Thankful

Jumpstart has taught me many things. From being dedicated to the children to building up your patience with the children. Now at this point in the school year with the children, it has become easier, and I have become more connected with the children that I teach. If I did not have had the chance, and developed the skills to do this, I would have missed out on many incredible experiences.

There was one experience while I was doing CAT that I was getting extremely frustrated with myself and with the children for not paying attention to me while I was talking. But with my skills developed through Jumpstart, I took a second to myself and breathed, and then I clapped my hands and said, “Let’s build a zoo.” The children had been playing with a range of animals and building blocks for a while now so trying to connect it back to Jumpstart and get everyone to play together was a difficulty. Hence I suggested the zoo idea. When I suggested this, I saw an immediate change in the children. All of them wanted to do this now, so they were working together and still playing with what they wanted to be playing with. From there it was easy sailing. And since there were a lot of kids with me, it was a good way to get everybody playing on the same thing so I could give them equal attention.

I want to credit Jumpstart for teaching me how to keep my calm and patience so that I can focus on the problem and try and fix it. And even when some kids stopped playing with the other stuff, such as the cars and trucks, they completely enjoyed it. By the end we were are mooing and oinking to our hearts content.

~Mahali Schenkelberg

Corps member

Team Determination