My Refugee Kids

I finally started doing the refugee work regularly now. I am working with the kids every Wednesday afternoon for an hour or two. The first half hour or so the older kids (8-12) bring their homework to work on and after that the other kids join in too. The youngest that come are probably four-ish. Most of them are pretty great, but when they all get together, they can get a bit rowdy. One girl is kind of loud and domineering.

If I can say I have favorites, it would be one little boy who is about 4, Stefan. After a few of the kids had already left this week, he tugged on my sleeve and pointed at a “Winnie Puh” book on the other table. I asked, ”Do you want to read the book together?” In German. He nodded and got a big smile on his face. I tried actually reading but he just wanted to look at the pictures, so we flipped through and I tried to name the animals and as him what color they were and things like that. He would get excited and point at different characters. It was so cute!

One of my other favorites is Simona who is 7. Her two older sisters are good kids too, but Simona and I got to work on a puzzle together. I forget how hard it is for little kids to do some things still. But it was super fun to giver her tips on how to put the pieces together and look for similar colors or the pieces with straight sides or corners. We did the same puzzle together twice and then I did some stuff with some other kids while she worked on it again. Then she asked for my help again after a while. With some tips and questions, she does really well, but I think she doesn’t know where to start when it is just a random pile of pieces. Bt she just sat on my lap and we worked together. Really fun.

Arzu, who is 12 wanted to know if I knew 50 Cent and other rappers, or if I had ever met any of them before. He also wanted to know if I had been to NY. He talked a lot about rappers and gangsters and weapons. He was curious and didn’t seem like a bad kid but I am worried about his fascination with these things.

Most of the kids come from Eastern Europe, the sisters are from Kosavo, and there is a kid from Mongolia, and a few from Chichenien (I have no clue how to spell that).

This week jsut a couple kids came which was kinda nice. I think when there are a lot of them it is too much like school and doing classroom management. It was Simona, her older sister Danijella and a boy, Musabeg, who's a good kid. We started a huge puzzle, gave up and then read Cindarella. there were a few other kids that randomly came and went too. It is nice getting to know them a bit better.

Well, I finished my essay for the week for my TESOL practicum (about classroom management) and am soon off to Innsbruck to hang out with some other TAs and hopefully go snowboarding tomorrow and churhc on Sunday. I have missed a few weeks so I am excited to go again.