For our 2nd trip there , Masha from Serbia and Maria from Latvia joined us.They were from the other projects but decided to join us because they....like many international volunteers had no work and the young project organizers were not doing much about it either.
Some activities we planned for the autistic children
We tried playing TAG with them , but they were so distracted that they ran around hitting everyone and climbing up the wooden slide.
English Lesson
For the 2nd lesson , I had an idea to buy notebooks for all 10 of the children.
On the first page of each notebook, i pasted a playing card with a photo of a tourist attraction in Singapore.The words Singapore and Сингапур were also writen on the page. I also got the Indonesian girls to help paste White Dove logos on the book .10 notebooks costed 20roubles (1SGD) in total .A useful and cheap present!The kids can write english words on these notebooks as well.
The kids were indeed really happy to receive the present and kept saying "O....Singapore!!!Singapore!!!"
That alone made my day!10 more children in Russia now know the existance of Singapore :)
During the previous lesson , the volunteers noticed one very restless boy.Vitalik.He had the best command in English and was unwilling to hang out and speak with the other kids.Before I left the last lesson, I spoke to him for a while about the various drawings on the wall left by the Australian volunteers who came last december and realized that he was actually the most promising kid out of the 10.He actually loves to learn and read [ That's the benefits of knowing a bit of Russian.]
So during this lesson , i made sure that he was in my group ,so that i can speed up his learning progress.
We taught the different colours and the phrase "I love you "
Yegor , grew quite attached to me and followed me , brushing the logs before i sat down , even giving me a chair so that i won't sit on the floor during the lessons.He won my trust over and I allowed him to play with my ipod and bob along to the tunes of his favourite russian and international songs.
Some activities we planned for the autistic children
We tried playing TAG with them , but they were so distracted that they ran around hitting everyone and climbing up the wooden slide.
Put your right hand in, put your right hand out ,put your right hand in ,and shake it all about!
Our Break at the Beach
There was a 2 hour break before our english lesson with the 10 boys.And there is a beach near the sanatorium where the kids were staying.
This naked baby kept crawling back to Shakina even after his parents carried him to another spot!
Us lazing at the beach
English Lesson
For the 2nd lesson , I had an idea to buy notebooks for all 10 of the children.
One of the project's objective was to share with students about my country and culture and I thought the best way that the kids will know the existance of a tiny country like Singapore is when they receive something that will constantly remind them about it.
The kids were indeed really happy to receive the present and kept saying "O....Singapore!!!Singapore!!!"
That alone made my day!10 more children in Russia now know the existance of Singapore :)
THe notebooks!
During the previous lesson , the volunteers noticed one very restless boy.Vitalik.He had the best command in English and was unwilling to hang out and speak with the other kids.Before I left the last lesson, I spoke to him for a while about the various drawings on the wall left by the Australian volunteers who came last december and realized that he was actually the most promising kid out of the 10.He actually loves to learn and read [ That's the benefits of knowing a bit of Russian.]
So during this lesson , i made sure that he was in my group ,so that i can speed up his learning progress.
We taught the different colours and the phrase "I love you "
Ben and Kola
Me testing each kid on the colours
My star pupils Vitalik and Yegor
This time , Vitalik got alot of attention from me , as I taught him more vocabulary.
After the lesson ended , while the kids ran off the play soccer or laze in the shade , Vitalik had the privilege of having 3 other volunteers teach him english phrases.Yegor , grew quite attached to me and followed me , brushing the logs before i sat down , even giving me a chair so that i won't sit on the floor during the lessons.He won my trust over and I allowed him to play with my ipod and bob along to the tunes of his favourite russian and international songs.
Kyril entertaining Maria from Latvia
While talking to the other volunteers , they were surprised that despite majoring in accountancy in my university , I appeared to have alot of experience teaching and educating children.
I have never given tuition to any students in my life.But had paid alot of money to receive ALOT of tuition when i was younger.But 3 months working as a counselor in a summer camp in Ohio , 6 months learning the Russian language and a huge passion for the cause did make a huge difference .It got me thinking about doing volunteer work during my annual leave from work and after retirement in the future.
Yes.Yet another satisfying day!
