Being Seniors, getting assigned in the Day Care was not something new.

We have
interacted with the Day Care Centers of Zapatera and Cogon before. This did not stop us
from creating a new and better experience in Paknaan.

So before we planned for our activities, we made a survey. We listened and asked
about the experiences of the group that went to Day Care ahead of us. From the
information that we collected, we started to build ideas. We wanted the children to learn
something from us, and at the same time enjoy in the process.

So we decided to do a role play about the story that the teacher in the Center
suggested to us. We printed pictures with the names of the characters, and tried to just
look the part. In the end, the young students were able to give feedbacks. We helped them
identify the valuable lessons there are in the story.

Sometime in the classroom that day, two children had a fight. After the petty
quarrel, one of their classmates said “Uie, pag sorry uie. Bad baya daw nah ang masuko
daun.” It was very fulfilling to hear that from such young people.

We also taught them the song “I Love You, You Love Me” from the kiddy show,
Barney the Dinosaur. It was very cute when they hugged each other at the line “..with a
great big hug..” We repeated the song for about 5 times already, because they seem to
have liked it very much.

The activity about the community leaders required a little more supervision in our
part. We printed out pictures of the common community leaders with their symbols. We
also let them do a tracing activity. Their enthusiasm showed when they approached us for
further instructions.

Overall, it was a great learning experience. They learned from us, and we too,
from them. No matter what barrier there is, if you really intend to reach out to someone,
you will find a way. And on that day, we defied age gaps, a fair cost for the beautiful
memories of our last Day Care Center assignment in college.