On the last day of this month, I will tell you something about the work in the two preschools. The ‘concert of crying children’ at the beginning of the year, when in Reboane Kiga 52 new children and in Godisang 26 new children began, is still gruesome in my ears. In the meantime, these children are totally engaged in their work, sometimes they do not even realize that their mothers are standing at the gate, wanting to pick them up.
For us the teachers , however, the greatest step has not yet been done. We are still showing the children how to carry a tablet, how to push in the chair, and how to walk slowly and quietly, while outside running and shouting is permitted and desired.
In the meantime the five preschool teachers have the basic knowledge in Montessori philosophy and are diligent in the practice except for the last module (culture, geography, botany). They have written their assignments of the four modules on time and are preparing for their examinations at the beginning of August. We realize every day at work with the children that the Montessori pedagogy demands much from the teachers. A small example: Order is so important, so that the children put the material back where it belongs to. If we, as educators, do not pay attention to order, the children cannot learn order.
It is particularly interesting to observe the little ones, they are the first to understand the order in the preschool and to notice when something is wrong. Every day we see how the two-year-olds point out the older children that they have forgotten to return their mat or push the chair under the table.
“The child does what you do, not what you tell him” (M. Montessori) Decisive is what the educators do, not what they say. This is absolutely the opposite of what happens every day in the families and what is commonly understood by education. We go against the tide with the Montessori pedagogy, but we see in the children how they develop. Many of the children speak little, some not at all, because at home no one speaks to them properly; the mothers have no time, the mothers are overwhelmed. It’s so amazing to experience all of a sudden that these children start talking. Today I had one of this moments: a two year old boy who has not said word since he started in the middle of January, looked at a picture and said a full sentence.
Well, at the end some impressions of South Africa , what is going on around us: since December, more precisely, since Christmas, we have had rain almost daily , and more than we have expected . This month it has rained more than in the whole year 2016 (!!!): 550 mm exactly. I have never experienced South Africa (I am 30 years in the country this year) being so green as it is now.
In Tsibogang we are trembling as we approach the end of the financial year next month. Our funds are exhausted and we do not know if new funders will come up to fill in the gap which we have. Especially the Tshepanang project is at risk. So we ask you to help us praying for new funders/funds so that we can go on with our projects. Thanks !
Christel Lorato Hermann