The joys of teaching!

I have been so blessed this year to teach violin to three sisters! (8,7 and 5) For the past month I taught them English for an hour and a half, once a week. It was certainly a challenge to have them all together, but I found some excellent help from this website: http://www.esl-kids.com/index.html I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in teaching English to kids! There are free flashcards, games, worksheets, songs, and even a sample lesson plan with hypothetical challenges and solutions to teaching kids. For my very first class, I made a rule right away that the girls were only allowed to speak English. If they spoke in Spanish then they would lose a point - and they started out with 4 points each lesson, and needed to keep 4 points for 4 lessons to earn a prize. This worked amazingly well! Although several times they argued with each other in English, sometimes making up words, and also resorted to tattle-tailing! I quickly made a new rule that they were not a lot to tell me when a sister should lose a point. Over all it was such a wonderful experience and the girls and I had so much fun! For our last lesson, they talked me into making Christmas cookies. Isabel, the oldest, told me that she really wanted to learn food vocabulary and that we could make cookies while they learned the vocab! Haha - great idea. On Monday they came over for 2 hours to make cookies and learn the new English vocab. During the whole time they each told me how much they loved having me as a teacher and how much they were going to miss me! They also decorated many cookies especially for me and for "my boyfriend" as Belen (the youngest) often called Luis! Yesterday we had our last violin lessons and then a Christmas recital. Isabel and I played a duo with Isa's mom, who accompanied us on the piano. (video posted in earlier post). At the end of the recital (of about 20 participants), the girl's mom, who was directing the recital, asked me to come forward to pray for me. She told the audience about our plans to move and wanted to thank me for teaching her girls. Then, each girl came up and presented me with a beautiful flower and a hug! After that she prayed for me, asking for God's favor as we got Luis' papers in order for his residency. I could not have felt more honored and blessed! It truly has been joy to teach this year. 

Belen, working on her bow hold

Making cookies!            

Keila, (the middle one), taking a turn with the dough

Isa, frosting and decorating cookies

Belen, proudly showing me her cookie

All of us together!

Hilarious girls!

Keila played "Joy to the World" at the recital

Belen played "Jingle Bells"

After the recital

The girl's mom, Vicky, 

How special!

Three beautiful flowers from my three students