Lessons have started. There are more ups and downs. Thank God. I'm still learning how to cater to their needs as their ages are so varied.
Let's start from the pre school children. These 3 to 6 years old kiddies are very lovable and sweet. The little girls are so cute and the little boys are so handsome. Hehe. They came to me and spoke in a language I know not off. They went on and on, talking as if I understood them. When I told them, "Watashiwa wagalimasen", ie, "I don't understand", this did not deter them from rattling on and on. Hehe.They're really sweet and adorable leh. Next time, if I have enough hands and time, I'll snap a picture of them, ok?
You must be wondering, how am I going to teach these toddlers? Every week, we learn a new letter and a number. Last week, I taught them 'M' and '4'. So I printed and laminated many pictures of monkeys and mice. Wahahaha...there were also some other animals like brown bears and polar bears, flowers and birds so that they can sort out the mice and monkeys. They were to group them in groups of 4s. Hehe. So fun, ne? wahahah... Finally, they practiced writing '4' and 'M' and showed it proudly to their parents. Wahahahah.
Grade 1 consists of 2 lovely girls with curly locks of jet black hair. We repeated the same procedure but with more card games and phonics. They also drew monkeys and mice. Hahah. The girls almost died by the end of 1 hr coz there're too much information. Whaahha.Thus, this week, I've decided to play more games.
Grade 2 and 3 consists of 3 interesting boys. We played Snap with Alphabet cards. Then we had serious learning with the short vowel /i/. I found them interesting coz they're so different. One coloured his pig as fast as he could coz he wants to get it over and done with. The other coloured his pig as slow as the first was fast coz he made sure he coloured his pig evenly. The last boy was creative. Why? His pig was coloured in patches of diagonal lines. The diagonal lines in each patch has 2 colours. This means that we have a multi-coloured stripy pig! HEhehe..
Grade 4 and 5 are two girls. Shall we not have the details? Whaahah. We played different games and had phonics too. Quite fun!
Junior high and high school will start in April.
Adults classes.
i) I planned a lot of things for the senior citizens. In the end, I could only introduce 6 places and we listed on the board what are the things found there. Eg, bank, bakery, hair dresser and so on. We all had fun laughing.
ii) There are 2 beginners classes. We played charades, guessing action words. I used these words to teach them regular and irregular verbs in the end. Very fun. Laughed like mad. In fact, I taught the 2nd lesson today. We played "Who am I?" and laughed like mad too.
iii) Intermediate class. There are 3 men in this class. Two are in their late 30s and one is 72. Hehe. These men like to talk and discuss about movies and dramas and comparing cultures of different countries. HEhe.. When I did more serious work like grammar and vocab, they're not happy. HAhahaha.So, next lesson, I'll try to like them discuss and waste time and teach less things. Hehe. No lah. the 72 yr old man felt that my speed was too fast too. I'll slow down, even though the other 2 men felt it's ok.
iv) Advance class. There're 2 men in this class. We had 2 lessons so far. The second lesson became more interesting when I showed them the grammar, vocabulary and other assessment books I brought from
These classes and students are temporary. In April, there'll be more students coz we sent out flyers and many people called in to sign up.
Fridays and Saturdays are crazy days for me coz there 5 classes on each day and the classes are so different. My mind needs to switch mode after every class.
I'm learning patchwork now and working on a coin purse. So happy. This is what I've always wanted to learn but nobody I know could teach me. Finally, I found a group of ladies, young and old, as interested in patchwork as moi. Hehehe. However, the patchwork class clashes with the cooking class. Haiz. this means I may have to take turns every month learning cooking and patchwork. Whahaah...Wat a sacrifice, ne? HEheh…
Sometimes, it can get boring when I have to cook for myself. Or other times, I'm juz too tired to cook so I eat instant noodles or boil some edamame beans, snacks, cakes, mochi, and so on. Don't worry. There're many packets of snacks in my kitchen. I frequently visit Kishi, the supermarket coz that's the only 'shopping mall' I can go since I can't really cycle out on the roads yet. Whahaahah..
Btw, for those who are wondering if I've learnt cycling, the answer is half. Whahaah..I can cycle in the church car park. I can turn a few circles and stop when I want to stop. But I also stop when I don't want to stop. Heh. So I practice my braking well. Now I can brake gently without jerking. Not bad huh? Yet it's really not good enough to boast lah. Haha..
So, anyway, heheh. I'll never be hungry. In fact, I'm supposed to lose some weight here coz Japanese eat healthily, ya? I exercise every wed morning when we had to clean up the entire Olive. The pastor and wife and the 72 yr old man and I will vacuum the 4 floors, and clean the toilets. My tasks are vacuuming the 3rd and 4th floors and mop the staircase from top floor to ground floor. This excludes the daily clean up I do in my apartment. HAha. Good exercise right?
Okie. This entry is longer than intended. Sumimasen.
Ja, mata
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