Work with pre schools

There are over 40 pre-schools in the townships around Knysna. Each one looks after between 40 and 60 kids aged between 2 and 6 years old. The schools are generally run by stay at home mums and women without any formal employment who have decided that they want to provide this service to the local community. This morning I went to a pre-school which was started by a lady called Magdeleena in her father’s garage with just a handful of children. Magdeleena has campaigned hard to raise money for the school, and each time she raises more money, she expands the school. Now there are 2 class rooms full of children who are taught basic reading, writing and arithmetic to prepare them for life in primary school.

Most of the women that run these schools have no formal training as teachers so they are working with the Knysna AIDS Council and the Knysna Education Trust to become accredited and trained in pre-school teaching. They are really working hard to build their own skills, build their schools and build the knowledge of the kids they work with to give them the best chance of doing well when they go to primary school. There are currently 10 accredited pre-schools in the township and Edge of Africa provide volunteers who help to teach the children to read and write, play educational games with the children and help improve their English language skills.

It’s hard for the kids because they all have to learn three languages: Afrikaans, Xhosa and English. In most cases their parents and relatives speak either Afrikaans or Xhosa so they don’t get exposed to much English at home. Last week I helped out at the Wonderland pre-school twice and was trying to teach the kids the names of fruits in English and help improve their numeracy. I can’t believe how difficult this turned out to be and definitely have a new found respect for teachers! The process was made particularly hard because most of the kids don’t really understand a lot of English so it was difficult to communicate to them what I wanted them to do. Flash cards showing pictures of fruits worked very well but I had much more trouble with numbers. The teacher asked me to try to get them to count backwards from 10 but trying to explain the concept of ‘backwards’ when I can only speak English and they could only speak Xhosa was virtually impossible. Next time we’re going to try using a hopscotch type game outside.

Despite the difficulties the kids were all so happy and energetic and seemed to really enjoy being at school. They sang songs to welcome me and the other volunteers to the class and another song to say good bye. They loved to run around in the playground and make sure that all the volunteers join in the games at all times! Tomorrow I need to help to teach them left from right – any bright ideas from any of you primary school teachers out there would be very welcome!