Lets Be Ready

As we have already told you in our past reports, the nutrition program is sponsored by the Mathile Foundation, which provides consulting services and a fortified nutritional drink containing proteins and 21 essential vitamins and minerals; better known as CHISPUDITOS for our children.

Last month we had the pleasant visit of two members of the Mathilde Foundation (Clay and Tim), who visited the school of Los Izotes in San Juan Sacatepéquez; the objective of the visit was that the members of the foundation and the team of chispuditos knew how both education and nutrition programs work in that community, and how the mothers support the preparation of the atol, as well as the children consume it daily .

The teachers Lidia and Margarita who work in this community, the children gave them a very good reception. They showed a model class to Clay and Timothy with the theme of Animal Classification, read a story about animals and last they made an animal with recyclable material, which greatly amused the children.

When the meal was over, the mothers prepared the drink, Clay and Tim served the children their atol as well as the supplement, which was a peeled orange with a ground nugget.

In the end the teachers, the children and Fred expressed their gratitude for the donation made by this foundation with the drink Chispuditos.

It was a very encouraging visit both for Lets Be Beady and the program CHISPUDITOS as it was more closely appreciated as the children enjoy their atol and how this helps them in their education.

"As a teacher, I have experienced how this nutritious drink (Chispuditos), during these two years of testing has helped our children to be more ready and prepared to learn and have a better nutrución. I think that in the most rural communities the advances of the children have been more noticeable because the boys are more prepared to be successful and to be healthy "

An image describes more than a thousand words, so in the photos below you will appreciate more about the visit and the activities described above (sorry for the definition of some photos)...

I'm writing soon again.

Hello! To all, It is a pleasure to write again and show you what our teachers do.

The activities you will read in this report are based on the report of one of our teachers in Santo Domingo Xenacoj, she is Gloria who is a very active and creative teacher in everything she does; as you will notice in the following activities that she did in her class.

Her children have advanced very well with the issue of numbers, for example they learned the number 7,8,9 and 10 doing the stroke, having a sequence of the following numbers and the amount they represent; they learned various activities such as the airplane game where they follow the sequence of numbers from 0 to 10. These numbers are the fundamental basis for children's learning.

As far as letters have been able to see which are the lowercase and uppercase vowels, identify the letter and make the stroke of these; with 6 year olds she performs dictations.In small groups they have worked on how to tie shoelaces since most of them have trouble doing this.

She coordinated with the health post closest to the community, to have an exhibition or talk about the care of the lungs. This was done so that families and children and their families would notice the importance of taking care of them to prevent tuberculosis; this activity was done by the day of Tuberculosis.

To celebrate the day of the water, they became aware of taking care of it and a handicraft with a balloon making a drop of water as a symbol of not spending a lot of water at home.

Finally, to make better the tracings of letters and numbers, the children made a sensory bag, this also with the aim of working fine motor skills.

These are some of the activities Gloria performs in her class, they are simple, fun and instructive for children; as you will see in the following images.

In the next report we will tell you more about what other activities are done by other teachers. Greetings to all.

Hi all!
I hope you are fine…

"It's a pleasure for me to write you again and share our Joy of being one more year alive, to improve, laugh, enjoy, learn and above all teach"

I want to tell you that last month we had our first training of the year, which was called "Professional Growth IX" where we learned and shared new ideas, and activities with the whole "Let's be Ready" team.

This year we had the visit of our beloved and respected founder Fred Zambroski and his wife Nancy, whom we missed a lot during the past year. They were with us during the training, they gave us words of encouragement and showed us how proud they are for the teamwork we do to improve both the education of our children, and that of us to improve ourselves. It was good to see them again and enjoy their company.

There were also the Elba Sponsors who teaches in Patzicía, they are Janice and William; They visited Elba 2 times last year. They are very happy and satisfied with their work and creativity, they liked the activities they did. To all of us who are part of the Let's be Ready teachers group, we were very surprised by the visit of these Sponsors and we were delighted that they arrived because a sponsor had not showed up for a long time, much less attended the training; They made us see that we are on the right track with the education of our children and even Janice gave us new ideas to work with the children. We certainly enjoyed this surprise ...

José Tun, the person in charge of the Nutrition program made a very good presentation of the Atol program "CHISPUDITOS", showed us new ideas to prepare the atol and how to implement it in the communities; We also saw a simple video with important Nutrition information about what parents should take into account when feeding their children, so that they have normal performance and development.

Regarding everything else, we learned a lot from each other and set ourselves new goals to achieve each one as teachers and with our children for this year. It was an instructive and constructive week, as you will see in the following images ...

It is always a pleasure to write to you and inform you of what we love doing and we hope to tell you more in our next report.

Take care, see you soon.

Hi everybody, how are you?

First of all I want to apologize for not having more information about us, I have no excuses, but I hope you like to know how we finish the 2018 school year.

The Truth is that we are very grateful to God and to all the people who are part of the program, because without the effort, the effort, the dedication, the empathy and the Love that we have for our children; it would not have been possible to finish one more year. And of course, of course, we are also very grateful for all the donations and the support provided by our beloved sponsors.

All teachers agreed that it was a year of new learning and teaching, because experiences always teach us what to do and what not to do. During the month of October, we worked hard to review all the topics seen in the year with our children, we finished preparing the children who pass this year 2019 to first and culminate with the closing of the year. Later in our reports you will be able to know more about the boys who pass to first grade ...

We are very satisfied with the work done, because the results were very good, our goals and objectives proposed during the year 2018; Some of us were very helpful and others were not, but this serves as a lesson for this new year.

We also appreciate the fundamental help given by parents, by those who made an effort to help their children and by keeping in mind that if they were not interested in their children's education, we would not improve the country .

In our next report I will write you about what we are already doing to start with much desire, energy and enthusiasm this year 2019 ...

On Wednesday, September 12th, I was able to visit the Pequeños Pero Listos school in Santo Domingo Xenacoj, Guatemala, with the program’s director, Sara Bacajol. We arrived in time for the students’ gathering to learn about the day in the Mayan calender, 2 B’atz. Their teacher, Miss Gloria, excitedly explained the meaning of the different candles, colors, and grains being used in the special ceremony. She expressed how the gathering is meant to represent a start of a new time, and also to remember their past, whether direct grandparents or long-away ancestry. General background states that B’atz in Mayan astrology is meant to represent life, and is based on the Mayan god of creation, B’atz. The children’s energetic excitement and willingness to learn was clear, as they all answered each question in unison as Miss Gloria continued her presentation and encouraged their participation.

Afterwards, the children put on a show of some beautiful dances in their own traditional outfits from home. Their skirts and vests were bright and colorful, as their shoes tapped away and their hair bounced with detailed ribbons woven through.  We watched and cheered as they danced in pairs and group circles to upbeat marimba music, giggling and smiling for our photos. Everyone took turns and cheered on their classmates, happily helping their teacher with the music and applauses after each skit. We were even able to hear some solo singers and clever riddles for the class as a mini talent show ensued.

Next we were able to enjoy an amazing home-cooked dish prepared by some of the mothers. “Pulique de pollo,” a Mayan meal, is a delicious meat and vegetable stew served with fresh tortillas and tamales. The students all pulled their chairs up to the awaiting tables and happily listened as the mothers explained what the pulique was made of and why it takes skill and patience to cook. It was worth the wait; we all thanked the mothers for the wonderful meal and the students for sharing their unique day with us. After our warm meal and hot drinks, we had to say goodbye to the children. I was so thankful to be invited to their special day in school, and I hope to bring you more stories of these visits in the near future.

(Written by Arisa Gereda)