Volunteers teaching children in Riverkids
We’re two 18 year olds from a small town in Wales. We decided we wanted to do some volunteer work and found Riverkids through the organization, i-to-i.
When we arrived in Phnom Penh, we were pretty taken back with the culture compared to at home. We had no idea what to expect but were looking forward to meeting the kids and getting started with teaching.
We were told that we would be teaching 3 different groups of 6-9 year olds, we were pleased with this as we realised we could repeat our lessons with each class. We did some brain storming of things we could teach the kids over the next 3 weeks but found there was no record of what they had been taught before. We decided to base our lessons on vocabulary as the children’s level of English was not to a high enough standard to tackle sentences.
Throughout the lessons we tried to incorporate games and songs to keep them interested and not lose their concentration. We found that a drawing exercise always kept the kids entertained whilst we continued to test their knowledge on the topic. During our time teaching the kids, we found that in each class there was a wide range of ability and this sometimes meant the better children were held back by the less able. We loved the enthusiasm of the kids and how welcomed they made us feel.
Being so young, we were not use to being called “Teacher” but we got use to it and knew it was the children showing us respect. Everything we needed was at hand and all kinds of assistance given to us by the Riverkids staff and for that we were very grateful. During our time here, we were lucky enough to visit the community that some of the children live in. This was a real eye opener but made us realise why they need our help so much.
We hope we have made a difference to the children at Riverkids and have got so many experiences from this and they will never leave us. We have met some amazing children and made some great friends whilst here in Phnom Penh and can definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to volunteer and make a difference.
Contributed by volunteers: Sally Chubb & Katie Picton
We’re two 18 year olds from a small town in Wales. We decided we wanted to do some volunteer work and found Riverkids through the organization, i-to-i.
When we arrived in Phnom Penh, we were pretty taken back with the culture compared to at home. We had no idea what to expect but were looking forward to meeting the kids and getting started with teaching.
We were told that we would be teaching 3 different groups of 6-9 year olds, we were pleased with this as we realised we could repeat our lessons with each class. We did some brain storming of things we could teach the kids over the next 3 weeks but found there was no record of what they had been taught before. We decided to base our lessons on vocabulary as the children’s level of English was not to a high enough standard to tackle sentences.
Throughout the lessons we tried to incorporate games and songs to keep them interested and not lose their concentration. We found that a drawing exercise always kept the kids entertained whilst we continued to test their knowledge on the topic. During our time teaching the kids, we found that in each class there was a wide range of ability and this sometimes meant the better children were held back by the less able. We loved the enthusiasm of the kids and how welcomed they made us feel.
Being so young, we were not use to being called “Teacher” but we got use to it and knew it was the children showing us respect. Everything we needed was at hand and all kinds of assistance given to us by the Riverkids staff and for that we were very grateful. During our time here, we were lucky enough to visit the community that some of the children live in. This was a real eye opener but made us realise why they need our help so much.
We hope we have made a difference to the children at Riverkids and have got so many experiences from this and they will never leave us. We have met some amazing children and made some great friends whilst here in Phnom Penh and can definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to volunteer and make a difference.
Contributed by volunteers: Sally Chubb & Katie Picton
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