MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Fido is My Best Friend

At school I teach with the Helen Doron Method several days a week.  My classes are at a large range of different levels but one particular class is in MEFAC (More English for all Children).  In the 4^th book there is a song called Fido is My Best Friend. 

With the Helen Doron Method every word and phrase is taught before the song can be sung.  Much like the Suzuki method of learning music children hear to a CD two times a day and then come to class once a week for an hour.  The theory is that they will recognize and be able to pronounce all of the English words and in class we put meaning to the words that they have been hearing.

This method starts teaching children as young as 6 months old and continues until they are teenagers.  In this class, my students are 7 and 8 years old and have been using this method for several years.  Something I forgot to mention is with this method each child also gets a sticker at the end of each lesson to put in there “passport” saying they were present.  This might not sound like a big deal to you but believe me it is a HUGE deal to these kids!

On the first week with this class everything went smoothly until sticker time.  I let each child pick what sticker they wanted and one boy chose one with a dog.  As soon as I put it in his passport he began to sob.  I was unsure of what had just happened so I tried to comfort him with no success and so I sent him to his dad.  Later his dad told me that their dog had just died the day before.  I felt horrible but what was I going to do? I didn’t know and he had chosen his own sticker.

The next week this boy didn’t come to class.   Oh no, I thought I must have scared him away.  But he returned the following week.  Well that is just when we got to this song, which as you can infer from the title is about Fido, who happens to be a dog, and how he is this little boys best friend. 

We not wanting a repeat incident of two weeks prior I taught all the vocabulary using cats and other things as to not bring the dog in. Then when all the vocabulary had been taught there was nothing left to do with this song but sing it, I informed the dad that the following class we would be singing this song at the very beginning and if he didn’t think his son could handle it they could just be 5 minutes late. 

So that is what happened.  Usually with these songs you sing them for several weeks and they have a choreographed dance but I decided once was enough for this one.  We then a few weekends ago we had more Helen Doron Training and prior to training we are given a topic to present and what topic did I get … none other than Fido the dog!!!  It was so ironic and I couldn’t help but laugh.  What are they chances really there are so many topics as I was planning for the training I couldn’t even believe that I would be teaching about Fido. 

Advent Chain

As to add a bit of joy to our everyday life I decided to make an Advent Chain to count down the days until Christmas.  Every day in December until Christmas we will be cutting one loop off of the chain and doing what it recommends.  I was so excited!!! Most of them we accomplished on or near the day it recommended.  Here is a bit of what we did. 

Thanks for the music Jenna! 

Coal Heating

In Poland most people heat their homes with coal, YES COAL!  We were surprised as well.  Prior to winter people purchase several tons of coal and then shovel it into their coal room.  People have coal burners in their basement and then each morning they start up the coal fire (which I hear is difficult) and several times a day add more coal to the fire. 

We got to see the process in Ilona’s basement.  Her family has a fancy coal burner so they only need to add coal once every few days but they still need to stir it several times to keep it going.  Thank you Sebastian Wolan for showing us how it all works.  He even took a picture of us with in front of the coal!       

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving in Poland

We decided that it would be necessary for us to host a Thanksgiving in Poland for several reasons.  One we didn’t want to not celebrate Thanksgiving.  Two we could share the holiday with others and three we had an excuse to cook a nice meal and invite people over. 

Then Menu went as follows:

Grandpa’s (Mel Mueller) Chicken

Grandma’s (Carol Nelson) Stuffing

Dad’s (Mark Clark) Sweet Potatoes

Mom’s (Karen Clark) Steamed Broccoli

Cherry Jello from The Christenson’s

Mom’s (Anne Nelson) Apple Pie

Grandma’s (Bert Plachecki) Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thank you to all of those who contributed to our meal including, supplies and recipes!

I think that people had a nice time and we had a lot of fun planning and getting everything ready.  Kayla even made placemats to add a bit more festivity.  We had good intentions of playing paper football to bring that element of Thanksgiving as well, we even made a bracket but we ran out of time.

Ilona’s Birthday Party

Recently it was Ilona’s birthday here in Poland.  She had a princess party and had a castle cake and mermaid sandwiches.  We helped her get the mermaid sandwiches ready and got to meet lots of her friends!  It was a really fun night.