WWW Klong Toey

This is our first time teaching pre-school kids. We didn’t think it would be this hard and we didn’t expect it to be this fun either. We have planed our lessons quite well a few weeks before but, as it turned out, we couldn’t really do our lessons according to the plan. The kids were wild and all over the place, we all haven’t experienced that before. We had to adjust our activities according to the situation most of the time. After the first day, we stated to understand more about the kids and their ability to read and write. So on our second and third day teaching, we taught them alphabets and numbers and it worked pretty well. The kids were more calm and quiet when they sit together and work on a piece of paper whether it’s coloring or writing numbers down. There’s a huge range of skill in this class, some kids could write ABCs in about 2-3 minutes but some kids took almost 20 minutes to write them all down. Also some of them were very good with coloring and drawing more than others. We get to see them develop some talent already. We all were there to help them write, most of them still have hard times writing on their own. However they all had fun when we were around them. It’s amazing how they became so attached to us after only 3 days. They would do anything we tell them to do because they trust us. They are all very naïve; the innocence of them can always make us smile. When we spend time with these kids, it’s like we escape our stressful world and into their sincere innocent world. Just like the kids, we all had fun this week and we are looking forward to spending more time with them on the next two days.

For the Blog —— 6 C, Lom Klow School.
Tae Lyang, Sang Heun, Megumi, Isabelle

The past 3 days spent at Lom Klow School for our group was a mix of despair, hope, boredom, and fun. You may come to wonder how such irony could exist in such a short amount of time, but we tell you, it is possible here.

Despite the fact that we knew our destination was a kindergarten in an impoverished area, our first impression of the area was somewhat, far below our expectancy. It wasn’t air-conditioned, and its bathrooms seemed somewhat unclean to us. It despaired us to think about 5 days at the facility, but all those thoughts were forgotten as we interacted with the kids.

The kids are only 6 years old. Even though 3 of our members are not fluent in Thai, we all managed through by using sign languages. The list of Thai words weren’t too helpful; the kids probably didnt understand our horrible pronounciation. So, we bascially lived off the sign languages. Nevertheless, the kids were enthusiastic with us even on the first day, and they became more and more comfortable with us as days passed by. And for today, they were now actually physically interacting with us, trying to wrestle, play little games, and so on. We got so busy with our 6 year-old kids that 3 days passed by in no time.

No one, us, the kids, or even the teachers were too good at first. Of course, we were all awkward. But through the activities, such as name cards, mask-making, folding colored papers into shapes, we grew closer very quickly. We made the transition from boring to fun in just couple of days.

Past 3 days, no matter what we’ve been through was definitely a valuable time. Each of our members learned moral lessons, and the value of life we enjoy now. Not only is this a good way to remind ourselves of our luck, it is also an opportunity to interact with kids, which is probably the most enjoyable part of the trip. We’ve learnt a lot in three days, and over next two days we know that we’ll learn more through the kids.

All 3 days, coloriong was a success. Also the kids enjoied playing duck-duck-goose and other activities. Some things we would to improve in is keeping the kids on task and for them to pay attention a little more.
–Group 4B