A Community Work Update

We are still busy working with the kids in our village of Urraco and we wanted to share some new photos with you.

Since February we have been teaching English classes again in our village school.  The older kids (4th-6th grades) seemed to retain quite a bit from their English classes last year and are starting to make real progress with basic vocabulary. 

A new project that we've just begun is teaching the kids how to use computers.  This, along with English, will really give these kids a step up in the future. 

Some of the younger ones (1st-3rd grade) still don't know how to write their own names yet, so they're a little behind on the learning curve, but on their way.

So far Jason has taught some of the computer basics to the older elementary grades at school and then invited them to come for a special training session at our library.  We had the computer teacher from Instituto El Rey, Dennis, come and teach the kids.  Dennis is from Urraco, so it was really neat for him to be able to help the kids growing up behind him.  We had about 30 kids and a few adults show up to learn, starting from the very beginning with how to move a mouse. 

In the next few weeks we'll start training the kids how to use the computers to play educational games during library time.  We think that computer time might be a reward for the kids as they their write mini-book-reports. 

Our library attendance has been booming since the playground opened.  We are now averaging about 30 kids on library days.  They come about an hour early to go swimming in our creek and to play on the playground.  Then we bring everyone inside for reading time, puzzles, and arts and crafts, before releasing them to the playground again at the end of the afternoon.  The crowd of kids then walk home together before it gets dark. 

It's been a really neat time to get know the kids better.  At the village school when we're with the 80+ kids they're no longer a crowd of unknown faces, but we now know their families, their stories, and almost  all their names!