Blog #4 During Service

The third week Clare and I went to the Lydia Home, I had the opportunity to meet some new children that have been going to the Lydia Home for some time.  We just hadn’t been there the same time they had.  In some of these new children, I saw that some of them had some identity and self problems developing already. 

The Monday of that week was April 1^st.  When Clare and I got there, they were working out of their work books.  Miss Joyce asked me to work with Zay, a little girl who is in 3^rd grade.  She didn’t have assigned homework, so we worked out of her work book.  She had a lot of pages assigned and she did very well, but she was very easily distracted.  It took her some time to get through her readings because any time someone walked around the table, or someone else sitting at the table was talking, so wasn’t paying attention to her reading and was listening to them.  Later, she got to the point where she didn’t want to do anymore.  I knew that as soon as she was done with the page she was on, she was allowed to walk home.  I had to negotiate with her to keep working on the page until it was done.  When she knew that she would be able to go home, she worked hard to finish her page and got it done quickly. 

The following Wednesday, which was the 3^rd of April, Clare and I played Apples to Apples with some of the kids.  There was another new girl that I hadn’t met before named Autumn.  We played the game a little differently than I was used to.  Only one person was always the judge and each person had 5 cards and never drew until they were out of cards, and then it was a new round.  They all behaved very well, and most of them really understood how the game worked and played well together.  Miss Joyce even let us all play the game a little longer since they were behaving so well.  After we played, I worked with Autumn.  She is in 4^th grade, and we worked out of her work book.  She was doing pretty well, but at times she would say something like, “I don’t get it!  I’m never going to get it!” or, “It’s too hard!  I don’t want to do anymore!”  We were able to work through her problems and still got a lot done, but it really showed to me that when it came to homework she had a very negative view and some self-esteem problems.  I had to be very patient and work with her to get her to understand her work, and once she got past the negativity, we were able to accomplish a lot.

This week I learned that sometimes with children, negotiating is an important tool.  It is with all ages of people, and it’s important to be truthful when negotiating.  I also learned that some children have self-esteem issues, and it’s important to be patient with them and to build them up.  It’s important with everyone, and it’s important to remember that everyone learns at a different pace.  It doesn’t mean that if you learn at a slower pace that you aren’t worth as much, just that you need to take the time with those people and those children to be sure that they really learn what is being taught.