Naomi Pederson #3

Youngsil and I have certainly had a great time this semester. Reading so many books, some several times, together has been such a great opportunity :) She's even started to practice more at home, and over the last several sessions, has picked out several books that she has wanted to read at home.

Some of the things that I have seen with Youngsil are really quite amazing. She is learning a new language that she didn't speak before, and learning to apply that to reading, communicating, and school is just fantastic. She is also learning several sounds that she is always very careful about, like over pronouncing her 't's and ending consonants. She also corrects me whenever I skip over those, and reminds me to not contract my words when they aren't written that way.

Like some children I know, she is very picky about details, and I'm sure that they help her with learning English correctly. She also has become very adept and changing what she wants to say so that she can say what she wants even if she forgets or doesn't know a certain word -- she knows that a word does fit in the sentence, but since she can't remember, she changes the entire sentence to avoid it.

Finishing off this semester, the last session of Reading Buddies was very bittersweet. Hearing and seeing all of the Buddy Books really showed how much everyone worked this semester. Youngsil, she really worked hard. She doesn't like reading out loud, and I know she was very nervous. Even so, I know that she was happy to be able to read out loud to her parents. But it was so sad to say good bye :( I really do hope that she participates in the program again next semester, and keeps on getting better and better with reading, writing, but definitely with confidence -- I know that if she would just believe in herself and her abilities more, there's nothing that she can't do.

Sierra Kohlruss #3

Now that Reading Buddies has come to an end, I am realizing that reading with Atticus was usually the highlight of many weeks. Within this last month, Atticus has really stepped out of his comfort zone and has chosen books that were more difficult for him to read. He has really warmed up to me as well, running up to me the minute he gets to the library and wouldn't stop talking the entire time. He would even try to rush through making his name tag so that we could get to reading books.

Through this last month, Atticus finished writing and illustrating his book, and read it in front of the parents. He worked diligently on his book and was very proud with the outcome, as was I. I could tell he did not want Reading Buddies to end, because as he finished reading his book to the other reading buddies and the parents, he wanted me to read another book to him. That request proves how effective the program Reading Buddies is and how excited the kids get about reading. I also learned, the more the Big Buddy puts into the program, the more the Little Buddy cares about reading and participating each week.

When relating LING 1000 to Reading Buddies, I have found that the more effort you put into learning a language or the culture behind that language the more you will benefit in the long run. Same with Reading Buddies, the more the Big Buddy puts into the program and involves their kid, the more the Little Buddy gets out of it and learns the "language" of reading. Reading, for young kids, is like learning a new language; they have to recognize specific patterns of letters in words, silent letters in words, and how to pronounce those words.

Through this program, I have learned how to be patient with Atticus, how to involve him with reading and get him excited about learning new words. I have gained a lot of insights and great experiences through Reading Buddies and I hope to come back next semester, hopefully to have Atticus as my Little Buddy again!

For the final blog in this Literacy Practicum, I would love to share some reflections about my experience at The Family Learning Center and show how they overlap with some of the material learned in LING 1000, Language in U.S. Society.

In LING 1000, language and ethnicity has been a topic of focus for us. We have been learning a lot about ethnicity and culture derived from a particular language group. A lot of the preschoolers at the Family Learning Center are bilingual speakers of both Spanish and English. Being a bilingual language learner involves a lot of different qualities for a person when they are in social contexts, for example there is a feature of bilingualism called “language crossing” where code switching of both languages are involved. Code switching is when people move between different languages or dialects within a conversation. I noticed this a lot with the preschoolers and it was kind of a light bulb moment when I could identify with the term used for the situation. A lot of the students will talk amongst each other in Spanish and talk to the teachers or the volunteers in English. I found that the students were more likely to talk in Spanish with their peers when it was about something specific to a situation of play and when they had to report to the teacher or volunteer they were more likely to use English.

In Language in U.S. Society, we have learned that there are four reasons for language crossing; to identify with other speakers, to mock or distance from other speakers, in reported speech, and for humor in conversation. My assumption of the reason why the preschoolers use this type of language quality is to identify with their peers who they know also speak Spanish and maybe because they assumed that I didn’t speak Spanish they would have a more “private” conversation. From what I have picked up on from information from the teachers there, the students primarily speak Spanish in their home environments and a half and half amount of English and Spanish in the school environment.

