Since face to face learning is still not possible, we, as parents are greatly challenged on teaching our own kids at home. And we could not complain, we have no right to do so or our kids will suffer. And so my teaching skills and capabilities is somewhat challenged too because I, not only teach my own kid but other two more was added.
I discussed in my previous articles about Jm, my daughter's classmate. And last Friday, I have an additional student, Eze. He is my aunt's son and is currently taken cared of by her grandma. My aunt and her husband is abroad working as nurses. It started with a simple conversation of my mother and the grandma. Mother mentioned to her that I was teaching Yuri and Jm and so she instantly asked if he could join Eze too and I could say no as an answer. Grandma is my teacher when I was in Grade 3😁.
Last Friday, Eze officially joined us. He was far too different from Jm. He is quiet, more behaved and soft spoken. Our first activity then was just writing straight lines and coloring to help him adapt to his new environment. Then at the middle of our class, my niece (Faith) joined us too. Then my sister came to watch us and requested the kids to sing the ABC song and recite the number 1-10. Bianca is a loud and cute little girl that her loud voice while singing and reciting was contagious and gave Eze the courage to talk louder and clearer.
When coloring, I still needed to guide him of the directions of colors and to focus on his own paper as he kept on looking at my daughter or Bianca was doing. But at least he can identify the colors already☺️.
During our dancing and singing part of the activity his reactions and actions are a bit delayed but I saw him enjoying every activity. Then rain started to pour and we need to cut our class and his grandma already fetch him.
Come this morning, Tuesday. He came early with his modules and to my surprise inside his plastic envelope was his two plastic snake toys! But good thing he did not play them during class. He was very participative, he recites and quickly finished his activities for today which is identification of shapes and colors.
During our break time, my daughter came and hugged me tightly as she always randomly does. And to my surprise, Eze also do the same and hugged me tight. I could not help my tears from falling because I felt his longing for a mother's embrace. Mother's instinct as they say. My heart melt at that moment that I hugged him tightly as I could. I don't want to deprive him for that. If only in that moment I could lessen that longing then I am greatly honored to do so. It was just as short moment but it is stored in my heart, my first cry as a teacher.
I have a very jealous daughter and she is very sensitive with these kind of gestures and so she immediately interrupt when she felt that my attention was more on Eze. So she asked me to play the London bridge but she needed more hand so she invited Jm and Eze to join us. On the last part of the song 'My fair lady' wherein the two players are supposed to lock in a player with their arms locked, we change that to hugging a friend and instead of hugging their friend they all hugged me, their teacher. And so my daughter dislike it and asked to stop the game and resume with out activities. And so we resumed classes and continued with our lessons.
Eze still needs more guidance especially with tracing or writing his name. He needs extra attention too because I noticed earlier that when no one was looking he tends to draw his favorite cartoon character which as of this writing I could not understand the name of that character.
Classes ended at 10am and I accompany him to their house. He immediately show to his grandma what he did and grandma could not believe that Eze did all the coloring and tracing by himself. I also send them videos and photos as proof so they would know that I am not just making stories.
Oh well teaching is fun, challenging and sweet. It needs a lot of patience, understanding and to be more sensitive to your students. You need to pour love and care because that would help and motivate them to enjoy studying. It will give them excitement to always want to go to school and participate in the activities. It is not just teaching the kids but also teaching yourself to be better and to be more humble and kind.
There are a lot more to learn and I am not complaining. I love my new found passion and I thank God for giving me this chance.
Thank you for reading and keep inspiring, keep smiling!
Good works keep it up