When I was 4 years old I did not have to walk to pre-school on my own.

Wednesday:

Today I reached a point I felt exasperated with one of the children I was working with in Laura Flores. I try to run a session each week in Laura Flores for the 4 year children who have difficulties with their understanding, talking or communication. Today there were 3 or 4 children who were 4 years old and who I really wanted to work with. My difficulty is that it seems that I end up running a crèche every week. My aim is to work with the 4 year olds. Today I had a 3 month old baby, a 2 year old, a 6 year old, an 8 year old and a 12 year old who were all there ”helping me”. One of these older boys has difficulties with his behaviour, comes from a troubled, difficult life and has ADHD.  This little boy is so sweet, kind and can be helpful. He has a great personality, however today, he was just so excited by all we were doing that he became a huge distraction to the 4 year olds. He ended up taking all my time, energy and attention and I began to resent that he was taking away the time I could be spending with the 4 year olds. He sapped all my energy and as I became less patient, my Spanish words began to disappear so I became increasingly frustrated. It is so hard to explain what it is like to go into Laura Flores each week. It is so much hard work physically, mentally, and emotionally. I cannot relate to these children in the same way that I can relate to children in the UK. We have had such different upbringings, different starts to our lives. Our lives are so completely different. When I was 4, I didn’t have to walk to Pre-school on my own. When I was 5 I did not have to look after my 2 year old sibling.

I desperately want to work more with these 4 year olds to try and play some small part in their lives in helping them grasp some important skills in life; being able to communicate a little better, being able to keep attention to task, being able to tell someone what they want etc.

From today I have learnt:

- To keep giving praise to children however difficult they may appear to be
- To get to know these children, to learn something of these children’s backgrounds as that may explain some of the reasons why they act in a certain way
- That God loves these children so much