The Zhuxin Club of Shanghai University of Political Science has been volunteering at You Dao’s Qingpu Center for years. They have been coming weekly to help tutor the children on their homework and run weekend activities. The children have grown very fond of the volunteers.
Since the end of the summer, a lot of children were leaving the area and new children moving to the area and attending the center. The volunteers were a bit unsure about how to make these new children interested. In the beginning, the children were very noisy and wild. The volunteers tried various ways to keep them in order. After two weeks, their efforts began to pay off. The volunteers used competitions, rewards, and interesting games to get the children’s’ attention. On one Saturday October 24th, they organized a Chinese idioms competition. The children really enjoyed the competition. Not only did the children have a lot of fun, but they also learned numerous new words and idioms. The volunteers finally found a way fun way to help the children learn.
After building a strong relationship with the children, the volunteers can now easily keep the children’s attention with new games and activities.
On Saturday November 21st, the volunteers came to teach children how to create bamboo slip paintings. They instructed the children to grab colored papers, cover them with black or brown colors, and finally how to draw various shaped bamboo slips. Though far from perfect, their paintings were beautifully colored and pleasant to look at. In the end, the volunteers put the children’s paintings together on the wall into the shape of a heart. One of the volunteers left these moving words on her own painting to children:“It is my first time to come to the center and to do bamboo slip paintings with you. You let me feel the honor of being a teacher.” Smiling while reading these words, the children promised to make cards for their volunteer brothers and sisters.
On November 26 the volunteers came to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. The volunteers of Zhuxin Club made thanksgiving cards with children, asking them to write down a few words for those whom they most appreciated. Two kids wrote a long passage on the cards for the volunteers and handed it in after finishing the cards.
It took the volunteers some hard work and patience to win over the children, but now the children, once tough and naughty, have become friends with the volunteers. The volunteers’ commitment and efforts have won children’s love.