Mobile Outreach Progam Junior at St. Inez – Stitching, Stories and more…

St.Inez site with the little ones is building on emergent literacy skills and language quite powerfully.

No sooner does the mat get laid out and the box of books appear and one can sense the presence of the little tots, slowly making their way to the mat. They approach hesitantly not sure who the Resource Person might be , if the environment of engaged fun is going to continue or not. A simple reassuring ‘good evening’ and they are on the mat !

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Shreya has emerged into a wonderful support to the program at the crucial juncture where she will leave us. She has volunteered with MOP St. Inez for the past year and her natural intuition to give children space, accept them as they are, gently lead them to new areas of learning, hold her in good stead.

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The little ones love game time – a new addition on the MOP lesson plan. There is a great deal of turn taking, vocabulary building, fun, cognitive processing and joyfulness as they reduce the end of every game to BINGO ! Even the grand parents who watch from the periphery start to smile, it is turning into a universal St. Inez MOP claim for joy!

The older children were so happy we were back. There was some grumbling about the 2 week break that MOP took and also good deal of prediction that we spent that time at the beach. I went  ‘huh?’ and one observant Khushi showed me the sand on the mat! Clues are there for the taking.

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We explored some of the new books in the box, read some and then happiness, we stitched some. We are sewing pencil pouches and when they realised they can keep the pouches, there was such joy !

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I await next Tuesday as I sit beside the temple wall, surrounded by children who want me to knot something here, unravel something there, appreciate a new unexpected stitch that has appeared and talk about the weather. I do have some really lovely work that awaits me here, and I am deeply grateful !

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