Six year olds, Tegucigalpa, and more six year olds!

First off, I am really going to make a strong attempt to update this blog twice a week... That way I wont have SO much to talk about in one post. Also, I tend to not update if I have too much to say, so that's my goal.

I have been pretty busy here in Juticalpa now that school is going on fully and I traveled over the weekend to the capital, Tegucigalpa. The trip was a lot of fun and I got to do american things such as eat at TGIFridays, Burger King, and Pizza hut - all in ONE weekend. LOL Also, we went to the mall, spoke a lot of English with each other and just hung out by the pool. Overall, it was a nice and relaxing weekend and the trip takes about 3 hours so it's easy for a weekend.

However, more exciting I feel like is talking about my class. I really am enjoying teaching them and I am always excited to see them in the morning! ... (I'm also excited to see them go home after 7.5 hours!!) haha. Seriously though the day is very structured, which I love and I know my students like it too, because they know what to expect.

Each day we focus on one letter, we talk about the name of the letter, sound, words that begin with that letter and we sing a song. Then everyone goes to their seats and we practice writing the letter and some words that begin with that letter. My kids are just adorable and they really surprise me with some of the stuff they come up with. I know that they are going to pick up English very quickly because there are always a few kids that can give me words that begin with the letter. However, those words are always words that I say a lot -- so it makes me feel good to know that they are learning. For example one girl shocked me when she came up with the word "floor" for an f word... I use the word all the time to tell them to go to the floor but still it means she was really understanding the concept!

I basically speak in some version of Spanglish all day. I will soon switch over to all English, but right now I am still instilling the schedule and pattern so sometimes giving instructions is helpful to say "saquen sus pencils" because they have learned the word for pencil. Although like I said this is only temporary and soon there will be no need to say that, because they understand basics.

My students still love singing songs and Morning Meetings and Music class are my favorite times of day. :) Usually they just sing really loudly and most of it is just sounds. For example, I have one boy who always sings REALLY loudly but he doesn't know any of the English words so its really funny.

The only issues I have are ones that I can't do anything about. 1 - I have too many students (36 now!) and these are students that haven't gone to full day school before, they are still very young. My 2nd issue is that I think the day is too long for children this young. They are there from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. That's a long day and a lot to expect out of them. However, they do pretty well and the afternoons are much more relaxing than the mornings.

My life here is nice too, I still really like the other teachers and we hang out a lot. Also, I started tutoring Lidia (my aide) and her two cousins in English. They don't know any, but would really like to learn, so it's fun for all of us.

My kids lined up ready to go home after gym class... look at the girl frowning!!

Me at the pool in Tegucigalpa -- it was a really nice pool!!

Me and my roommate Kaleigh at the pool!!

More of my kids --- aren't they cute?!

And to end this post with a great picture!! Last week I was walking home from the bank and it started to rain but the sun was still out. I saw a full rainbow over my house! :)