Newsletter May 2011

From this month on, we have a new family of employees at our home. Victor, 39 years of age, is employed as educator and responsible for agriculture, while his wife, Blanca (22 years old) looks after the little ones of Sala Cuna in the mornings and does homework with the older ones in the afternoons. They have a one-year old son, Daniel, who also lives with us.

Our students go to a private nuns’ school called Laura Vicuña. Since May is the “Month of the Mother of God”, they had a special religious program during the whole month. One morning, they had to be at school at 5.00 a.m. to say a rosary, with subsequent procession. They also had to go to school at evenings to pray for an hour. The month of May also is the merry month of May. We adopted the literal meaning and converted our home into an agricultural home. Since our home is full of little, green spots, Victor planted a variety of vegetables with the kids: Tomatoes, Capsicum, as well as cornfields. If everything grows nicely, we’ll have a wonderful vegetable garden in a couple of months. The idea is for the children to make a connection with the earth, so as to care for “things”.

Our five little ones are concerned with early stimulation in the mornings. They are educated by teachers Eda and Blanca. This means that they get to know colors, numbers, vowels, objects and animals, and they complete their work journals with varying materials. This improves their fine motor skills.

Our smallest sunshine boy, Juan Carlos, has meanwhile recovered from his malnourishment and has grown very mature for his age of six months. He already has 4 teeth, crawls, stands on his own and would love to walk on his own. He has become everybody’s center of attention and everyone, from youngest to oldest, look after him with affection.