I was able to observe the amount of English and Spanish ratio in the school environment and for every sing along song in-group circle where we would sing in English, there was also a song in Spanish as well. When they go over the days of the week and weather, they go over everything all together once in English, and then again in Spanish. “Today is sunny, Hoy es soleado” “Days of the week, Los dios semana”. This was awesome for me to refresh on my basic Spanish-speaking skills, and really cool to see the incorporation of bilingualism in the school setting.

I must say that I am very happy that I chose to be a part of the Literacy Practicum from the beginning of the semester. It has been such a joy and positive environment for me to be involved with The Family Learning Center. I feel like over the course of the semester I have made many positive connections with people at the school that I will hold close. I would highly recommend anyone interested in being a volunteer for the Literacy Practicum to be a part of the Family Learning Center; it really does feel like a family there and a very great environment for preschoolers to keep their busy minds learning.

This semester couldn't have gone by any faster! I can't believe that Reading Buddies has ended and that this is my last night with Bridget. Spending time with her and getting to know her fun little personality has truly been a blessing.

Last week we did evaluations of the program and it made me realize what an amazing program Reading Buddies is. They are extremely organized with how they run things yet they allow students and their little buddies to get to know each other and not be forceful with a curriculum. I feel like the children and students both grow greatly from this program by learning to work together. The only thing I wish they would have included more is activities besides just reading, because it is a very long time to only read books.

Tonight we are sharing Bridget's story with the rest of Reading Buddies and I am so excited for her. I couldn't believe she was able to read the entire book when we practiced last week! Her mom and siblings are coming to watch and I know they are going to be so proud of her. Her book is so silly and it’s about a group of tigers who fight bulls then get adopted by a girl named Katie who has a broken arm. Her imagination is wild and I know one day she will look back on her book and laugh.

Bridget told me last week that when she grows up she wants to be a reading buddy which made me smile because it implies that I was a positive influence on her life and I was a part of something she wants to continue in her life.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to work with these kids!

Jeffrey Rice #3

After meeting with Hugo this semester I have learned a lot about him. He is a motivated student who actively seeks out information. If he hears a word used in a conversation and isn't sure of its definition he takes a mental note to discuss the word in our time together. Hugo is a fine English speaker and I am glad I got to work with him. I can see him striving for his dreams. He wants to own his own farm one day with many animals. He is working hard in Boulder to provide himself a better life later down the road.

He has talked about the novelas he watches and how they interact with American culture within these short series. I was excited to hear that he watches English television and listens to English radio quite frequently. Hugo I believe has learned and retained a lot from our short time together, and this is quite fulfilling for me. I plan to continue to work with him this summer outside of the program if we can coordinate our schedules. This is due in part to the fact we were assigned to each other fairly late in the semester, and mostly because we both enjoy the experience.

Overall I hope Hugo takes my use of technology in our course and implements it into his own life. He sees how easy it is to simply Google the answer to common questions he might have. He was wondering about fruit flies and how they are formed and we simply Googled it and he read the article and comprehended it. The goal for me is to give him the ability to carry on this active search for information in the future, and be able to gain the knowledge he desires. A simple thing I showed him was the online thesaurus, and this has enabled him to find words that are outside of his typical vocabulary. He now has the ability to find extremely intellectual lexemes, and use them in his day to day conversations.

As a student I would recommend the SWAP program to any student who wants to gain a meaningful experience, and make a difference in someone's life. The impact may seem small, but the conversations had with the staff at C4C help students gain insight into other cultures and common problems immigrants have with language. The goal isn't to make them perfectly fluent in English, it is to make them feel welcome in the community at CU, and to show staff members the appreciation we do have for them. You get a credit, you get cultured, and you can help make someone's move to the US a little bit easier.

