Rainy Days, Indoor Plays

In recent weeks past Indonesia was surrounded by at least 4 cyclones. Cyclones have names, just like hurricanes. Cyclone Pam, Cyclone Nathan, and two others caused crazy winds, unpredictable weather, and hard rains. Large trees were blown over throughout our town. Neighbors were braving the winds and repairing roof damage. Temperatures were much cooler. I actually enjoyed the change in weather, but the way our house is set up the strong winds didn't blow directly into our house, like others experienced. Weather would change in a 20 minutes span... sunny, rain, heavy rain, wind, sunny again.

It was weird. 

So it made playing outside difficult. Kids would seek shelter under carports or trees to wait out the rain. Probably because they didn't want to go home, but might get in trouble if they were just soaked. So we opened up our gate and asked them to come play. The power was out that day, so leaving the front door open was no problem. Oh wait, that's NEVER a problem because we don't have central AC here. Neighborhood kids left their shoes outside and came inside. 

They love playing with all of Kate's toys. Balls, buses that playing nursery rhymes, toy pianos, and her set of cheap plastic letters and numbers. 

So I thought let's have an impromptu English language lesson. I grabbed one of Kate's alphabet concept books- you know the "A is for Apple, B is for Ball...". I said let's try to spell these words in English using the letters. We could only spell the words that did not have double consonants. 

It was interesting because the ones who were most interested were the boys who were not enrolled in school. They found the letters, spelled the words, and then pronounced the word in English. Then when we finished the book I asked them to make sure all the letters and numbers were there. We had an alphabet formed across the floor, and all were accounted for. 

They were eager to learn. I'm wondering what potential opportunities will unfold from cheap plastic letters and numbers.