My kids

Russian kids know how to party

 

Last night, for Level 1, we had a small Halloween party. They knew what Halloween was, and were fully prepared with a costumes. After doing some spelling and writing, we jumped into it...drawing pumpkins on orange balloons, showing their costumes to the class, taking pictures, talking about Halloween, and eating candy.

 

From left to right: Ellya, Lera, Violit, Artium, Maxim, Seva, & Vlad

 



 

My host brother, Maxim, knows how to kick butt.

(Literally. He learned "Tae Kwon Do" in Thailand.

My host family lived there for 14 months)

 

 

 

Here is my "home group" from Primary (1 of the 3 groups I get)!

From left to right: Gleb, Alisia, Sonya, Mark,
Dionna, & Alisa

 

 

Of course we can't forget Private 1! Recently we got a bunch

of new little kids at this school, but pictured below

are 3 of the 5 older students we have.

From right to left: Maxim, Motivey, Vlad,

and some American

Playing with lightsabers with teacher Lauren

 

Aren't they all just too cute? Don't be deceived by their adorableness--they can be a handful sometimes! ;) I enjoy teaching them though. My favorite classes would go in this order: Level 1, Private 1, & then Primary.

 

Progress with the kids is slow but good. This program has a way of gently and secretly introducing English into the kids vocabulary; so overnight they, obviously, won't turn into fluent speakers. But, with time, they do come close to it...

 

...On Tuesday night we had a parents meeting at the Kindergarten. All of us girls had to get up and tell about each individual child we teach. Because some of the parents don't speak English themselves, kids from Level 6 were brought to translate. And they did, perfectly! It was awesome to see 12-13 year olds translating English to Russian to an entire audience. And it helped me to understand that, yes, with time and patience my kids from Primary, and all the way to Level 1, can get to that point.

 

Along with the parents meeting, we also had "open classes" in our Level/Elementary program. For an hour two Monday's ago, in my Level 1 class parents came to see how their kid was doing, how class goes, and decide whether to continue their child in the program (not intimidating at all....) Tonight I have an open class for Primary.

 

We also have to plan a "Spectacular", which will be a day before I leave St Pete's (December 17th), at the Kindergarten. This is for Primary and Level's 1-4. We will have skits, songs, ect., for the kids to preform in front of their parents. 

 

Anyway! That's about it when it comes to the kids. Lots of things going on, and lots of work to do!

 

And because us volunteers are so busy and work so hard, we get vacation time! Tomorrow night we'll be leaving on a bus to Lithuania, and our trip will continue through Latvia, Estonia, & Finland. Nov 1st - 10th. I'm excited! We are having to plan out and write down a lot of details, directions, and the like. Hopefully things will go over well! Can't wait to get some more stamps on my passport.

 

Talk to you all later!

-Maegan