Jeffrey Rice #2

After a couple mishaps I am happy to say the SWAP program is working out. My first student, after a couple meetings decided she was too busy to continue working with me in the program. Now I have a new student named Hugo; we have had a couple of classes. Unfortunately Hugo had to miss our first week of classes because he hurt his back working. Hugo is for the most part fluent in English, and is a lot of fun to talk to. He is a level 6B and is almost done with the program. This is very nice for me because my first student was a 2A and I really had difficulty communicating with her. I am glad to say that we both love sports and talking about them. He likes fútbol and I like football so it was interesting to see how the cultures are similar yet different. I plan to take him on a field trip out to breakfast one of these days. The material we're going over is less everyday vocabulary and much more narrowed focus. It deals with the timing of events and understanding some less popular slang ways of saying things like "beats me". I'm excited to see Hugo continue to learn English after this class and hope he becomes completely fluent in the next year. Overall, this semester has been a good experience, and I am excited to finish the semester strong with Hugo.

Bridget and I have gotten a lot closer over the past month. She loves sharing stories about her friends at school and about her fights with her brothers and sisters. We usually spend the first 15 minutes of our session catching up about her week. We then work on our name tags for the day. She loves her name written in cursive so I have been teaching her how to do that. She thinks her name looks prettier written that way. When we finish nametags, we switch off between reading, drawing pictures for her book, and recently making origami every session. We found a book that was on how to make origami and Bridget wanted to learn how. Her favorite thing to make is a shape that looks like a boat one way and a hat if you turn it the other way.

I have noticed that Bridget is a very observant child. She loves watching all of the other reading buddies and is always interested in what they are doing. I find it hard to hold her attention for a long amount of time. Bridget likes when we have a schedule for the day and when we don't stay focused on anything for too long. The more I have planned for the day, the more fun she ends up having. I have found that switching things up and always having a plan for the day holds her attention. If I do lose her attention though, I ask her if she likes what we are doing or give her an option of doing another activity which often refocuses her.

Overall, Bridget is very successful in the reading buddies program. She loves reading and is always interested in new books and new things to be doing. Most of the other reading buddies struggle to get their little buddies to want to read but I never have struggled with Bridget. She is a bright and very easy little girl to be around.

My favorite activity Bridget and I do together is work on her book. She is so funny and creative with what she chooses for her characters to do. Her tigers get ice cream, fight bulls, and have family dinner together. Her pictures are very elaborate and she loves spending time on the details of their stripes.

Sierra Kohlruss #2

Atticus is still an exciting and imaginative little boy. His thoughts and descriptions are incredibly creative and he loves to tell me stories. Atticus is a very personable kid, always coming up with things to talk about, never leaving a silent or dull moment. He always has a good time at school, coming to Reading Buddies with some sort of story from that day. Our session two weeks ago on March 20th, Atticus was beginning to illustrate for his story. The pictures he drew were incredibly intricate and creative. These pictures went along with a very creative story that I am very proud of Atticus for coming up with. If there wasn't a limit on how long the stories could be, Atticus would have made his story 20 pages long. I think reading so many books gives Atticus these awesome ideas for his story which makes me happy to know I am developing him as a writer and reader in some way.

Through helping write Atticus's story and reading to Atticus, I've paid more attention to the dialect that Linguistics 1000 made me realize that I have. I try and be much more articulate when talking to Atticus, so he doesn't pick up on any incorrect grammar or incorrect phonetics. Without being in Linguistics 1000, I would not have realized I even had a dialect or that I should be more aware of my lexical, grammar, and phonetic linguistic features when speaking to others, especially children.

This Reading Buddy experience has taught me a lot about how the simple act of reading a child books and stories will allow their imagination and creativity to expand a massive amount. Language in U.S. society is the foundation of children's imagination. When reading a book, a child is not just taking the story as it is, they are developing their own story as well, getting ideas and images from that book which is what makes reading so special. This is why it is extremely important for children to be reading at a young age and to embrace all the books that they can!

Volunteering at the Family Learning Center

After about 7 weeks of sessions with The Family Learning Center, I’ve found that I have developed a fond connection to the preschool students as well a better understanding of what a preschool means for the kids, in regards to what they are learning in the time they attend. I’ve noticed a change of my own perspective, from showing up and trying things out a little blindly, to actually seeing what goes into a daily session for the couple of hours that I observe and participate with the kids. I see that these children are receiving constant reminders of remembering the days of the week, learning how to count, introducing new foods, participating in joint activities with adults and peers, and each day expanding their semantic lexicons.

