When we first arrived, Karen and I were able to go through
the children’s report cards from last semester and note weaker subjects for
each of the children. Then, for each standard, we have targeted certain areas
to focus in on. During the weekends, we take advantage of the time the children
are home by holding tutoring sessions. The topics of the sessions may range,
but they are all intended to help strengthen weak areas. This past weekend, I
focused in on French with all of the standards. To this point, no one at
Tumaini has really been able to help with the children’s French, so that
subject has become a particular focus of mine. Karen held a variety of
sessions—handwriting, dictionary skills, dictation comprehension, and
communication technology.
During the week, we decided to still use the limited time we
have. 2-3 nights per week, we create worksheets for the kids to work on while
we’re checking their homework. (By create, we mean that we write out short
assignments on our scrap paper. We’re trying to be wise about using our resources,
and scrap paper is something we have a lot of!) We try to vary each standard’s
assignment from night to night. One evening, the assignment may focus on
addition while the next night may focus on completing a story. We have a lot of
resource material to draw from. We also create some review assignments, using
the textbooks the children are currently working through.
During the day, Karen and I keep busy with planning
evening/weekend sessions and organizing the office. We have thousands of
worksheets that have been copied for use during previous vacations. What has
not been used has been stored in a filing cabinet in our office. The amount of
worksheets is simply overwhelming. But, in order to use the worksheets, it’s
best to know what we have. So, we’ve been working through cataloging those
sheets. It may seem like a ridiculous task to some—we may both have some OCD
problems!—but we know it will be very profitable in the future to know what
resources we already have at our disposal.
We also have Swahili lessons 3-4 times per week. I’m very
slowly working on Swahili. Often, it feels like no progress has been made.
However, when I look back at what I knew 5 weeks ago, I realize that I have
learned some! Please pray for patience and perseverance for both Karen and I as
we work on Swahili.
