Last week at Group of four we continued to make comparisons between our country and those of our sponsor children. This time we focused on food and water. Normally we end our time together with a snack, so the children were a little surprised, but totally willing, to have a snack at the beginning. We sat them all at the table and proceeded to bring out a plate of food for each child and a glass of water. They were not at all slow in realising they were part of an illustration but it was still entertaining to listen to them deal with the inequity of the situation. Some of those who received less than others immediately started asking for more. They tried asking the adults but found that we would  not involve ourselves so started pleading with those who had more than they did. Hands reached out towards the stacked plates accompanied by cries of,”Sponsor me”. The two boys with very full plates did start giving some of their riches away as did some children who did not have so much. Some stealing went on too. When we retired from the table to discuss the experience they were quick to realise that “rich” is a relative term but slower to accept that they did not “need” a fair share.

While we looked at the availability of clean water in our sponsor children’s countries the children took turns lifting a bucket filled with ten litres of water. Everyone found it heavy but some of the smaller children found that they could only hold it up for a minute or so. As I gave the children some of the reasons that access to clean water is an issue in Nepal, Mexico, Honduras and Bolivia, one of the girls marked off squares on a grid. Each square represented a litre of water. We were all amazed as we saw the quantities of water we use daily for showers, washing machines, flushing, etc. Canadians have the second highest water consumption in the world. By the time we had finished making the comparisons the group had carried the ten litres of water for 35 minutes. Children their size often carry twice as much for twice as long, two or three times a day!

While we had travellers with us B6 did not continue his own travels around the world but now he is back on track. Since I last wrote about his trip he has left The Netherlands, made pizza in Italy, rafted and solved riddles in Uzbekistan and climbed mountains in Nepal. I was able to find a short dvd about Nepal which featured the local animals and their habitats. There were many books about climbing Mount Everest and the two I chose complimented each other nicely as one was about a couple of pigs who climbed and the other:Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins gave us many details about what an attempt at the summit involves.

Yesterday B6 received a letter in Chinese characters which he gathered meant that he should proceed to China next. I assured him that he should do just that, having no idea myself what the characters said (I found them in a brochure advertising paper). Once in China we read Children in China:an artist’s journey, and 8000 stones;a Chinese folktale. He has been very creative in filling out his travel journal; he draws, we have National Geographics that he cuts up and he adds flags and a sentence or two about what he has seen or done. Today he decided that he would like to add a little cat to some of the pages. The cat pops up here and there to ask the reader questions like, “Do you like skating?” or “Do you like pizza?”

This week at Group of Four we introduced each other to our sponsor children. Between us we have children in Mexico, Honduras, Bolivia and Nepal. Each family had begun a poster showing information about their child and his/her country. After we had shared these facts we broke up into groups to graph some of the statistics about these four countries and make comparisons with four wealthier countries.

We chose Canada, Australia, Germany and Italy because of the connections our families have with those countries. Graphs were made to display population density, life expectancy, percentage of population living below the poverty line, GDP per capita and infant mortality rates. The last two catergories were graphed together to show the inverse relationship of GDP to infant mortality.

Coming back together with our graphs each group explained what they had discovered while discussing and drawing their graphs and we talked about the impact these facts had on the countries’ need for aid. Even though we were looking at the big picture the children began to see how very privileged they are to live in a country where few die young, backyards are common, and the economy is healthy.

We had a house full of very enthusiastic actors this afternoon when the Group of Four met for the second week of our Shakespeare unit. Once again we began with insults, most delivered with some acerbity but all received with much laughter. I guess there is nothing quite like having your mother encourage you to insult your family and friends in public. Next we spent some time talking about sonnets and looking at both the prologue of Romeo and Juliet and Romeo’s description of Juliet in Act I, Scene V. As the actors were getting quite impatient for their rehearsal time we began but did not finish a hockey sonnet!

The children were allocated a role and given a cropped scene to learn four days ago. Most of the girls had arrived with costumes, much to the surprise of the family of all boys. The boys, however, did come with very impressive swords for their fight scene. All had come well prepared, with their lines memorised. The performance opened with L12 delivering the prologue and then the first of our Juliets for the afternoon gave us a soliloquy from the balcony scene. L12 was the next Juliet partnered with a fine Nurse for Act II,Scene V. B6 was delighted to be Benvolio in a fight scene between the Montagues and Capulets. Lord and Lady Capulet’s argument with their daughter was acted with great emotion and finally we saw A10 as Juliet visiting the Friar and receiving the potion which would give her the appearance of death.

Once again we saw the children use their own initiative to make this unit a success. This was the first taste of Shakespeare for some of them and has left them wanting more.

I have been reading some of Aesop’s fables to B6. He has retold three of them in his own words, here is the first.

One day there were two children walking along the road. One of the children, whose name was Mary, found a horse and said, “I found a horse.”

The other child, Nicholas, replied, “You mean, we found a horse. When travelers find something they ought to share it.”

Mary said, “Oh no, I found this horse and now I am going to ride it.”

Just then three big men appeared, two on horses and one walking, all with drawn swords. The man on foot shouted to the children,”You thief! You thief!”

Mary, who had found the horse, turned to Nicholas and said, “Oh help, we are in trouble.”

Nicholas replied, “Oh no, you found it, you can be in trouble.”