Welcome to our life!

Hi, I'm Allison! I'm a thirtysomething, freshly baked, stay-at-home mom. I'm originally from Connecticut, now living in Germany, hence the name of the blog. I live in southern Germany with my German husband and our baby boy. Life has turned out to be nothing I ever expected, and am so incredibly happy with it! We certainly do have a lot of laughs! I hope you will enjoy following our new experiences raising a little half American/ half German in a little German town.

Montag, 22. September 2008

Paper Dolls

Since I don't have my camera, although I swear I will find it, I am stuck relaying stories sans photos. Sorry for creating boredom.
But I do have a really funny story from last week at work. Andrea (the teacher I work with,) and I work with a small EAL (English as an Additional Language) group every other week. Last week was our week.
The group is absolutely delightful, and only reinforces how much I love the specialist professions- EAL, Special Ed, Speech, etc. The 6 kids are all beginner English, three Japanese boys, one Korean boy, a Mexican girl, and a Dutch girl. Have I said yet how much I love them?
We worked on clothes last week. On Wednesday we worked on naming the clothes, and on Thursday, we made paper dolls. The paper dolls were Berenstain Bears. They were quite cute. We photocopied the dolls onto thick paper that would eventually stand up.
As we helped one little, adorable Japanese boy to put the stand on his bear, his reaction was priceless. Sadly, I have no recording. But, as soon as I slid the stand part onto the bottom of the bear, little one started making many "I'm impressed" noises. Then, he ran over to another adorable Japanese boy, and even though I could't translate what he was saying, I am sure he explained completely excitedly that the paper would stand up. The excitement lasted for minutes on end.

Then came the hat for the bear. We had given explicit instructions to make sure not to cut the tabs off the clothes- standard paper doll procedure. But, adorable boy #1 wanted to cut out a hat without any tabs. So, I showed him how to cut a line in the middle to rest the hat on the doll's head. Again, more incredibly excited expressions, and more running over and explaining how the hat works.

I relate this story because it was sheer surprise and joy that this little one expressed. So many kids are unimpressed by the simple things, favoring flashy computer and video games. But this adorable one was so taken by one little paper doll that it really made me look at life in a different way.

2 Kommentare:

Emily hat gesagt…

That sounds like such a fun job - can you believe what a crucial role you are playing in helping these little ones learn... and all the while you learn so much from them!

I can only imagine what your days are like. You have the world at your doorstep!

JoernandAllison hat gesagt…

Emily, the job is totally stressful this year. But, when I am able to look back at events like this little one and the paper dolls, it helps me put things in perspective.
I am so thankful for this opportunity!