Joining Hands Nepal
A Family Orphan HomeArchive for English
James the German
Quite a funny story came our way today from the children about some humorous happenings at school. Apparently, James, one of our youngest, enjoys very much to speak what little English he knows all the time around school to everyone, including teachers and older children. Now you should know, James is 6 years old and is in class LKG (the classes here go Nursery, LKG, UKG, then 1st grade), so no other child in his class speaks much English except to repeat the teacher, but here is James going around speaking English everywhere. Well, it so happens that the teacher of younger classes usually are the weakest in English, because it is not required of them to speak much English. That is how it came to be that James’ own teacher approached one of our older children and asked if James grew up in a foreign country somewhere because he speaks English so much. Can I stress again that James is 6 years old and in the second lowest class in the Nepali education system? And that he spoke basically no English before coming to stay with us? Well, needless to say, James has become class leader and is scheduled to sing an English song at the upcoming school performance for the big festival Dashain. And one last bit of humor from this whole story: after James heard that his teacher asked his brother if he grew up in a foreign country, if you ask James where he is from, he will happily reply “I am from Germany”.
Name Art
Today marked the start of our new daily schedule for the children here at the orphanage. For our first recreational class in the morning we taught the children had to make nameplates to display during rec class and English class when the volunteers arrives. Over the weekend they all received new English names after many days of requesting to us, and they are now thrilled by the novelty of having their own English names. For the nameplates, each child wrote their English name on one side, and their Nepali name on the other, making it much easier for volunteers to learn both names. The children had a blast drawing and coloring in their name art, and the creativity was astounding for children who have never been given the freedom to use their imagination to create something new out of their own mind. It was a proud and happy day for us at Joining Hands Family Home today.
Easy as ABC
We had some lovely foreign guests not too long ago from Germany visit our home and practice yoga with us. The children had not yet arrived, but our new friends were kind enough to donate story books and writing practice books for children they would not meet. Among those generously provided materials were small books for practicing writing the English alphabet. Each page has a letter and a word the letter stands for, along with a picture, such as A for Apple or U for Umbrella. There are a few example letters made of dotted lines to trace, and then plenty of space to practice writing the letter on your own. Each of our youngest children got one of these practice books, and with so much enthusiasm were the books received that they spent all of their free time last night and this morning writing their ABCs, and by afternoon the books will be completely filled out. These children who have so often been afforded little to nothing in the way of books and toys also received activity books with games and puzzles, story books, and small stuffed animals, but they chose to spend nearly all their time practicing the alphabet and trying to complete the whole book. As we are learning now, when children have nothing, they are eager for any opportunity to learn, and we are eager to teach them and show them we care.
Joining Hands Nepal 