Semillas de Amor: Battle of the Sexes

Update on what is happening at Semillas de Amor from Sheena: 

This week was a battle of the sexes at the foundation! Girls in one group and boys in another, the children quizzed each other on the numbers in English from one to ten. On the boy's side Wilson (10), pictured above, led the review. Each side worked hard with the hope of crushing the other team in a number game. In the end the girls took the win, much to the dismay of the boys.

This week also marked the beginning of our jewelry project here at Seeds of Love. The mothers of the children at the foundation are learning how to make bracelets and necklaces. With limited funds the few women who run the foundation are regularly forced to use their own money to keep things going. Though it is inspiring to see so much generosity coming from families that have very little themselves, it is also troublesome to see them under such financial burden. To help these families and to support the construction of the foundation the jewelry made by the mothers will be available for purchase in December. Just in time for Christmas!

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Semillas de Amor: Construction in Progress!

Update from Sheena at Semillas de Amor:

Good news! Construction has begun on a permanent structure to house the foundation Seeds of Love! Without a permanent structure, children are crammed into the limited patio space afforded them by a friend of the foundation. This is only made more inconvenient by the rain, which falls incessantly during these Winter months. However with a respite in the rain our dedicated handymen have begun preparing the space for construction!

In more good news, the children of the foundation this week learned the alphabet in English. Leadership was practiced by older children as they guided others through pronunciation of each letter. The children then faced a group challenge of tapping the right letter in an alphabet game and team “Hot Dogs” beat team “Hamburgers” five to two!

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Semillas de Amor: The English Race

The following is from Sheena, an intern at Semillas de Amor:

The boys have invaded the English class, and so has grammar! This week the students started working on sentence construction. In pairs they raced to put the words in order to form phrases. I was incredibly proud to see my more experienced students helping newer students. During the last class Silfredo (8), pictured above with arms waving high, was having a lot of trouble putting the sentences in order. This class, with a little repetition and guidance from the others, he was able to not only put the sentence in order, but also give his brother Cristian (15), to the right of Silfredo, a run for his money during the racing game. He's become a lot more confident in the process and when I see him outside of class he's always ready to ask, "What is your name?"

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Semillas de Amor: Dreams and English

Entry by Sheena, an intern at Semillas de Amor: 

Many of the local girls here in Turbaco, Colombia have great aspirations to be chefs of international cuisine, doctors, and everything inbetween. Wendy (17), second from left, wants to be a nurse and Yuriko (10), third from left, wants to be a doctor. English is emphasized in school and at the local public university in Cartagena. In order to graduate from the university they have to pass a rigorous English test. Desipte this, many of the girls have a hard time with pronunciation and speaking and many do not know the alphabet from memory. We´re practicing as a group and the girls are already showing great progress.

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Iltaqui: Spotlight on Andres

Claryssa, an intern at Iltaqui, gives us a spotlight on Andres:

The classes are going great! The students can now have a basic conversation in English including phrases like "My name is", "I am from", "I am _ years old". They are catching on quickly and love to practice with their partners.

Luis Andres Panama is pictured above. Andres is an AMAZING student who loves learning English! He is very bright and continues to surprise me every day. Andres is 11 years old and has a twin brother whose name is Luis Angel and a younger brother whose name is Abelardo. The three of them have not missed a day of classes! Andres comes to class everyday with a smile and full of enthusiasm. He has an excellent memory and can recall almost every vocabulary word the students have learned without looking at his notes. I can't say enough about Andres. Not only is he an excellent student but also an amazing soccer player and artist. If he were given the opportunity to continue studying English, I am positive that he would master the language in no time at all!

How to help a child like Andres.

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Kristelle is an English-learning Machine! (Kathryn)

Kristelle is on the right, her friend Alondra on the left

February 20 post from Kathryn:

Kristelle, 10 years old, is a beautiful, bright young girl with a strong desire to learn. She is constantly practicing her English and asking me how to say certain words. Her improvement is surpassing the other children, obviously due to her determination to studying the language. She is always quick to help the younger kids in their learning. During this past week, after dinner, Kristelle and I would round up some other kids and play a few games of Uno before bedtime. While playing, she not only helped me work on my pronunciations, but continued to keep a conversation going with me even though I am not the best at Spanish. She is patient and kind and loves a good joke. I have no doubt that she will be one of the better speaking students by the time I leave.

what animal would you like to be? (Brian at Aldea)

Tuesday afternoon was English class which was kind of hectic. I had the translations for the questions that had been made the previous day and asked everyone to pick one question they wanted to learn.

I ended up getting sidetracked with the question, “What animal would you like to be?” and teaching the game King of the Jungle to everyone. We played the game with some really shy kids who wouldn’t participate ‘til peer pressured to do so.

After that we had Art with all the little kids ages 8 and up. A few of the kids from English class stayed to help with Art and I rewarded them with candy for doing so. I ended up drawing for a few of the kids. One picture was a Superman drawing and the other a Spiderman drawing. They loved it and everyone wanted one, which makes me think. These kids would LOVE coloring books! For now though, why not find some drawings online and print them out? I downloaded some drawings and hope they’ll suffice for art this week! Art is so fun! Everyone wants to draw and play and colors get all over the place! It’s a good thing they’re washable.