Thank God for Veronika!

I am so happy to introduce you to our new childcare worker, Veronika,  (blonde, kneeling in the middle).  A friend of mine, Pandora, knows Veronika through her etymologist husband.  Veronika had mentioned to Pandora that she was looking for an opportunity to volunteer with children and Pandora thought maybe Veronika could help me.  At the same time we needed someone to lead the children's time during Adult Bible study. PERFECT!  God is so amazing. How does he make these amazing connections?  I couldn't have even imagined a sweet, 27 year old woman, from the Czech Republic teaching our children.  It reminds me of the verse:  Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!

So while the adults are learning Bible verses at my house, the children of the deaf adults meet over in the apartment for roughly an hour and a half.  Veronika feeds them a light meal, tells them a Bible story, plays a game, and then does a craft with them.

Currently they are walking through the Old Testament children's stories.  Last night was Noah's Ark.

I am so delighted.  The children are so happy.  They love her!    

Hooray.  Go God!

Visiting Luz Marie

Luz Marie is the daughter of one of the teachers at St. Peter's.  Luz has been in our Special Needs program her whole school life until recently.  Her scoliosis or sclerosis of the spine has gotten worse. This makes it difficult for her to sit up for more than short periods of time.  The special ed. teachers decided to take all of the children to visit her and cheer her up.  It was wonderful to see how interested they were in her and how much Luz glowed from the attention of her friends.   May God fill her difficult days with many happy moments like this.

Bubbles!

Sometimes it is difficult to keep Morine focused and on task.  That makes sense.  She's 7 years old and 3 hours (8:30 - 11:30) with a teacher one-on-one must be pretty exhausting even with a 30 minute recess at 10:00.  During the mornings we have several things to complete each day: practice sight word vocabulary, practice the spelling words for the week, read a story in her reading book and discuss it, write in her "My Stories" creative writing log, and finally do a lesson in math.   Sometimes while we are working through all of this, she makes dramatic yawns and stretches.  She asks for water and then to go to the bathroom. I do not want to pressure her or drive her too hard but I know she can be more focused and being more focused makes her life and my teaching much easier.  So I created the 11:15 reward.   If she has finished everything by 11:15 she can do something fun. Before the morning begins she chooses what she will do for the reward.  There's lots of options: make a bead necklace, play an educational game on my tablet, paint, look at books in the library or recently I found this cool set of bubble wands.  Here's another picture of BUBBLES!