Staff Blog
Every year CSC children, 10-year-old and above, look forward
to summer activities. Summer activities schedule is in the month of May. This
year before January was over, the children approached me with a list of
activities they want to be in. I tell them to wait in February. I will have the
list of names of the kids who will be in the summer activities. In the list
they could also put down 3 activities they preferred by numbering them 1 to 3. Kids were so excited. They continued to ask
what activities were available to them. “Is there basketball?” Is there
baseball?” “What about music?” “Will we have the same teacher for music as last
year?” “Is swimming every day?” “Is it okay to have two activities to enroll
in?” Even the 9-year-olds and below were curious to know when summer activities
would be. The questions were usually “Is May after graduation?” “Is it far
away?” “When will it start?”
After the lists were out to the homes, the next questions
asked were “Who is in basketball or soccer or music or etc.?” Another one was
“May I change my activity?” “I like that activity, why is it not in the list?”
“I would like to be with so-and-so, may I transfer to that one?” When
confusion, agreements and activities were in place, thirty-six children were enrolled
in various activities this year. There are 3 in soccer, 8 in basketball, 1 in
table tennis, 7 in cooking, 9 in music, 1 in badminton, and 7 in swimming.
The other day, I was the watcher for basketball. Early in
the morning while I was up putting my bags at the child care office, one of the
girls asked if we could leave earlier than the time we were to leave. When
asked why, she said they did not want to be late. Their coach made them do push-ups
according to how many minutes they were late. So we did and we made it!
It was the first time I was watcher for basketball this
year. I was pleasantly surprised at what happened before lessons were started.
The head coach told the kids who were there to sit down, bow their heads and he
prayed for them and for the morning ahead.
After praying, he proceeded to talk
to the kids about discipline, practice and preparing for things in the future.
He told them Noah did not start building the ark when it started to rain. Noah
was ready with the ark and he was safe, together with his family, when the
rains came. He finished his talk and encouragement to the kids by telling them
to always practice what they learned, to be prepared, to do everything they
could to come early to basketball lessons. When they do that, the lessons they
learned will help them face difficulties, or trials that would come to them later
on. He reminded them not to forget God will always be there to help them if
they ask.
Morning Meeting: Risk and Consequence and Astronomy
The Level C1 students have been reading about risk and consequence while C2 class has been reading about astronomy. They came together to lead morning meeting. Each class helped the other to show the other students what they have been learning.
The highlights of the morning included reciting Bible verses which dealt with promises and consequences from God, reenacting the moon landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and preforming the song “Outer Space” live—complete with guitars and puppets.
Check out the “Outer Space” song here.
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Future Leaders
“Train up a child in the way he should go
and when he is old he will not depart from them.”
Proverbs 22:6
Meet the future leaders and community helpers. Every day they come to school with fully charged energy, unstoppable curiosity, richly given ability, and a hungry desire to be trained.
Because they were blessed to have a chance to come to school and be given attention, with a big smile and with confidence, they say that in due time and with the Lord’s help they will be prepared to face life independently and be equipped to serve the community.
“When I grow up I want to be a teacher.” – Jennifer
“When I grow up I want to be a firefighter.” – Danilo
“When I grow up I want to be a police officer.” – Andrew
“When I grow up I want to be an army.” – Carlo
-Charis Adlawan, Level A Teacher
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Reading Challenge
Words and words, pages and pages, books and books! The Reading Challenge brought out the inner readers in all the students. They stepped up and buried their noses in books.
Classmates competed against each other. They worked hard, reading pages and pages. At the end of August the class winners were announced.
Each class was rewarded for their hard work with a new book. Teacher Cris’ class was so excited for the new book that they read it as soon as they got into their room.
The students learned a lot. Most of all, many students found joy in books. The number of pages will be forgotten, but the love of reading and learning will lead these students through life.
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Baking with Jules!
The other day, I had the great pleasure of learning how to make pan de munay, a Filipino baked delicacy. Jules, one of our Teen Home residents, recently completed a Bread and Pastry course. He is a certified baker now! Jules has long been interested in the Culinary Arts, but high school was long and difficult for him. Even so, he never gave up on himself or his dream! He graduated from high school this past April and he has been eager to pursue his desired field. Since becoming certified, he is baking up a storm. Each day trying something new! Those at the Teen Home are blessed to eat his daily creations and I know, I am excited whenever I visit for the chance to taste one of his products. For those of you interested in learning how pan de munay is made, check out Jules' step by step instructions in the pictures below. He was a great teacher for me and he even let me roll a few of them! :)
1. Cut the dough
2. Roll it
3. Stretch it
4. Oil the pan
5. Cut the dough
6. Fill with sugar. Yum!
7. Let rise
8. Bake, then let cool!
9. Enjoy! (Truthfully, I had intended to take pictures after each bite, but I was overtaken by the warm, buttery, sugary goodness and instead just focused on eating it!)
Thanks for tuning in to baking with Jules! Please keep him in your prayers as he continues to practice his skills and eventually looks for work as a baker. He is a great guy and we are proud of him!
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Toddler Day Program Kick-Off
September brings new excitement for the youngest in the CSC family. Since arriving in Cebu a month ago I (Grace) have been hard at work creating a new toddler curriculum. The toddler program occurs each weekday and lasts for about an hour. This past week we officially had our kick-off and boy, did the kids have fun!
The new toddler program is structured in a way that will be developmentally appropriate for the toddlers at CSC and will also help prepare them for preschool. Each week of the program is structured around a theme that will not only provide learning experiences, but fun as well! This week the toddlers had a blast learning about circles through activities and songs about bubbles and balls.
Right now we have a group of about 11 toddlers who are full of energy, laughter and curiosity. Each morning we gather together in one of the three homes and start with a morning meeting. The toddlers are learning recognition and routine through their personalized seat mats (mats with pictures of their faces on them). The first day the kids were so excited about the pictures that they could hardly sit on them. By the end of the first week the children were starting to understand the routine and would either sit on their mats or hold them in their laps. During the meeting we do things like working on name recognition, reading books and singing songs. So far, the favorite part of morning meeting is the singing. Thanks to our wonderful aunties the children of CSC start to appreciate and love music at an early age.
Other activities we have been doing this week are bubble blowing, bubble snakes, a ball pit and soccer. It has been such a joy to see the toddlers already making discoveries and having fun exploring the materials provided for them. To get a better idea of what the toddler program is like, take a look at these photos I took as well as a video created by Joel Reasoner!
Video: Toddler Time with Auntie Grace
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