When I come to the preschool, the children are all sitting around tables enjoying their one o’clock snack time. I believe that this practice is a great introduction into the kid’s lives for developing functional eating habits and introducing new ideas about health and balanced snacks/foods. I like to ask questions about the kids’ snacks, especially when they are having trail mix, I ask if they know what kind of ingredients are in the snack, “Do you like the raisins? Or the cashews? What kind of nut is this? A peanut?” After snack I was given the position of being in charge of making sure all of the class brushes their teeth, another way of teaching and practicing personal hygiene outside of the home. After that we all participate in games before the whole class meets up in a circle for song time. I try my best to mix up my one on one interactions with all of the kids equally, I also notice that a lot of the girls are draw n to me and want to take my hand and say “Follow me, let’s play!”

As I mentioned earlier, every day the preschoolers practice with learning about the days of the week and counting, along with the basic skill of checking on the weather. Usually Manuela leads the kiddos as we all sit down together as a group and count the days of the week and name out the current day of the week in English and Spanish. One selected student gets the honor of running to the window to report to everyone what the weather is like that day. I find that this is a good practice for the age group of these kids because I know that the person who is going to check on the window must feel special in that they were the chosen one. I think it’s a classic way to teach individualism and brings a sense of community and value that each kid can bring to the group.

Lately Mona’s class has been participating in a lot of new activities! I mentioned earlier that they are introducing new foods. Mona uses the book about unusual foods that are good for everyone to know, so far the class has been able to try Gouda cheese and daikon radishes. Mona tells the kids that they should tell their parents next time they ask what kind of cheese to buy, to go gourmet and buy gouda. I am really learning that teaching variety of all things at a young age is good for a versatile palate as the kids get older and become independent with their own style and methods of cooking. We have also been playing with more hands on activities like dipping hands in water to play with plastic fish as well as blowing up balloons and learning how to make them float over a fan.

The preschool is so much fun and all the kids are little rays of sunshine; it’s awesome to observe each of their personalities. I find that I am learning myself about what goes into running a preschool with activities and routines and how basic things are really what these kids are learning to help their growth as independent and functional adults. I love being a role model for the students and I know how important joint attention is for kids, especially at their developing age range of 4-5 years old. Reading with them and playing games one on one always seems to uncover some new sort of knowledge each and every session.

Naomi Pederson #2

Wow, The last few weeks were definitely interesting. Youngsil just came in one day and decided that the 7 sentence story we had written last week was not good enough--she was actually going to seriously think about it! We finally had about 3-4 sentences per page, and about 9 pages :) She must've finally decided that this book would be fun if she just gave it a chance!--or so I thought. The next week she comes in, it's "I don't want to" and "If you want a book, you write it!" and even "This is boring, let's just forget about it." I got so frustrated, but I know it's mainly because she doesn't feel confident in her language skills yet. Every time she makes a mistake on a sentence or word, she tells me to take over. And that's expected -- she wasn't raised with English, and I know her parents are also not perfect with English, either. On one hand, I want her to have a fun experience, and don't want to push too hard, but on the other, she won't let it be fun. I really hope that this week will bring about some willingness, now that most of the writing is out of the way.

One interesting thing is that she has started to practice her writing -- in a diary sort of thing. She was embarrassed when her mother told me. I think it's great that Youngsil is taking the initiative to practice and improve her writing -- it helps with grammar, handwriting, and understanding of the language, and that's just amazing. But it also must be a little bit of a sore spot for her if she doesn't want other people to know about it. As a college student, studying is what we are supposed to be doing -- for class, for a test, to learn. As an elementary school student, yeah, studying is important, but few kids actually do more than asked of them -- if that (at least, that was me when I was 6). My handwriting still isn't very good, and off the top of my head, my grammar usually has mistakes -- that's why writing is one required class at almost every age, people can always improve. But I don't think she sees it that way -- she is probably very conscious that her reading and writing level is lower than many of her classmates -- but she's bilingual! Of course as a child she would have issues with juggling the two. As a child, my brother spoke English with Japanese grammar... my mother was the only one who understood a single thing he said (some words were also combinations of the two). He used to get so upset when people couldn't understand him. But just like my brother, Youngsil only sees that she's different, and she wants to be just as good, if not better, than those around her. I already know she is an overachiever -- she pushes herself to do better always (when she wants to, at least). I'm just waiting for her mindset to overpower her fears, and then the question will be, what can't she do?

