I'm back!

Apologies for my long absence from the blog... a mixture of being a bit unwell earlier this month, internet woes, taking up jogging (well, jogwalking!) on some days after school, doing more at the weekend etc... so it's been a long time since I blogged. I shouldn't say it but right now the internet is better than it's been in a long while... however, earlier in the day we had several power cuts of varying duration so you never know how long it will last! I had a friend round and we cooked dinner and watch some episodes of Cranford... at least we did when the power came on!

It's been really hot this week, proper February weather for Kenya. In fact today I think it went above 30 degrees, so I was glad to be staying in. I got very burnt earlier in the week - must remember that even if the temperature isn't so boiling, being so near the equator and at altitude means that burning is much more likely! Aloe vera is my friend right now!

I have some other new friends too, Dee and Peter have gained some pets from their son and daughter-in-law who used to live next door, but have now moved to Papua New Guinea. Here is Max, the huge but friendly German shepherd:

And here is Simba the cat, posing amongst my birthday cards:

In other news I've begun to teach in the 8-9 group of my church's Sunday school. I taught my first lesson the Sunday before last, all about Abram and how he left his home as God told him to and how God promised to bless him. We looked at how God's promises were for his whole family, which includes us as Christians (cue: Father Abraham, has many sons, Many sons has Father Abraham!) and also at how his descendants were a blessing to others. I drew a family tree, and at the end the children all added their own names to it!

Things are plodding along at Mahali Pa Watoto. We're still experimenting with the Montessori room; mostly I lead the sessions at the moment but the teachers come with their classes and sometimes they take the lead. I want to gradually move from leading to assisting so that they will be able to continue once I've left, and we are going to meet soon and talk about how to plan the sessions so that they link in to the topics that the classes are covering, and plan for a variety of activities over course of the term. The meeting when we all 'taught' each other one of the pieces of equipment went really well, there was a good atmosphere and we had some useful discussion. I think the teachers are starting to see the benefit of this style of learning. The children don't need any convincing!

Puzzle completed with some help from me!

"I like making towers!"

Using the cylinder blocks to learn about size

Lining up in height order as we'd learnt about tall and short!

Top class children doing puzzles

Absorbed!

Working with the teacher

I'm having a bit of a jigsaw puzzle campaign, because the children find them very difficult. I think there are probably a few reasons, partly that they haven't had much experience; children in the UK would often have 'posting' toys when they're young, then other puzzles as they get older, but obviously ours don't have this opportunity. Anyway, as part of this campaign I've been sorting out the puzzles we have already - there were loads of pieces all mixed up in a basket:

After I'd already done a lot of sorting!

I've been cleaning them all up and putting them in ziplock bags so they (hopefully) don't get in that mess again! And now we have lots of new puzzles as well as other equipment - a couple who support the school asked for donations to Mahali instead of presents for their wedding anniversary and I had the delightful job of choosing things to buy. Steve (who runs the Seedsowing Network charity) arrived on Thursday night with two suitcases full of lovely things, and the top class even used some of the puzzles yesterday in their session with me.

So that's about it for now, but I'll try to post again soon, I've got at least two more posts in my head! I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of my recent culinary exploits!

Savoury pancakes on Shrove Tuesday

Moroccan veggie stew and rice made with my friend today

Photos! (lots of them!)

Once more I have been foxed by a combination of power cuts, something wrong with the internet (even now I'm on a mobile internet dongle thing and hoping it holds up!) and also a dodgy tummy. I think it's getting better but I felt pretty bad at school on Tuesday, didn't go in yesterday and am still at home today. Hope I can get in tomorrow. I'm not sure what it was - a peculiar migraine, something I ate or a bug...

Anyway, here are some photos of what we've been up to so far in the Montessori room!

Ready to learn, sitting around the edge of the carpet

Free choice activities

Busy busy busy!

Learning to get things out and put them away again!

Sharing with each other

Learning with our teacher

Doing fastenings

Learning to build a tower with blocks in size order

Proud of her tower!

Working together using different shapes

Another proud builder!

Using the fantastic natural wood for building

Concentration...

An engineer in the making?

Cooking with our teacher

Making dinner

Cutting up some fruit

I like playing!

Exploring the farm

We like the animals!

Playing together

I have some nice video of the children playing in here too, but I will have to wait until I have proper internet back to upload that. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the photos!

By the way the staff meeting about the Montessori room went better than I was expecting, we had some good discussion on how some of the things could be used to complement the curriculum, and the teacher who is less enthusiastic actually pointed out that a lot of equipment is cross-curricular so the children learn more than one thing when doing an activity! This was great progress - thank you God! Next meeting (which has now been postponed because I've been away) each teacher (including me) has prepared to tell us all about one of the pieces of sensorial equipment, which I think are the hardest to understand and use. I hope it will be a useful session.

Normal service will soon resume... I hope!

I've been a bit quiet on here because this week seems to have got rather busy! Each day after school I've been meaning to post something but haven't quite got round to it. I've been replying to emails that I'd let build up, writing thank you letters, taking up jogging and various other things which haven't left time to blog. I have loads of lovely photos and some video from the Montessori lessons this week, but haven't yet downloaded them from the memory cards they're stored on in order to choose some to post on here. And today I'm off to Kenyatta National Hospital with some people from church to visit and read to some children there... they are trying to set up a regular ministry I think, but I'm just going along to help and see how it is. If I have time later I'll try to do something about those photos...

