Homeward Bound
- Jan 24, 2017
- 2 min read
On January 22nd, 2017, I started a sports/play program along with four other students from my school for children at the national children's home. Our aim is to do this activity with the home every Sunday for a month and then continue this energy with other children homes around Jamaica. For the program, we decided to focus on track and football as the two sports for this first month. Since these are two of the most popular sports in Jamaica and are known for its high energy, run-up-and-down training program, we were sure that the children would enjoy our company and be involved, as we play games related to each sport with them.
Sooo I'm a very organized person and always want, when I get involved in activities, to try and have my best foot forward at all times. I made sure to plan ahead so I know exactly what I wanted to do with the children so that not for one moment we would just be staring at each other like... hmmm what to do now. I listed that first, I would have a brief introduction of my friends and I, and quickly have them introduce them self to us. Then I would split the children up into four houses and have two teams do football, and the other two doing track with me. For track, I planned to play "dog and bone", teach them basic track drills, test there reaction time by playing a game and then end it off with a fun relay race. I thought, okay I gat this, everything is under control...
To just start the introduction was the hardest part. Getting the children to come together and earn their full attention was a task! So the split up into houses part, had to scrap. I quickly just allowed my male partners to take the boys to play football and then have the girls to do little track games separately.
One thing for sure is that these children have energy and are extremely competitive. Competitive to the point that arguments amongst them happen with a blink of an eye and they only stick to what they know and want to do. There were instances when they told me couple rules of my own game. It was some what hilarious. I must say I love their spirit and they were very welcoming to us!
Reflecting on the experience for the first day, I believe it was a great warm-up. These children are precious and I think we are going to have some fun for this month. Most often people will just drop off packages of food, clothes and toy items to homes but never really spend time with the them. Most times this is all they want, some quality interaction. Children especially want to feel like they matter and be comforted that someone cares about them. So I along with my friends, we are going to continue this project and just have fun with it.
You are more than welcomed to join us! Just contact me😊
- Sincerely, A.
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