Jeffrey Rice #1

In the SWAP program I have established a relationship with my "student" Maria Torres. We are in the 2B section for learning. Maria has lived in Colorado with her family for 15 years. She has two kids, one is in the 7th grade and playing soccer. Her daughter is in 5th grade, and they live together in Denver with her husband as well. I enjoy learning about Maria and hearing her speak in English. She says she knows "pequeño" English, but I have found that she can usually understand what I am saying. She enjoys writing the most, and she really wants to learn certain vocabulary for her job and life.

I am extremely excited to work with her this year, because I can see she really wants to learn. She doesn't want to do homework because she doesn't have much time when she isn't working, so I am going to make an effort to help her watch English television shows and interact more with English speakers. I have google translate on my computer up if we need to interact and can't understand each other, but we can usually just phrase words differently to accomplish the same thing. I hope to take her on a field trip soon so we can describe what we see around us. I want to mix up the learning environment so we can find which environment she learns English the best in. We make vocabulary lists and she uses them to look over. This is going to be an exciting semester!

Bridget

The little girl I was assigned to work with is a 6 year old named Bridget. She is a very sweet girl who loved ISPY books. She is the youngest of 4 children and her favorite animal is a tiger. Bridget is very easy to be around. She is always making sure that I like the books we are reading as much as she does and she likes to switch off who is choosing the books.

During one of our reading buddy sessions we had recently, all she wanted to read about was tigers. We used the library search engines to find all of the books in the children's library that were stories about tigers. After reading about 4 books or so, we decided to draw pictures of the tigers we read about in the stories. She decided that she wanted to write her final book at the end of the semester on a tiger named Cece.

Bridget grew up in Colorado and I grew up in Indiana therefore I have somewhat of a midwest accent. When I read certain words to her like mom, basketball, or apple for example she often times corrects me and makes me say the word she does.

Since her first session, Bridget has begun to show more interest in other types of books besides just ISPY. We would have to read a picture book and then do an ISPY book. She now likes to read only 2 ISPY books a session. She has also started to like to read some of the books on her own. When she recognizes the words, she likes to take over and read.

Bridget and I just started writing a book. So far, Bridget is writing the story about a tiger named Cece who became really sick one day. She then realized that she was going to have 2 baby tigers. When the babies were born they decide to go hunting in Africa. Once we finish the story, she will draw the pictures and we will bind the book. Every day, we begin the day by drawing name tags together. Bridget loves doing this and always has me write her name in cursive for her.

Bridget has begun to become more interested in reading herself rather than have me read to her. She has begun to choose simple books and reading them herself. I have taught her some words that she didn't know and it is so exciting when she figures them out and recognizes them later on.

So far, Bridget has taught me how important reading is to children. I have watched how certain stories spark curiosity in her or make her tell certain stories. Reading to her makes her want to know how to read as well. Reading makes her think and be more creative.

Sierra Kohlruss #1

My Reading Buddy's name is Atticus and is 6 years old. He has two brothers and loves to play sports. He is a very smart kid and loves to read. He has two geckos and discusses how he likes to feed them live grasshoppers. A session that went very well with Atticus was last Wednesday, the 27th of February, when we began to write our story. Atticus came up with an elaborate story because he has such a big imagination, about a porcupine inventor who invented machines to capture the bad guys who stole his food. It was really fun to brainstorm with Atticus and write down this magic adventure that Pokey the porcupine goes on. He also had a good time beginning to draw the illustrations for the story!

A connection between the course material and experiences with my student is how Atticus does not know how to read complicated words such as "awesome" or "Sonja" because of the silent letters within the words. This is similar to how a foreigner may not know how to read those words either because they have differing grammar and phonetics. Although Atticus is having trouble pronouncing some difficult words, he has improved on his reading. At the beginning of the semester he barely wanted to read, but now he jumps in on almost every book and can read through the pages efficiently. Atticus and I have really been focusing on reading mostly through the semester, but before we pick out books we write our names on name tags and draw elaborate pictures around our names that tell stories in themselves. The other day, each letter in our names had eyes and a smiley face! A few weeks ago, me and Atticus were reading a book and the sentence "The dad was more prone to letting Jimmy play if he took out the trash," came up. Atticus asked what prone meant and I described its definition, now Atticus knows "prone" along with many other words, so I think he is gaining knowledge every week.