Montessori classroom

This week one of the main things I've been doing is setting up the Montessori classroom. This has come from an idea that one of the teachers had during a staff meeting, that we should put all the Montessori equipment into one room that the classes could all use at different times during the week. This way they could see and use any of it rather than having a small amount in each classroom which wasn't enough to do a session with the whole class. Also it meant the teachers could stick with the more traditional classroom set-up that they are happy with - tables and chairs and a small carpet area - but have a space without tables and chairs where the children can learn in a different style. I hope this is a good compromise and that in time perhaps elements of the Montessori ethos, learning through play and hands-on experiences, will filter into the teaching more generally as well.

Anyway, as promised, here are some photos:

The view from the doorway

The sensorial activities shelves

The maths shelves

The language (left) and practical life (right) shelves

Practical life and small world corner

Now, strictly speaking, any Montessori experts among you will have noticed that not all the things in these pictures are 100% Montessori. I have added in some of the games and things that we have which I think are good but that generally languish in the staffroom. I am not an expert on Montessori education and am not trying to pretend I am, but I like to get children learning through hands-on experiences. I am also so interested to give these children a little more freedom and choice than they are used to and see what happens. I hope they will flourish and their teachers will be convinced! The plan is that each class will have a number of lessons a week in the room, which will be taught either by their teachers or by me or a mixture of the two! I have said to the teachers that I am happy to be an assistant or to lead, whatever they feel comfortable with at least initially. The only exception is the top class - they will only have a free choice session in there with me as their teacher decided there wasn't room for any sessions in the timetable. This is a shame, but this teacher has yet to be convinced of the impact of this kind of learning so it's not too much of a surprise. It's a little discouraging, but I'm hoping the enthusiasm of the others will help to bring her round in the end!

So we shall get started next week. On Monday we will have a staff meeting looking at how the teachers can use the room, and I'd value prayers for this, that there would be a positive atmosphere and attitudes. I'll let you know how it goes...

50th post on my 30th birthday (or some other, more snappy title!)

Happy Birthday to me! Well, I'm not actually 30 yet, not for a few hours (ed. - I started writing this earlier, now it's a race against time!) - I was born a bit after 8pm... but with the time difference of course that's a bit after 11pm here... not that I'm hanging on to my twenties or anything! It's just I really don't feel old enough to be 30!

Anyway, it has been a fantastic day! I treated myself to a taxi ride to school with the excuse of taking a couple of bags of things that needed to go. It was nice to sit back and relax for the whole journey! I spent the morning doing bits and pieces of admin as well as taking all the Montessori equipment into the classroom we've allocated for it - the idea is that we set it up like the Montessori classrooms in the nursery we visited, with equipment on shelves and a carpet in the middle - no tables and chairs. Then I've timetabled slots for each class to use the room so that they can include Montessori techniques in their teaching without having to change the classroom layout they are used to etc and with all the equipment to hand. I hope it works! It should be set up by the end of this week and then I'll take photos.

One nice thing that happened today was that I was able to give a boy the first pair of the shoes that I brought from my school in England - thank you All Saints! He was extremely pleased with them, and with his socks (which actually had hearts on but he didn't seem to mind!). He had come in bare feet because one of his shoes got lost at home, and his dad was supposed to be looking for it and dropping it off, but he didn't come. It was such a rainy and muddy day and anyway the shoes he had been wearing before weren't waterproof. His new ones are a bit big but he'll grow into them, and he was so pleased!

I told him he looked very smart - a widely-used term of approbation here!

After lunch the children had to come in from the playground as it was raining. They were told to sit down on the veranda and there seemed to be something being organised... Before I knew it, I was given a party hat to wear and told to sit in the seat of honour!

There was some singing, and then a cake appeared!

I cut the cake, with a little help...

...and there was enough for everyone to have some!

Then I apparently stood around eating cake for a while...

Me with Benson (manager) and Lucy (headteacher)

Me with Lucy and Sharon, a student

After this the teachers helped me give out lollies that I'd brought for the children (this is definitely not England, it wouldn't be allowed in a 'healthy school'!!)

After this Lucy got out the bubbles...

... but it was apparently a cunning distraction, as the next thing I knew I had cake in my face! Apparently this type of thing is a birthday tradition... or that's what they tell me!

Once I'd cleaned up, there was little left to do apart from pose with the children!

I think they enjoyed their cake and lollies, and I certainly enjoyed my Mahali Pa Watoto birthday celebrations! But the day didn't end there... on the way home I travelled on the yellow matatu! There's one very distinctive yellow matatu that goes between Hardy and Karen, and I'd never been on it - somehow it always seemed to be avoiding me. But today, there it was! What a nice birthday present!

In the evening Dee and Peter gave me a lovely birthday dinner, and I spoke to family and Jon of course. Now being as I've featured in so many of these photos, I felt it was only fair to post one of Jon! He dressed up in his suit for our skype call, and he even made Anthony the ape a party hat!

What a lovely birthday! I am a very lucky girl :-)

PS Thank you so much to the kind people that gave me a birthday donation!