“I Want To Be the Strongest”

The photo on this post is badly lit, mis-composed, and has no technical merit whatsoever. But of all the images I’ve taken in the past 12 months: from Russia, Turkey, Paris, Provence, this one, from beautiful downtown Whampoa, is the one I’m proudest of.

The “study” theme at the Family Service Centre last Saturday was the Olympics. I brought in an Olympic torch from the office (yes, the real McCoy. Lenovo designed the Torch at the Beijing Olympics after all), had them play some Olympics-themed word games, got a TINY bit of reading done, and then the kids had a choice of making a torch, complete with paper napkin flames, Olympic Medal, or the Olympic flag.

It was a bit of pandemonium

More on Whampao: froma fellow volunteer

It's been nearly a year since I've started working with the kids at Whampao, and every Saturday, the place runs thanks to some very very dedicated volunteers.

Here's a post from my friend Koh Joh Ju, who works with the K through P2 kids, and always reminds me that kids need patience and care from us more than they do discipline.

A story about positive reinforcement

On Saturday, we had a group of really sweet n kind young volunteers, eager to please and help. Completely fresh of the boat. Naturally, the kids were on to them and we had a tough time getting the 4-8 year olds sticking to do any reading, writing & speaking.

Some 15mins to closing time, i managed to get a 5 year old to write 'colouring' into his activity file and i wrote in the remarks column GOOD JOB! i showed that to him and read out the words. Then i went to the next kid with this sample. And another kid. I ended up with 3 kids who wrote without coaxing.

(Very unlike Jan 23rd when every kid wld say 'u write for me' or 'i dunno how to write'.)

So, I know of 3 kids who can write COLOURING, GOOD and JOB. woohoo!

You know, this 'positive reinforcement' thingy is quite infectious. i was so positively reinforced by this tiny milestone that i've started work on a series of worksheets for the young ones. (as in, i created 1 worksheet. will need to crank out a few more before the next class hits!)