Dear parents,
Namaste.
Yet another fabulous day up in the Himalayas, if you haven't made it up here do think about coming; the scenery is amazing and the hospitality here at The Farmhouse is brilliant.
So today we awoke to a temperature of 5 degrees; being seasoned veterans the children arrived up in the restaurant dressed to impress in woollen hats and gloves bought from the lady on site who knits lovely things. The breakfasts are fabulous, our children are tending to favour the pancakes washed down by gallons of masala chai.
We walked to the school arriving about 10 o clock and the kids were waiting for us, even the little ones who desperately wanted the play doh again. We asked them to make spots for ladybirds so they could practise their numbers and also to make numbers out of play doh; they all learned something new, it was evident that the rote learning taught them their numbers but they had no idea what 5 actually meant.
With our older children we demonstrated how the teachers could use dominoes to practise addition, connect 4 to practise times tables facts, number bonds with multiples of ten and five (finding partners who had the matching pair) and using number cards so children could show answers to addition sums. Again the staff were incredibly grateful and inspired to adapt their teaching methods.
To give you a little background, teachers in Nepal don't receive any training and those paid by the government don't always turn up for work. Two of the teachers at Sanjeevani Primary School are sponsored by a company in Singapore; they are keen to innovate practise but it is only their salaries that are paid ($35 USD per month) there is no funding for resources, not even basics such as pencils or paper. Incidentally, the government paid staff receive $200USD per month. Everything that we are doing here is new to the children and the teachers; you cannot underestimate the impact your children are making- the challenge is for us to find a way to sustain the training and resourcing for the school.
Tomorrow will be an art based day, Mr Mulford and I will chat about that over our fortieth cup of masala chai.
I will send a few photos later this evening.
Have a good evening.
Bidai.
Maxine and Nat.
Namaste.
Yet another fabulous day up in the Himalayas, if you haven't made it up here do think about coming; the scenery is amazing and the hospitality here at The Farmhouse is brilliant.
So today we awoke to a temperature of 5 degrees; being seasoned veterans the children arrived up in the restaurant dressed to impress in woollen hats and gloves bought from the lady on site who knits lovely things. The breakfasts are fabulous, our children are tending to favour the pancakes washed down by gallons of masala chai.
We walked to the school arriving about 10 o clock and the kids were waiting for us, even the little ones who desperately wanted the play doh again. We asked them to make spots for ladybirds so they could practise their numbers and also to make numbers out of play doh; they all learned something new, it was evident that the rote learning taught them their numbers but they had no idea what 5 actually meant.
With our older children we demonstrated how the teachers could use dominoes to practise addition, connect 4 to practise times tables facts, number bonds with multiples of ten and five (finding partners who had the matching pair) and using number cards so children could show answers to addition sums. Again the staff were incredibly grateful and inspired to adapt their teaching methods.
To give you a little background, teachers in Nepal don't receive any training and those paid by the government don't always turn up for work. Two of the teachers at Sanjeevani Primary School are sponsored by a company in Singapore; they are keen to innovate practise but it is only their salaries that are paid ($35 USD per month) there is no funding for resources, not even basics such as pencils or paper. Incidentally, the government paid staff receive $200USD per month. Everything that we are doing here is new to the children and the teachers; you cannot underestimate the impact your children are making- the challenge is for us to find a way to sustain the training and resourcing for the school.
Tomorrow will be an art based day, Mr Mulford and I will chat about that over our fortieth cup of masala chai.
I will send a few photos later this evening.
Have a good evening.
Bidai.
Maxine and Nat.
Jack in the school teaching numbers.
Obviously someone else was also taking a picture since no one is looking this way.
Jack again rocking the Eagles sweatshirt. I did send him with 3 other sweatshirts. I wonder if we will see them in any pics along the way. 😜
Cheers from the other side
In the school grounds playing a game.
This is Jacks best bud Tyler.
I really need to work on Jacks picture taking skills. Lol
A nice warm fire at night. The Farmhouse has no heat or air and only certain hours of electricity. Lots of cards and book reading. No technology at all hope Jack hasn't gone into withdrawal. Lol
Jack hanging with the group at night.
😘 M
*** Congratulations to my cousins new baby boy. May the next several months go smoothly and he grow big and strong and is able to come home to his brothers and sister.
No comments:
Post a Comment