Circulo highlights from March

my favorite moment of Circulo: after we say the 3 rules, we all go inside the parachute together to pray for our day. (As I pray, the kids repeat after me.) When we go under the parachute, the littlest kids come running at me to see who will get to sit on my lap during the prayer. :)

Spring is here! Which means the weather is crazy and we never know what it expect. It can be cold and windy at the base and then we get to the colonia and its warm and sunny, we never know! Praise God it hasn't rained on any Tuesday or Thursday, which would cause us to have to cancel the Circle, as we do the classes outside on a basketball court. So far so good! A few weeks ago, the kids at the Circle starting to invite us to come and see them dance at their school. Each time we had Circle, they would remind us of the day and time and ask us if we were going to come. Well, we did go and we had a great time! They had a spring assembly and each class prepared a song and dance to perform. The children dressed up in homemade costumes to perform their dances. Xochil(above) is one of my girls from the Circle and her class did a traditional Mexican dance. Below is the 1st grade class and they did an adorable dance about Froggies! It was fun to see them at school, they were all SUPER excited to see us there. Also, a few of the boys in my group took me to meet their school teacher and introduced me as their "other teacher" hahaha.

At the Circle, we are in our 3rd month of doing a library program with the kids. The kids are doing a great job of taking care of the books and returning them, I'm so proud of them! They are really developing a love for reading too, each time we arrive in Antorcha, the kids are always asking when they get to check out their next book. They can't wait to get their hands on a new book! They also are filling out reading responses, where they have to write why they liked their book and what was their favorite part. Here 3rd grader Sarai shows off her response paper and her book.

The other day I went to a book exchange at the Cultural Center (CECUT) in downtown Tijuana to try to get some new books for the kids. Since the kids are so excited about the library, it makes us want to keep making it better! Right now, the toolboxes (recycled from old Homes of Hope stuff) that we use to carry the books in are almost overflowing. I'm trying to think of a new idea for our "mobile library"... any ideas? Please help!

We also have new kids coming to the Circle each week. It's crazy! Seriously I thought when we reached 100 they would stop coming, but they didnt, hahaha. I had my largest class of 3rd and 4th graders ever - 34 kids! I felt like I should have been in their real classroom as their real teacher! Below is a photo of 3 of my new girls that we pick up from a different colonia and bring them with us to the Circle: Camila (left), her family received a Homes of Hope house about a year ago, we recently reconnected with them and now she is coming to the Circle. Mayte (right), her mom works at the orphanage that we visit and asked if we could pick her up to bring her to the classes as well. Jenifer (center) doesn't go to school, she can't really read or write, so I'm really happy that she's started coming to I can work extra with her to try to catch her up to her peers.

I'm also really excited to have 2 new staff for the Circle. Alisha just finished a Children at Risk school at our base in Tijuana and will be helping us out for the next 6 months. Right now she is working with Laurena and the kinder/pre-k kids. Also, there is a girl from Chile named Vivi who just came on full-time staff with us, she is going to be doing Bible studies with the moms and one-on-one counseling with them. Praise God! This is a great answer to prayer, as we have been waiting for someone to come and invest in the lives of our kids' moms. I am so happy to have both of these amazing women working with us in Antorcha!

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"Start Children off in the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." ~Proverbs 22:6