Reading to Kids is an amazing and fun program that ALDPES participates in on every second Saturday of the month where members get the opportunity to travel to White and Esperanza Elementary Schools and read to children. Transportation's provided! The bus rides are bumpy but generally amusing and you get to know your fellow ALDPES members as you swap stories of your reading to kids experience and daily life in general.
This past Saturday (4/14/12) I had the chance to go to Esperanza Elementary School and read to kindergarteners with my friend Divya Gupta as my reading partner. Once we got to the school and were debriefed as to what to do, we were given our group of children. These 4 and 5 year-olds got me from the get go with their cute smiles and spunky attitudes. We finally reached the classroom and I went to sit on the carpet with the book we were going to read to them, Little Night Owl by Divya Srinivasan (yes she and my friend had the same name), as Divya got supplies out.
As I was getting ready to read, one of the little boys, Ethan, came up to me and sat really close to me and I thought "awww, he really wants to listen to the story!" But this adorable little boy kept coming closer and started to pull on my braids (why I wore braids that day is beyond me....) in various directions and wouldn't let go of me. Another boy, Blutee, soon followed Ethan's lead and full-on tackled me and the two boys together succeeded in sending me flying backwards. I was laughing and having a good time while in shock at the fact that I had just been attacked by two 4 year-olds. I didn't mind being attacked until one of their elbows was pressing down on my throat and my air supply was compromised. With the kids finally off me, I decided it was time to start reading. (There was a whole ordeal involving name tags in which we weren't sure if the names that the kids told us were really their own or each other's...) Divya and I finally got them to sit down for a little bit and I started to read this simple but lovely tale about an owl visiting his little woodland creature friends at night. As I read, some of the kids would wander off while others attentively listened. One of the boys, adorable and shy little Edwin, primarily spoke only Spanish and I realized that I actually remembered quite a bit of Spanish from high school. Another one of the boys, Jorge, did a good job in helping to get Ethan and Blutee to behave and was quite mature for his age. At one point, Divya was also brutally attacked by these energetic munchkins as I repeatedly pulled Ethan off of her. After reading the story, we had crafts time where we built little fences out of popsicle sticks and drew little owls to perch on them (well, the kids colored materials while I got rubber cement and glue all over my hands and made a mess of myself). Divya and I had the situation under control.
Towards the end of the session, Ethan and Blutee needed to go to the bathroom and so I went with them to prevent them from getting into anymore shenanigans. Poor Ethan couldn't reach the sink or soap (it took a while to convince him to even wash his hands in the first place...) and so I had to go into the boys' bathroom and lift him up to the sink as he washed his hands. Meanwhile, Blutee had come into the bathroom again and stood underneath the hand dryer. Up until now, he had had his hoodie on so I hadn't noticed his mohawk until I looked over and he was standing underneath the hand dryer happily saying "Looooook!! My hair's flying!!" Both boys and I exited the bathroom only to find one of the girls Belinda waiting outside. I was surprised and asked her "Belinda! What are you doing here?? Does Divya know you're here!?" She just shook her head and started running off to play on some statues that were in the middle of the courtyard and the boys proceeded to follow her. It took a good 5 minutes to convince them to stop climbing the statues and come back with me as we raced back to the classroom. Div and I were already late bringing them back. We finally got everyone back in the classroom, handed out their prize books (books that they receive at the end of each reading session to add to their libraries at home), and took them back to the main hall. Some crafts had fallen apart on our way back so while everyone else was attentively paying attention to someone speaking, I was fiddling with tape and trying to fix the kids' crafts which was an interesting task. They soon all left to get picked up by their parents. Divya and I just looked at each other and high-fived each other on handling energetic seven 4 (or 5) year-olds.
We had a fun bus ride back (after missing it once or twice since we hadn't reached the bus stop in time) and there was storytelling galore. I had a really fun time running around like a child again and I definitely want to participate in this program again! :)
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