Using Education to Broaden Horizons

School has been back in session in Honduras for about a month now.  This makes life quite a bit busier around here.  It's been fun watching our new kids head off to the village school in their little uniforms.  So far, they've done really well with their schoolwork and have made a bunch of new friends from the community. 

We're proud to say that we have our English classes up and running again this school year.  These classes will give a good head start for the kids who go on to high school.  Monica and Erin are our English teachers for the 3rd-6th graders at the school.  The teachers are enjoying the extra time with the kids in the community and the kids love practicing their English, so everybody is having a good time. 

Since school started for the older kids, we've started preschool for the three 4-year-olds living with us.  Twice a week Lilian, Carlitos, and Fernando all head up to the Library with their backpacks and notebooks to practice shapes, counting, and coloring. We spend time playing outside and reading books. This has proved to be a great way to get them excited about learning and prepared for school.  

In January we started new classes as a part of our Library Program.  The most faithful Library attendees had the choice of computer classes or music lessons for our first round of these classes.  It's been so fun to see the kids get excited about this.  

Most have never had the opportunity to learn an instrument before and they see the computer classes as a way to have a head start when they get to computers in high school.  One of the things we're really enjoying about these new classes, is that the teachers are local young people.  So not only are we furthering the education of our village kids, but we're also giving work to young people from our area. 


Now that we've finished the addition on the Library and reorganized everything, we've discovered a mountain of great resources to use with the kids.  Previously we had so many kids and supplies squished into such a small space, it was hard to get creative.  We're really enjoying having more room now and we know it's helping us improve our Library Program. 

It's been a great few months of launching new educational programs.  We see that this is such a great way to broaden the horizons of the kids in our area and we're excited to see where a love of learning will take them in life.