A cool day in Kisumu

This morning we started in the Yellow Dot Elite Nursery making sensory bottles with the children. There were all 7 children in today and they were all very keen to join in with making them. We were able to make 12 bottles with them with a variety of different materials from sticks, bells, Pom poms, buttons, tapioca, feathers and food colourings. The children understood what we wanted them to do and were able to pick up the items and put them into the bottles. After we had made them they played with them mostly shaking them and making lots of noise. Some explored the bottles more looking at what was inside and tipping them from side to side watching the materials inside moving. After they had had a play the children stopped for a snack which they had brought in from home. They had cake, biscuits, doughnuts, chapatti or sandwich and all had a drink of either warm tea or juice. We asked the ages of the children in day care and they ranged from just 2 to 2 and a half. The children move up to baby class when they are 3. They don't all move at the same time. After snack the children did some colouring. The teacher drew a picture of a cat and gave the children a crayon to colour it in. The children were very good at holding the crayons in a tripod grip and all held the crayon in their right hand. The teacher said this is from the parents. She tells the parents it does 't matter what hand they use. They then continued to explore the toys and sensory bottles. The teacher left the nursery so we decided to do a circle time with the children and Shirley and Jude joined in with us. The children are very quick at picking up new songs and the actions. We sang twinkle twinkle, head shoulders knees and toes, Leo the lion, roly poly, baa baa black sheep, incy wincy spider and tiny turtle.
It was then lunchtime so we went over to the kitchen and helped to serve the lunches. They started with the youngest class and work up to the high school last. The children all sit outside to eat. We then sat with some of the girls from the school for a while talking to them. They played with our hair and seemed to be examining us very closely. 
In the afternoon we had a meeting with Alice and asked her lots of questions about the school. It seems they have a curriculum very much like ours and plan for the children short term and long term. They test them regularly every term. Their equivalent to our EYFS is ECD ( Early Childhood Development). It was all very interesting to find out a lot more about the school. The more we got talking the more questions we thought about asking.
The weather was a lot cooler today so it was easier to spend more time in the classroom with the day care children.