Sing, Spell, Read and Write

Dear friends and family

 

On the first week of July we are so busy to prepare for our event for this month. Every year we are celebrating “Buwan ng Wika” (National Language Month), in this event we esteem our language. On the first week the mothers and I had a meeting to talk about it and all of them are agreed to let their child wear filipiniana attire, and they are so excited for the event. The children made some posters for Buwan ng Wika because we had a poster-making contest. 

 

This month I can also say that my students are really learning the phonics song. They love to follow along with the song and pointing to the letters with the long stick while we are enjoying our snack time. When I was teaching them the sounds of letters Mm, Nn, and Oo (singing “mm.. mm.. Monkey, nnn… nnn… Noodles, ooo… ooo… Octopus!”), one of my students Jessie said to his classmate named Denmark “ Your name is mm.. mm.. Monkey!!!!” but of course he is just joking and having fun. I am so blessed to have these students, they are all kind and sweet, and now they know the sounds of the letters from A-R. I am looking forward to when these children will learn how to read proficiently even at their young age.

                                                Michelle doing her activity

                                      John Lorence follow along with the song and pointing to the letters
                                                     

The reason why we are celebrating Buwan ng Wika (National Language Month) is to commemorate the struggle of our forefathers for the freedom that laid the groundwork for the development of a national language embracing our common aspirations and uniting us as a people despite the geographic divide. We are drawn to appreciate the Filipino language as enriched by words from various cultures. And we celebrate the many regional languages of the Philippines that co-exist with, and continue to contribute to the creation of, an intricately woven, rich, and continually evolving medium of oral and written communication that we call Filipino.

Our national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal said, “Ang hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika, daig pa ang malansang isda’’(He who does not love his own language is worse than a smelly fish).

   
SBC Team (Stopley Baptist Church) was here in the Philippines and they helped us with Buwan ng Wika. They teach some action songs for the kids. 

                                      SBC Team teaching the kids some action songs


                                      

 

The Children enjoyed the event and the lesson when the SBC Team (Stopley Baptist Church) was here in the Philippines. They held a lesson for the Educare Learning Center. They led an action song, a puppet show, games and crafts. We are so thankful for this team because they helped us a lot in Educare and to the other ministries that we have in our church. 

                                              Picture taking with the students

John Coffey's childhood friend Nathaniel Hill visit here in the Philippines in a few days. We go to the community to visit the kids and playing around with them. We do visitation every Saturday morning, the kids was so excited to meet a new friend Nathaniel. Nathaniel helped us in Educare too, he went to our classroom and play with the kids.

                                         John and I doing pick up line with the kids

 

 

John and Nathaniel with the kids

 

Teaching the letter "Gg, Hh, Ii" to the kids

In other news, this coming August 25, 2012 we will be having our Field Trip and the kids were so excited when they heard that we will have a field trip. This will be our first time to have a field trip with the IT Tender ministry, and I am so excited to see my students happy and enjoying this Field Trip and to meet other new friends from IT Tender. This is a big privilege for us to join this trip. Kindly pray for this Field Trip because until now we are still praying for it - that God provide for the whole payment. This is a big blessing that God will really provide for all of us. In this trip the kids will have fun and also they will learn!!! 

God Bless and continue being a blessing to others!

Tin Tin Ramos 

God's Faithfulness

Hi friends!

It’s a pleasure to share what God is doing through our Educare Learning Center. We are so blessed to connect with you, and we are glad to update you about our ministry.

God is so good! When we started the Educare Learning Center this school year we were so excited to teach the kids and we are so thankful to God because He provided everything that we have this year, including the curriculum materials that we are using now. Last April 9-20, 2012 we attended a 2-week training for teachers and we learned a lot from such an extensive seminar. In those two weeks we witnessed God’s provision and miracles into this ministry because in that training they had the complete curriculum and teaching materials for teachers, which costs P25, 000.00 ($581). After a week of the training, my leader Kristofer Purificacion, known as Toph, talked to me about the funds that we have for this ministry, because I am willing and hoping to teach the kids this curriculum but honestly we don’t have enough funds to buy the materials. After we talked, I prayed to God and cried out to Him to provide for our needs. Then the next day the director of the foundation talked to us and said they are willing to give us the materials for free! I am so shocked from what happened that I really cried while the director is telling us about our passion to teach the kids. God is so FAITHFUL!!!!! TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

Now we are using the new materials and also the curriculum, and I am so proud to be a teacher of these little cute kids. I am the only one teacher of Educare Learning Center, so I am teaching Phonics, Math, Science, Geography, Language, and SSRW (Sing, Spell, Read and Write).

The Educare Learning Center started last June 19, 2012. We have 10 students in our class ages 4-6 years old; all of them are living in an urban poor community. We run our class at 9am-11am, and everyday two of our volunteers (Rico and Raymond) pick up the kids from their home, and their mothers are contributing 60 pesos ($2) per week for the gas of our vehicle that we our using. We only have class every Tuesday to Friday, and the kids are always excited to go to school. They love stories and playing games but it’s always connected to our lesson. This month of June we taught them how to sing our National Anthem (Lupang Hinirang) and we will teach them all the pledges included the Pledge to the Christian flag and also the Pledge to the Bible. On the first week of class the kids are so silly but the other are quiet, but all of them are good. These kids inspire me a lot, and I am so blessed to have them. If you are the Teacher, expect a million times that your student will call your name. The kids love to call their teacher even if they don’t have anything to ask, they just like to see that your attention is on them because you are important to them! I like being with them even if they’re too silly, silly but sweet! I thank God because he called me to be a teacher. Last week, I was talking to the administrator of the foundation about the workbooks of our students. Each of them needs 6 books, but the bundle costs P1, 400 ($32), and we have 10 kids so it will cost P14, 000.00 ($326). But we only have P5, 000 ($116) from our funds for the books, so I let the administrator know our situation. Then the next day she called me to let me know that we can get the 10 sets for our students for just P5, 000.00 ($116). When I hung up the phone I cried to God. I thanked Him for all of His miracles and for choosing me to witness His miracles. I believe this is not the last but this is the first surprise from the Lord and I am so excited for the next miracle to come into this ministry!

Kindly pray for this.

Here are the specific needs of the Educare Learning Center:

1. Assistant Teacher/Volunteers.
2. Fund for teacher’s uniform
3. Fund for partition for the room of Educare.
4. Fund for laminating the cards for teaching.

It is truly our joy to serve God’s Kingdom by teaching His beloved children. Through our hard work, dedication, and care, we believe that we are developing and discipling future leaders who will make a difference in their community. The Educare Learning Center is truly an investment in the community and in the Kingdom of our Lord. We pray that you can join us in this investment through your own compassionate support - prayerfully and/or financially. If you would like to know how you can send support, please contact me, Tin Ramos, by email at tintinramos_babzkey_jkkcc@yahoo.com or phone at 09072229267.

Teacher Tin Tin Ramos