Literacy

 Written Monday, 7 January 2008

 

I have started to teach one of my sisters, who never had a chance to go to school, how to write.  She is a really curious person and seems to really regret not having an education.  She is always asking me to teach her English words, but it is hard for her to remember them.  I've been wanting to teach her to read for a while, but wasn't really sure how to go about it since there aren't really any reading materials available in Jaxanke.  But finally it occurred to me that I should start by teaching her to write, and that will probably help her to remember letters better than just looking at them.

 

So I bought her a notebook and two pencils as a present, thinking that might be exciting for her – she's probably never owned school supplies before.  She seemed really pleased when I gave them to her and wanted to start the first lesson right away.  So I taught her A, B, and D (there's no confusing C in Jaxanke – just K or S to make those sounds), and we talked about words that have those sounds in them.  She was really quick to figure out about breaking up words into syllables to sound them out.

 

So I think the first lesson went really well, and she seemed happy.  I just hope she finds the time and the motivation to stick with it.