I didn't realize how much I missed being around kids! Jillian and I have started teaching at an "asilo nido" (daycare) down the street, and it is simply a blast! Here in Italy, kids start going to daycare early - this one has ages 3-5. I had met Gabriella, the maestra, only once before - she had stopped by the bible school when I was the only one here, and she requested that we come to her class once a week to teach the 18 5 yr olds English. That sounded like fun to me. After all, I have taught that age group before in a bible class at College Church. (Good memories, right Ali? ;) ) So we agreed that we would.
So, our first week.
We worked on teaching materials the week leading up to the first session - just basic colors and animals for the first time. We really didn't know what to expect, or how much material we needed to fill up an hour and a half. Jill came up with teaching them "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" in case we needed something a little more active to keep their attention. We reached the gate the first day, were buzzed in and greeted by Gabriella, and entered the classroom. So many little faces! I don't know if you are aware of this, but all Italian children are born adorable. It is impossible for them to be otherwise. We were introduced as "le belle ragazze che non parlano italiano" - "the beautiful girls that don't speak italian". I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to take this as a compliment. I began by teaching them the colors and holding up corresponding sheets of colored paper. They were very thorough when I asked them to find things in the room that were a certain color - down to their neighbors shoelaces or my yellow hair. They picked things up so quickly and seemed to be having so much fun! But asking a five year old to memorize things for a long period of time is never a good idea. I could tell they were starting to get restless, so next Jill taught them "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". And they LOVED it. Please take a moment right now to watch the video attached to this post, and feel free to laugh out loud. Well, we did it about 3 times just to learn the words, and then we repeated it 3 or 4 more times. It was so cute. (Side note: the next day I was walking to a friend's apartment and couldn't figure out why my knee muscles were sore...then I realized it was because of a children's song...please see title of post) And that pretty much took up our hour. The teacher had them all sit down and color a circle in their favorite color, and then we came around and helped them right the name of the color in Italian and English. If you don't already know, teaching is hard work! I don't know if I could do it all day like they do. It takes a lot of patience and repetition.
We made some noise, obviously, and the other teachers of the younger classes apparently noticed. As we were leaving, they stopped us at the door and asked us to come to their classes for 30 minutes every week after the 5 yr old class. So the week after, Jill went to the 4 yr old and I went to the 3 yr olds - we didn't have quite the same effect there. They are a tad bit too small to appreciate English. My class had only just learned the colors "red" and "yellow" in Italian, so it was a little hard getting them to say them in English too. Just a lot of big-eyed staring faces. And one little girl who talked the whole time, babbling but not really saying anything, laughing at herself when she apparently said something funny, nodding at me as if I understood - the teacher didn't even understand. Oh well. They are fun to be with. :)
Fun times in an Italian daycare!
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