Celebrating Christmas at Shishu Mandir

Christmas made us prepone our final session of the year to a Thursday. We hurriedly packed our cubes after school and drove down to Shishu Mandir.

We arrived a bit early, so Raanan and I cleared up the classroom while we waited for the kids. They were all elated to see us waiting for them in the classroom. They all sat down, and we began the day’s session. We had prepared an attendance sheet and we made each of the kids write their names down while the rest of them showed us how much of the cube they remembered. We then proceeded by dividing them into groups depending on how much they’d all learnt. And like the previous session, we asked the kids who had the first two layers done- to help us teach the rest.

While most of them were ready with the top cross and corners, there were a few who still struggled. But this didn’t stop us from teaching them again and again, until they all understood what they were doing. I taught whoever finished the corners, the second layer.

The session turned out to be hectic, but very productive. In fact, we ended up going overtime by about fifteen minutes and not realising. We then needed to wind up quickly. By the end of the class 75% finished the second layer and the rest were teaching each other.

So we made all of them sit facing the front of the class again, and take a group picture with a bit of Christmas magic; Raanan and I got out Santa caps with us. As we put our caps on, all the kids laughed and applauded us. And finally, just before we gave them their chocolates, we made sure all of them practiced their cubes, and made them promise to help each other out during the weeks that we won’t meet.

As we walked out of the class, we were invited to have the delicious snacks that were being given to all the students of the school. All in all, it was a great way to end the year, with bright smiles and scrumptious food.