This experience has showed me that sentences and words that I think are simple may be extremely difficult for those who have not learned them yet. I've learned to be less ethnocentric, and put myself in a 6 year old's shoes, reading the book from his perspective. I've learned to not take my knowledge of the English language for granted and challenged myself to learn more difficult words.

Naomi Pederson #1

Once I met with Youngsil, I knew it was going to be fun. Difficult -- but fun. She is always so full of energy, it's almost impossible for me to keep up! She is so cheerful, it’s just infectious. She and her family moved here from Korea, and her brother is also part of the program. I know she is a really smart girl, and that makes it difficult, because she knows that she can communicate her thoughts, but doesn't quite know the proper way of saying them in English. It also makes it difficult to pick out books, as well. She is somewhat of a perfectionist, and her inability to comprehend the books that she wants to read is definitely a sore point with her. We try to pick out books that are at her reading level, but I get the feeling that she thinks they are either boring or stupid. When she does get interested in a book, though, she'll often read a few passages, until she stumbles a bit, then shoves the reins into my hands. Of course, we are supposed to be reading to our Little Buddies, but I also wish that if she just tried a little more, she would feel more accomplished, rather than dejected that she cannot read at the level that she understands.

Recently, though, as I've mentioned the fact that we will be working on a book together, she closed up, or became so uber cheerful that we almost ran out of time to talk about it -- she's very good at changing the subject or avoiding things that way. I think it's because she is afraid of reading out loud to people. She mentioned that at school, her entire grade is performing and singing something for an audience, and she is really scared -- except for when they sing a Korean song. I think she's afraid of making mistakes and faltering. She never says so, though, only that she doesn't like it, or that it won't be fun. I really want to be able to boost her confidence, but I am also afraid of pushing too hard and making her dislike reading and writing.

Being a part of Reading Buddies has definitely been changing how I look at learning language, especially for a second language learner. My mother was born and raised in Japan, and moved here 20 years ago. I've always known that it's difficult to uproot and learn not only a new language, but also an entirely different culture, but never really understood, you know? My brain could understand why it would be difficult, but not really grasping the entirety of the difficulty. With Youngsil, it's so apparent. Her brother is farther along with his English (maybe because he is older?) and I know she speaks Korean at home and often with her friends, but I can see her frustration when she cannot get the word or phrasing correctly in English. We picked out one book, Happy Hanukkah, and she didn't understand the concepts, rather than the words. We talked about Christmas, but I could tell it wasn't really talked about in her home. What must it be like to be her -- just starting to talk, and then not being able to communicate at all? Or when the words make sense as words, but not as sentences and thoughts? So much of what we say relies on understanding meaning beyond the words -- history, shared knowledge, etc. It just boggles my mind, especially since it happens quite often when young families travel. I know that I want her to fall in love with reading, but I also want her to be confident in herself enough that reading out loud isn't an ordeal.

The Family Learning Center Experience Thus Far

I must say that I am really enjoying my experience with the preschool at the Family Learning Center. It really is amazing how positively my mood can change from the time I come in to volunteer, to the time I leave, the kids that go there are all little rays of sunshine. It is such a moment when the kids look sad to say goodbye, but good to look forward to the next visit. I feel welcomed there and hope that I am setting a good example for the preschoolers. The first time in was an adjustment and time to soak in how they operate there. I was able to quickly catch on to their routines, usually when I first come in at one in the afternoon; they are having a snack and then shift to group time. During group time we all sit around as a whole and sing kids songs as well as count the days of the month and check on the weather outside, with songs accompanying all these activities. They are definitely very community-oriented at the Family Learning Center. After all the students are together, I separate with Mona’s classroom where the more one on one sessions begin.

