Friday, May 29, 2009

Hoppy Palace #5 - Teaching Babies to Read


For the past few weeks I've been teaching hour long phonics lessons to 4 and 5 year olds at the Hoppy Palace Reading Centre. This is a picture of a friend's child, not one of my students, but she is exactly the age & vitality of the children I've been dealing with these past few weeks. And I've actually been enjoying it!

Isn't she beautiful? They all are!

Right now though, my stomach is churning because in a few short hours I will have the first of the Baby Phonics "trial" classes... one group of two year olds and a second group of one year olds, all coming with either a parent or a "helper" for a full HOUR of English phonics & reading lessons.

Much to the consternation of my family members, I have been practicing today's key songs all morning, including one of my personal favorites, "Elephants have Wrinkles".

The center piece of the class is flashing word and picture cards in front of the children, while making siren noises. I am just grateful that video recordings are strictly "verboten", so none of you will ever get to see me doing that.

I have been inquiring of the Lord just what "the Plan" is, having me, with all my experience in Sunday School, Confirmation, and Adult Education, involved in this kind of teaching, which I actually know very little about. Maybe there will be some doors opening for sharing something of God's love for these children & their parents, their domestic helpers (aka maids & servants)who often are the ones bringing these wealthier children to class, or maybe I can be a grace in the lives of my co-workers or even my boss here at the Hoppy Palace.

But right now there aren't just butterflies to contend with -- it feels like caterpillars are having field competitions in my stomach!

As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
-- Psalm 123:2
Kyrie eleison!

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