Area 11 Kids Club

Breakfast Club is getting bigger and bigger. We’re now feeding around 20 kids every week which is great! But we’re still getting regular power cuts on Saturday morning which is really not helping. Cooking on one mbaula/charcoal stove for 20 kids is not easy. Come on ESCOM!

A couple of weeks ago, we started another micro project – to build a classroom in our carport.

It began very simply… 3 rows or masking tape on the wall, 10 post-it notes on each. First row of numbers (1-10), another of English (one-ten) and Chichewa (modzi–khumi). The inspiration, if you can call it that, came when I saw the kids playing skipping/jump rope games. I asked them to count out loud in English instead of Chichewa and they couldn’t quite manage it (coupled with being a bit shy still). Thanks to the masking tape and post-it’s, they’ve now learnt how to count to ten in English and me in Chichewa 🙂

Then we added a poster of the alphabet with pictures, which we picked up at a road junction. Sellers (and beggars) come up to your car and try to sell you all sorts on these junctions! From bananas and dried fish to posters and map globes. We got this poster for MWK 1,250 I seem to remember… it was well spent because the kids love it.

Classroom 2.0

There’s also vertical strip of masking with distance from the floor marked out. We used it to measure their height and the digital scales, which were very generously donated by a couple of VSO volunteers who recently returned home, to record the kids’ weight. Thanks Liz and Barbara!

Name, height and weight…

Tallest to shortest (minus quite a few)

The latest improvement is a Countdown style letters and number board. Ingeniously made by Regie! With this, the kids are learning to spell simple words and also their names in English.

Countdown board… from a chitenje

More improvements to come.

Any ideas welcome!! Please suggest.