Dancing Helps
So, after my last post, about five children came to meet us. We talked and I smiled a lot in an attempt to deal with not having any clue what was being said most of the time. They call my Catty. Diane asked if they could call me Cat because it would be easier to say than Kathryn. Somehow it have morphed into Catty, which I kind of like. Actually, it sounds a great deal like Katy (what I was called until I was about 9).
After a while, there was singing and then Diane turned on music and we danced. The children are very good dancers and I tried to follow along. They actually seemed to warm up to me more once they saw me dancing. One of the girls even danced *with* me and seemed to really enjoy being spun around and spinning me. ( :
I won't use names here since I'm not sure how issues of confidentiality stand, but we'll call the children I met today E, M, Mi, J, and, um, I've forgotten the name of one. E and M are girls. Mi, J, and ? are boys. They're all between 8 and 10, I would say. E is the one I danced with and she seems shy, but friendly. They all have a great deal of energy and, well, very little focus. Just like many children. ( : We tried a couple drama games, but I'm still struggling with getting instructions across. It *was* very informal today, so perhaps when they are there with class as a mindset, I'll be more able. I need to learn a few phrases, like "stop", "quiet", "look", "come back".... that sort of thing. I know "yes" (da) and "no" (nu).
And I'll stop there for tonight, I think. I'm faintly aware that I should probably read my children's drama manual a bit tonight to prepare for tomorrow.
Hope everyone is well. ( :