We’re already a week into the chaos of Summer Program 2018!
For about eight weeks through the summer, we have “hired” four teenage students–two are The Reinforcers, one works at our house regularly, and the other is Mwei Mwei’s sister & Thida’s daughter. In short, they are our sisters & brothers! We are quite close to them and have known them all since they were 8 or 9.
We’ve asked them to come on Mondays & Wednesdays from 8-12 to be teachers for the kids. This allows us to simply coordinate–a big enough task!–and equips them to be learning and helping provide for their families over the summer.
The week before, we met together with the teachers to prep all the materials. They were able to help us translate some of the lessons I’d put together and prepare some lessons themselves. Stephen has also already taught the two guys to type in Burmese, so they were typing up documents for us! It was fun to work with them, even amidst the chaos and lack of sleep. (Hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have scheduled the Summer Program to start the same week as Easter, OneHouse, and Flour & Flowers + Cinnamon Rolls; and the same week we started the M-Fund insurance program. Whoops!)
They are teaching Burmese reading and writing, English writing and speaking, math, geography, and science. We have about forty kids enrolled, from ages 5 to 14; and they are at all levels of reading and writing.
So far, it’s going swimmingly! Each subject has different levels. For Burmese, the lowest level is learning to write their consonants; the second level is learning vowels and tones. The middle level can read simple Burmese, so they are reading stories in The Storybook Bible in Burmese (which is in colloquial Burmese) and then answering questions. And the final level is reading Wikipedia articles (which Wikipedia translates into Burmese, but literary style) about famous people: Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Galileo Galilei, Nelson Mandela, and more. I am so excited about all of these.
For English, we have some writing the alphabet, others learning basic words; the older groups are using lessons from an ESL program. Math is divided into eight groups at all different levels, mostly done through self-study. The teachers are there to help explain new concepts one-on-one.
After these three subjects, the kids that aren’t literate get to go home. The older kids stay for two classes of Geography & Science. In Geography, they are learning continents and oceans, plus thirteen specific countries (which the boys picked, so mostly those famous for soccer!). In those countries they learn the flag, the capital city, the population, the languages they speak, and few interesting facts. In science they are learning the basics of the solar system and planets.
Overall, I feel like the kids are learning so much. After the classes, every student gets a piece of fruit on their way home, and the teachers have lunch with Stephen, Thida & I.
Every child enrolled–and all the kids in the neighborhood under 5–are getting free breakfast for the summer. This includes malnourished & nourished kids! We are doing this through the summer. For next school year, The Breakfast Club will be free for malnourished kids, but available to purchase for healthy kids (as we have more that have passed into nourishment!). We’ll offer a well-balanced meal with unlimited refills for 15 cents per person per day; or 9 cents per day if pre-paid for the week. We’re trying to promote health, planning ahead and savings all in one 😃
In addition to the two days of classes, on Tuesday & Thursday we have Playhouse. We have made in the morning for these summer days, when it is cooler. Honestly, we also hope to wear them out with safe activities before they come up with other ideas, too!
We have some friends who come to join for street football and crafts.
They brought chalk this week for the street, and it officially felt like summer! Sidewalk chalk & hopscotch? We’ve arrived.
This is all a bit of a switch up to our schedule, and our house got even crazier (somehow!). But, we love that the kids are learning and utilizing their summer months. We are also glad that they are at least getting a meal a day, snacks, structure and stability. We hope it goes a long way for all of them, but we know it does for some families in particular.