Tuesday, 11 November 2008!
HandWritten on; 21:04
Hello! Here is the feedback/experience gathered from the 1st day of Class CIP. So subsequent groups, work on it. Comments in [ ] by MsS
1. Come up with a variety of tricks other than card tricks, because some of the kids may not be familiar with spades, aces, diamonds, hearts. So... tricks that are accessible to varying age groups. The range was from around 6 years to 14/15 years. Example of tricks: toothpick tricks, rubberband tricks, coin tricks, rope tricks, etc...
[For a while, we were lamenting liang sai's absence......One thing to note is that you should practise the tricks before having a go in front of the kids or the smart ones may see through them.]
2. Dont get lost. Compass anyone? There is a list of wards that we can visit in the volunteer room. The other wards are not accessible because they are high dependency wards, cancer wards, etc...
[Don't worry too much coz each subsequent group will have at least one person who has gone for at least one previous session and who can hence navigate; the person-in-charge Ms Caroline will also brief each group beforehand and most likely move around the wards with you all. Please observe all the rules she will lay down during the briefing]
3. Come up with other things other than tricks to entertain the kids. Some of the kids rejected watching magic tricks, so it will be good to have other options. Miss soh suggested balloon sculpturing so maybe the subsequent groups can try that out?
[Balloon sculpturing is Ying Ming's idea really, which Ms Caroline agrees is a good one to try out particularly for the younger kids, though do ensure that you can come out with a good variety of shapes /designs...you could of course come up with other ideas]
4. Learn to communicate with kids, some of them are quite shy so maybe we'll have to talk to them more to prevent "moments of awkwardness". And maybe we'll have to lower ourselves to their level when talking to them. Its okay to be childish for a while!
[According to Ms Caroline's experience, guy volunteers are more shy cf gals in interacting with the kids but I think for the first session, the 3 guys in the group have done a pretty good job - I'm quite impressed actually! Communication with the kids will undoubtedly be the most fulfilling part of the whole learning experience, so put your heart to it]
5. Enjoy yourself! It's a good learning experience, really :)
[Ya have fun! It's fun on my part discovering the lesser known aspects of some of your classmates:)....leaders please remember to collect the indemnity forms and pass to me somehow...I will join the large group of you on 17 Nov]
