Aldea Infantil: July 21 update from Megan

By Megan McKnight, an intern at La Aldea Infantil.

July 21

Another great week at the Aldea. An experience I really enjoyed this week was during an activity with the group of 12 year old boys. We did a lesson about keeping our communities clean. It was fun to see all the boys different opinions and the things they talked about on how they could keep the Aldea cleaner. It was interesting to see how the conversation turned to keeping Peru clean and then we started talking about Peru's History. Jose Antonio is one of the boys who knew so much about his history. He knew the name of every person involved and all the dates. He is so knowledgeable about his countries history! It was so cool to see. All the boys were so interested and it was exciting to see how much pride these boys had in their country and how knowledgeable they were.

Aldea Infantil: Numbers

By Megan McKnight, an intern at La Aldea Infantil:

July 14
The last two weeks we have been focusing on NUMBERS.  As I talked about in a previous post, I noticed a real need for the preschool age kids to recognize numbers when I was playing shoots and ladders with Alex. We continued to notice this need across the board with all the kids, so we decided to implicate a new number learning system. We have the preschool age kids everyday for an hour after lunch and introduced our new plan.  The first day was a basic introduction and a day to get a general feel for what level the kids were at. The kids were at pretty different levels, so we decided that each one of the five volunteers could take a group.  The next day we started with the number one. We cut out large number ones for the kids to color, talked about the number, and talked about shapes it reminded them of.  We came up with object it ultimately reminded them of and used this as our memory trigger. For example, the number 1 is a palito (stick), 2 is a patito (duck), and 3 is a mariposa (butterfly). We then split up into our smaller group and practiced recognizing the number we learned for the day in a group of larger number.  We did this by using flash cards or for the more active learners, giant numbers they had to run to.  This has happened everyday for the last two weeks either learning a new number, or lots of days reviewing and practicing the numbers we have already learned. It’s so exciting to see the kids mastering the number and placing a sticker on the chart we made to track their progress.  

Aldea Infantil: Banana bread

By Megan McKnight
June 23
This week we focused on learning a new skill that we hope will come in handy in the future! We worked on baking with each group and each group made some of the best banana bread I've ever had.  Every person was in charge of a specific task and it turned out wonderfully.  We stressed the importance of keeping things clean and sanitary and the importance of washing hands before and during the baking.  The kids absolutely loved baking and were so excited with their final project.  

One kid in particular was special to see.  Miguel has a hard time walking, so it makes it hard for him to participate in a lot of the things the kids like to do, such as sports and dancing.  But Miguel excelled at baking! He was great at helping the other kids with measuring and mixing and it was easy to see how much he enjoyed himself and how comfortable he felt.  

Learning about all the kids and their talents and things they enjoy is so fun.  I love getting to know each child and what makes them special.  I have already met some of the coolest people and I can't wait to get to know more!   

Aldea Infantil: Shoots and ladders

A June 9 post from Megan, an intern at Aldea Infantil:

This week was by far one of the best I have ever experienced in my life.  A particular experience that stood out to me was working with my cute friend Alex.  Alex is four years old and loves to come over and play shoots and ladders.  (It really should only be called Ladders when we play because shoots aren't an option for him.)  While we were playing I noticed that Alex was a really good counter, but didn't actually recognize the number symbols. He was clearly a very intelligent kid so I knew that this would be something he could learn quickly.  I made some flashcards for him the next day and he was pretty excited to work on them.  It was a bit of a struggle because he would try and memorize the order and just guess, but with lots of shuffling we finally got them and we were both super excited.  I'm excited to work with the other kids his name and experience the same thing.  I'm working on a lot of fun games to play with the other 6 four year olds.