Help Wanted, Help Given

Here's a post from Gerard Ee, the executive director of Beyond Social Services. (The FSC I'm helping out at, Whampoa, is part of this network)

This evening, 6 secondary 2 students will be receiving tuition from some volunteers at a Residents’ Committee Centre. Nothing unusual but over the past month, these students started to ‘repay’ their volunteers with an hour of dance lessons after tuition ends at 8.30 pm. It was not something the volunteers had asked for but it was something these students knew that they could give.

For the past 6 months, these students have been dancing in the street near where they live and sharing their moves with children and others who cared join them.  Their energy and enthusiasm have added a vibrant vibe to their neighbourhood which is much appreciated.

Next month, as a gesture of appreciation to the Residents’ Committee for allowing them to use their premises for tuition, these students will be performing at an RC event. I wonder if they will eventually get the volunteers to be a part of their performance too.

"Don't Underestimate Kids"


Couple of weeks ago I downloaded a TED Conference speech by 12-year-old Adora Svitak. (Yes! She's 12, and she spoke at TED). It was for an exercise at the Whampoa Family Service Centre in which the kids would have to:

- do a word search puzzle based on the vocab in the speech (thank you free puzzle websites)
- discuss the meaning of the words and form sentences using them
- watch the speech, listen, and hopefully follow along with the transcript
- do an exercise in which they built an argument for, or against, a topic.

As context - Adora Svitak, an American who got her first book published at 7, talked about What Adults Can Learn from Kids. I wanted the kids to be inspired by someone their own age. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/adora_svitak.html.

Some of the volunteers, myself included, were worried at first. These were 9-12 year olds - most with a not-so-great command of English. Would the kids get it? Would they be bored? Lost? Start running around?

Musical Spaces



A 10-year-old said to me: "(tea)Cherrr! Today chaos har?"

It had to be true chaos if even the kids from the centre says it's chaotic. It was birthday cake day again (every last Saturday - cake donated by Classic Cakes). And we'd just blown the candles and this time I'd taken it into the staff room to cut and then distribute. The kids were outside clamouring for cake while the monthly awards were given out. Every month we also give out personalised notes written by the social workers and volunteers to the kids.

We were short of volunteers Saturday: 1 in Seramban, another 2 in school, one out sick. So the boys were having a field day with vols Simeon and Ben who, to their credit, did a terrific job. Quite honestly, I was glad to leave them to it, hopping over only when the boys were getting too rowdy.

Magpies and Metros
First time I've been at the centre that the kids didn't fight.

Carrie donated her time and materials for b/t 20-30 bracelets. We did a crossword puzzle on words associated with jewellery, had the kids read a piece about the history of jewellery (tx Hui E for simplifying it and adding images), and then Carrie talked to the kids about what she does and what to do with beads and wires.

She also had them write about their product and "pitch" them to the volunteers. One on one - group presentations way too ambitious. And she had them calculate their cost and profit.

The kids were really focused. OK mostly focused. The boys had chosen to paint T shirts but came over later anyway and made bracelets for their girlfriends and mothers. I never thought I'd see the day. Even the really rough, really ready to fight ones. Making jewellery.

Apart from one kid who said he wanted to put te F word on his T - there was no real drama. He wasn't really going to do it. In any case I'd responded by offering stencils. Nash claimed the extra T shirts and painted them for his younger brothers. (But not his sister, who was making a bracelet and ended up losing it.)

So, the session stretched on for slightly longer than normal, but it was worth it.

I'm still scratching my head on how to make the kids read for a longer period of time and enjoy it.

Hot Volcanoes and Cool Volunteers

Yesterday's session at the centre was great. We split the kids up somewhat so the boys were in a group with two guy volunteers and less disruptive.Does it send the wrong message when we split up the boys and girls? I don't know but there were no skirmishes to break up yesterday when normally there'd be at least a couple.

Couple of cool things: The pair of 20something volunteers that have been with us for three weeks teamed up with the three teenage volunteers to make a plasticine, baking soda and vinegar volcano as we were doing plate tectonics with the kids. Great demo after the crossword, hangman and reading.

We had a group of new volunteers.

“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!)