By Elizabeth Sholtys | Director
The new academic year began in June at AIC, and like clockwork, 14 little ones - 6 girls and 8 boys - began their bridge year before kindergarten in AIC's playgroup.
Although timid at first, now that they have been attending playgroup for several month, the children are old pros and now march enthusiastically into the classroom to begin their sessions! The mothers have also been quite motivated and engaged this year. Several are former AIC students who were married in early adolescence, fled abusive husbands and are now young (teenaged) mothers raising their children on their own, so these young women feel an extremely strong desire to ensure their little ones do not have the same upbringing that they did and thus put in tremendous effort to learn and implement the skills and methods taught in the playgroup classes. One mother even arrives half an hour before each session starts to practice her English skills!
For the first three months of the academic year, teacher Shubhangi has focused on several core elements:
Shubhangi and caregiver Shobha place special emphasis on selecting activities that they notice the children and mothers find the most enjoyable, since their primary goal at this stage in the year is to develop positive rapport with the women and children and inculcate habits of regular attendance and active participation. So far this year, these activities have included:
We look forward to a productive, fun year with these little ones, and can't wait to continue to see them grow and learn!
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