CALLED to Papua New Guinea: Playgroups with the Littles...

Since there was a recent documented case of COVID in PNG, the entire country has been on "lockdown" for the past two weeks. Transportation across provinces is prohibited, police are enforcing road blocks, and schools have all been shut down... including the Missionary School on the station. Most of my fellow moms here at Kudjip have school-age children along with a couple of pre-K/toddlers. As many of you have come to discover in recent weeks, teaching/supervising older children with little ones running around and demanding attention is a difficult task. Understanding this, I felt led to put my time and teaching experience to good use and host a playgroup three mornings a week for all the tiny people on the station. The hope and purpose is to give the moms a couple of uninterrupted hours to teach and do school with their older children.

Pennie, Solomon, and I have enjoyed two weeks of playgroups so far, and we plan to continue - since the PNG Government recently extended the "State of Emergency" for another two months. I am not gonna lie - Ten kids under the age of 7 is exhausting most mornings, but I am overjoyed when the moms pick them up and report back how much schoolwork they were able to accomplish.

I structure the time similar to how I used to run my Early Intervention classroom in Philly. (Shout out to Mama Carrie who taught me some of the BEST Circle Time songs!) We start off the morning playing with homemade play-dough at the table, then we move onto Circle Time on the floor, which involves LOTS of singing. Some of the current favorites are: 5 Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree, The More We Get Together (w/signs), and Tiny Turtle Tim. After Circle Time, we head back over to the table for Arts/Crafts/Games, and then we get up on our feet for Music & Movement (also known as dance party time). Some of their favorite movement songs are: Baby Shark, Hokey Pokey, Run Baby Run, and Going on a Bear Hunt. After exhausting them with silly dancing, we round out our morning with Snack and Story Time.

Some of you may be wondering: "How are Pennie & Solomon handling all of this?"

Pennie absolutely LOVES having all of her little Kudjip friends over to play three mornings a week. Solomon, being the youngest of the group, doesn't quite understand why he has to share me and his toys/books... but all in all handles it fairly well... and if needed, I just strap him into his highchair and he "participates" from there. 😉

Here are pics from a recent playgroup session with some of our favorite tiny humans!