Rise and shine! School starts early in Quito – 7.30am to be precise.
My first day of volunteering saw me getting up at 5.15am this morning to catch the first of three buses that would get me across the city to the Bruce Ecuador centre in the northern part of Quito. On arrival, the first job of the day was to dish out bread and fruit juice to the children for breakfast and then it was time for teeth-brushing... then we we setttled down to some learning!
The children range in ages from about 5 years old to 11, and their abilities vary greatly. I sat with the small ones, helping them to practise writing numbers and getting them used to what those numbers meant by drawing groups of objects (4 houses, 5 people etc). They welcomed me with open arms (literally – hugs all round!) and made me feel part of their class straight away.
As well as picking up some more Spanish vocabulary, I also learnt something else today: it is not possible to just pick one child up once and swing him / her around – once you start you have to do the same for all 20 children… at least twice!!
The children range in ages from about 5 years old to 11, and their abilities vary greatly. I sat with the small ones, helping them to practise writing numbers and getting them used to what those numbers meant by drawing groups of objects (4 houses, 5 people etc). They welcomed me with open arms (literally – hugs all round!) and made me feel part of their class straight away.
As well as picking up some more Spanish vocabulary, I also learnt something else today: it is not possible to just pick one child up once and swing him / her around – once you start you have to do the same for all 20 children… at least twice!!
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