October 2020:

The month of October started very well, with our first trip together as volunteers. We went to the city of Krakow, and we also visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The weather was very pleasant and the city was full of life and people. But after this trip everything got worse, we started with a 10-day quarantine because of a contact of coronavirus, we had some plans prepared but we could not do them. 

In the next few weeks, the cases of Coronavirus increased a lot in Poland, and immediately we received the email: You are going to start working in a Kindergarten from Monday. After looking for all possible projects to avoid working in a Kindergarten we have to work in
Kindergartens.

The truth is that it was quite frustrating and demotivating, I have worked with children but I did not see myself prepared to work in a kindergarten.
The next bad news came, we had our trip prepared for Copenhagen and due to the coronavirus they canceled it. I decided to travel to Gdansk and enjoy the good weather and the last weekend when the bars would be open. The first weeks in Kindergarten were good, I was very lucky with the teachers and my students.

My Daily activities in the Kindergarten were:

-Helping by lessons and meals,
-Interactions with children during time for freely play
-Caring for disabled children;
-Kindergarten event: “Independence Day” (October/November);
-Helping in teaching choreographic arrangement.
-Day of Spain.

And about the forms of personal development through given tasks:
-Ability to cooperate with teachers,
-Communication skills,
-Noticing the needs of disabled children,
-Learning basic phrases in the polish language,
-Learning selected old songs of polish soldiers.

November 2020:

I think the month of November was one of the worst so far, I didn’t see the point of continuing in Kielce with all the restrictions that there were and working on something that I didn’t expect at all. Also this month we were «forbidden» to stay with the other volunteers, we could only see each other in groups of 5. Every day less daylight hours and fewer activities to do, it was very frustrating. I had planned to spend Christmas in Poland but due to my state of mind I decided to buy the tickets to spend with my family in Spain. The happy moments of this month were the arrival of new volunteers like Katrin who made us very happy, and also our trip to Zakopane. Sadly I had to change Kindergarten and didn’t know if I was ready for a new start.

My Daily activities in the Kindergarten were:
-Help by lessons and meals,especially during paper crafts and work in exercise books.
-Interactions with children during time for free play. (drawing together, for example singing some action songs in Spanish, simple movement exercises)
-Caring for disabled children;

-Preparing games for the gym lessons.

-Preparing art workshops about Picasso.

And about the forms of personal development through given tasks:
-Ability to cooperate with teachers,
-Communication skills,
-Noticing the needs of disabled children,
-Learning basic phrases in the polish language,
-Reliable performance of assigned tasks,
-Developing creativity.

December 2020:

This month I started working in another Kindergarten, the first big difference was that there were 28 children per class, it was a bit difficult at the beginning but thanks to my partner Coralie it was quite fun. I also found it difficult to prepare activities because I was only going to be there 3 weeks and 3 days a week, and the first week or even 2 I needed some adaptation. Also in the previous Kindergarten I worked 4 hours. And here I worked 5, more all the extra work I had to do. And sometimes 5 hours with young children was very long for me. This month I went to Spain and it was great, my family prepared many special things for me, we had a great time and I think it was one of the Christmas that I enjoyed the most of my life. I also spent time with my cat and finally saw the sea.

My Daily activities in the Kindergarten were:
-Help by lessons and meals,especially during paper crafts and work in exercise books.
-Interactions with children during time for free play. (drawing together, for example singing some action songs in Spanish, simple movement exercises)

-Preparing games for the gym lessons.
-Preparing art workshops about Spain, teaching some spanish words.
-Prepare the Christmas Event and decoration, and help to record it.

And about the forms of personal development through given tasks:
-Ability to cooperate with teachers
-Communication skills
-Learning basic phrases in the polish language
-Reliable performance of assigned tasks
-Developing creativity.

-Ability to encourage, motivate and inspire children.
-Have a lot of energy, enthusiasm and dedication.

Month of January:
The month of January was also quite difficult, I had a very good Christmas at home with my family, but when I returned to Kielce everything was different. I had to be in quarantine for 10 days and I barely had contact with my flatmates, I was quite isolated. In addition, new volunteers arrived and I did not have the opportunity to get to know them very much. The weeks I spent in quarantine I worked online on different tasks, it was interesting to do
different things. After quarantine I started working in a Forest Kindergarten. I thought it was a good idea, but it was the coldest week of winter, reaching -16 degrees. In this Kindergarten they use alternative education methods, but we spent 4 hours outside playing with the sleds so it was quite difficult to plan activities. Also when we tried to plan something, it was very difficult for the children to pay attention to us, they just wanted to play in the snow.
The teachers also asked us for help to change the children, but they did not explain to us where they had the clothes. I was in this kindergarten for two weeks and asked for a change. But I think that in the spring months it can be much more interesting. About free time, there have been quite a few birthdays this month and we celebrated them and things got better in the end. Also I visited the capital of Poland.

My Daily activities in the Kindergarten were:
-Interactions with children during time for free play. (drawing together, simple movement exercises, some english words and playing with the snow.)

And about the forms of personal development through given tasks:
-Ability to cooperate with teachers,
-Communication skills,
-Learning basic phrases in the polish language.
-Have a lot of energy, enthusiasm and dedication.

February:
This was one of the best months of the project, the new volunteers and my new workplace were great. I started working in a Primary school, with 8-year-old children. The first week was a bit difficult and stressed because they never had volunteers and they didn’t know very well how
to collaborate with us. But everything got better.

My Daily activities in the School were:
-Preparing workshop about Spain, words, presentation, activities, art-crafts

-Preparing activities and games for the english class, specially for practicing the new vocabulary. Anagrams, the hanged man .
-Preparing activity for the Pancakes Day.
-Preparing activity for Saint Valentines.
-Workshops about traveling around the World: China. Also with some art-crafts.

And about the forms of personal development through given tasks:
-Ability to cooperate with the teacher,
-Communication skills,
-Reliable performance of assigned tasks,
-Developing creativity.
-Ability to encourage, motivate and inspire children.
-Planning and preparation skills.
-Creative skills to find activities that interest and stimulate learning

This month we also celebrated some birthdays and I repeated my trip to Gdansk. I tried to participate in all the proposed events and I was enjoying the days of sun. I love snow, but I was also waiting for the last day of it.