The classroom I help out with consists of about 15 kiddos who are all very sweet and personable. I think over the weeks they have become comfortable with me being around once a week and are starting to be able to call me by my name, as I am for them as well. A little blurb I wrote about to share with friends and family is that I am “Developing a soft spot for preschoolers at the Family Learning Center here in Boulder. All the little girls ask me to draw them rainbows and flowers... One strange request was a fly, which actually turned out pretty cool. They hold my hand willfully and ask me what my favorite color is. The boys tend to keep away from me, but one of them told me I was a giant. I’m 5 foot nine and these kids must be about max 2 in a half feet tall. I read to them all about Curious George, insects and butterflies. I’m finding that reminding everyone they have inside voices and the ability to share, it's key.”

It seems that my role in helping these kids is to be there to help with reading and to set an example of how to draw basic things, just like the rainbows and flies, as I wrote about earlier. I notice, especially with a little girl named Isabelle, that asking questions about what words mean to her really helps her pay attention to the story. For instance, when we are reading a book about insects, and I continuously have to point and ask what things are, like “What is this?" As I point at the tarantula, and then Isabelle will say spider! And then I ask what kind and point to the words that say tarantula and then she says "Tarantula!" The only thing I find to be a struggle is having the power to get the kids’ attentions and keep it going so that they are able to learn and associate their understandings on completing a task. For instance, with one of the boys I work with, It was really hard to be engaged with asking questions with him because he just wouldn’t respond or even look me in the eyes. I just had to keep on being persistent in my intention in helping him solve the word finding game, it was a challenge but we both took what we could out of the shared experience, and I look forward to continuously help him and the other preschoolers with their daily activities. One more thing to note is that my prior know ledge of Spanish is really helping me connect with these bilingual kiddos with basic vocabulary, When I am reading and I know a word in Spanish and in English I will try to say both for a full understanding for both parties.

The Family Learning Center Experience Thus Far

I must say that I am really enjoying my experience with the preschool at the Family Learning Center. It really is amazing how positively my mood can change from the time I come in to volunteer, to the time I leave, the kids that go there are all little rays of sunshine. It is such a moment when the kids look sad to say goodbye, but good to look forward to the next visit. I feel welcomed there and hope that I am setting a good example for the preschoolers. The first time in was an adjustment and time to soak in how they operate there. I was able to quickly catch on to their routines, usually when I first come in at one in the afternoon; they are having a snack and then shift to group time. During group time we all sit around as a whole and sing kids songs as well as count the days of the month and check on the weather outside, with songs accompanying all these activities. They are definitely very community-oriented at the Family Learning Center. After all the students are together, I separate with Mona’s classroom where the more one on one sessions begin.

The classroom I help out with consists of about 15 kiddos who are all very sweet and personable. I think over the weeks they have become comfortable with me being around once a week and are starting to be able to call me by my name, as I am for them as well. A little blurb I wrote about to share with friends and family is that I am “Developing a soft spot for preschoolers at the Family Learning Center here in Boulder. All the little girls ask me to draw them rainbows and flowers... One strange request was a fly, which actually turned out pretty cool. They hold my hand willfully and ask me what my favorite color is. The boys tend to keep away from me, but one of them told me I was a giant. I’m 5 foot nine and these kids must be about max 2 in a half feet tall. I read to them all about Curious George, insects and butterflies. I’m finding that reminding everyone they have inside voices and the ability to share, it's key.”

It seems that my role in helping these kids is to be there to help with reading and to set an example of how to draw basic things, just like the rainbows and flies, as I wrote about earlier. I notice, especially with a little girl named Isabelle, that asking questions about what words mean to her really helps her pay attention to the story. For instance, when we are reading a book about insects, and I continuously have to point and ask what things are, like “What is this?" As I point at the tarantula, and then Isabelle will say spider! And then I ask what kind and point to the words that say tarantula and then she says "Tarantula!" The only thing I find to be a struggle is having the power to get the kids’ attentions and keep it going so that they are able to learn and associate their understandings on completing a task. For instance, with one of the boys I work with, It was really hard to be engaged with asking questions with him because he just wouldn’t respond or even look me in the eyes. I just had to keep on being persistent in my intention in helping him solve the word finding game, it was a challenge but we both took what we could out of the shared experience, and I look forward to continuously help him and the other preschoolers with their daily activities. One more thing to note is that my prior know ledge of Spanish is really helping me connect with these bilingual kiddos with basic vocabulary, When I am reading and I know a word in Spanish and in English I will try to say both for a full understanding for both parties.