Kindergarten Hour

Remember the village host sister who upon her return from Russia called the ankle-biting two year old to her side, only to discover that I was the person he considered an ‘aunt’ instead? I can’t remember if I told that story to the world at large. But it was a pretty amusing.

Fast-forward a year:
She is the director of the village kindergarten/daycare. One Thursday morning as I was sitting on the couch watching her rush around getting ready for work, I had an idea. If I was just going to sit around my host family’s house for four hours on a Thursday morning, why couldn’t I help her out at the kindergarten for an hour or two?

So I started going to the kindergarten for an hour on Thursdays. It gives the teachers a break and I like to pretend the kids are actually learning some English.

In the end: I think I managed to teach them the colours of the rainbow and a handful of animal names. And “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.

There are good days when the kids actually generate words rather than simply repeat what I am saying. (Not that I can hold this against them they are just learning the alphabet in Azerbaijani.) And approximately 70% of the kids are paying attention.

There are bad days when the kids get way too excited about my little animal figurines or markers. It is amazing how difficult it is to get twenty 5 year olds to sit in a circle. On these days I am just grateful to get one kid to listen to me (and hope that the rest of them don’t injure themselves as they climb over and under the furniture.)

In conclusion: I stand by my previous threat to bypass the toddler years entirely through adopting 5 year olds. But maybe it’s easier if there isn’t a foreign language involved. Maybe…