Saturday, July 12, 2014

Summer of Service - Week 5&1/2 (lolz)

This week I started my work at the daycare facility I am at. It is called Creche Beneficente Menino Jesus, and though Jesus’s name is on it, there is no religious affiliation. It just happens to be called that way because a church built the daycare center and they help with donations. I heard about it because my pediatrician (lol) works there voluntarily. He is the head doctor. The “crèche” has 180 children raging from ages 0-6. This past week I was working with the 2-year olds (I was about to change to nursery next week, but I asked to remain in the classroom with my kiddos, ‘cause I’m in love with them hehehe).

I asked to work from 7-5pm, because I still need about 80 hours to finish, and I have to remove my wisdom teeth and I leave in about 2 weeks, so I needed to get everything done before removing my teeth. Yet, I am still doing some (little) work for Becky online. She said she still needed some help and I said I could do it on the weekends, since I work those hours mon-Friday.

There are 20 children in my classroom, and they are all 2 years old. There are two “aunts” (that’s how they call us, it’s something really common here in brazil to call older people that are for example, your parents’ friends “tia” or “tio”. Though we aren’t their parents’ friends, it’s still okay for them to call us that way). Suzana is the “teacher”, she has a degree in teaching, so she is allowed to teach those children. (what happens is that during the summer the “Creche” allows the children to come in, but during the school year it works as a school – they get paid, with the money that the “Creche” gets from donations). Nilda is her helper, or assistant. She doesn’t need a degree, but she assists Suzanna in everything.

(lolling cause you can see my reflection on the mirror haha)


So, I really like the daycare center because it is SO organized. It is a model “crèche” for the other ones here in my city, because of its organization and success rate. I was really impressed by how they work. So here is my daily schedule:



7 am – I arrive at the crèche and head to my classroom, where Nilda (the assistant) and Suzanna (the teacher) are already there waiting for the kids to arrive.
7-7:30ish – we do the check up, which is like, checking the children’s bodies to see if there are any signs of abuse, or even like, allergies. For example, Wednesday I was checking a little girl and I found out she had impetigo, so we had to send her home. On next week’s post I’ll talk more about this part of the organization of the daycare. After the check up we change diapers – most of the parents are extremely inattentive/don’t care. Some children come with dirty diapers from the night before (!!!!!). We also change them – the government hands out shirts that are made for public schools, though this isn’t owned by the government, it’s some help J
7:40 – we take them for breakfast (all the children have their own table set up by grade, and they all eat at the same time). Before the food they have to thank God for it (which is really cute to see :p).
8am – we brush their teeth and check their diapers again.
8:30-10:30: they play with us – it changes by day the activity we have prepared. At 9 they have a break for a little snack.
10am: we give them showers.
11:30 – we give them lunch.
12:00-2pm: they sleep, but we have to stay in the room with them.
2:00-3:00: we play some more, but something different, such as reading a book,  or showing them some songs on the tv (teaching songs hehe)
3pm: they eat “dinner”.
3:45pm: we get them ready to go home and wait with them.
4:30-5: they leave the creche and I go home.


I am loving it and can’t wait to tell you all more about the creche!!:)


Hope you have a good week!  

Andrea 

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