai currency values and added up amounts in worksheets. We did math problems about spending and saving and earning. And then, each student received pretend money for their age: 10 baht for every year they were, giving them 40-140 baht to “spend” in our “market.”

Yep, we created a little market in our house.

We have had some friends move recently and give us a few items for the community: clothing, a rice cooker, a light. We also always have a few items we can give away, and we bought some things in the market they can always use: notebooks and pens for school starting next week, new clothing, a few Burmese books, laundry detergent. All the things kids like, right?

Well, they did. They loved it! Each child went home with a little set of treasures while they learned to count and spend their money. It was a pretty fun way to finish!

We then had a little ceremony, giving participation certificates to all & awards for perfect attendance.

We gave out special certificates for best English, best math, beautiful handwriting, and best singing. The kids love certificates; the whole country of Burma does, really. They were so proud to see their names written out, and we were so proud to hand out homemade certificates entirely in Burmese 🙂

As we finished everything yesterday, I took out a bag of extra printouts and notebooks we had left over and left them by the trash. We came out today to find eight kids circled around our table & porch practicing English & math, so apparently they didn’t have their fill yet.

But that’s a wrap: our first summer program successfully in the books!