Education Taiwan Project #32544

Diversified Learning Project for Placed Children

by The Mustard Seed Mission

Diversified Learning Project for Placed Children

Project Report | May 3, 2022
Money Management Day Camp for Teens

By Hong-En Chang | Director of Mustard Seed Youth Home

As the proverb says, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Careworkers at Mustard Seed Youth Home (MS Youth Home) not only provide a family-like environment for teens, but also teach teens life skills, such as eating three balanced meals a day, shopping for groceries, cooking, repairing things, keeping a record of spending and saving, doing laundry and washing bedding, cleaning up environment, observing etiquette, and managing emotions, in order for them to be well prepared to live in the real world independently by the time they exit residential care.

On a weekend in last November, teens took a 6-hour money management class at MS Youth Home taught by Ms. Lin, a social worker at social assistance division of Hualien County Government, and her fellow teammates. Teens wondered why bothered to manage money when they had no pocket money left over. How to teach teens about money management? Put simply, teens had to start by understanding the difference between needs and wants, which was something they might find hard to grasp. Therefore, raising teens' awareness of the difference between the two in their everyday lives was going to be quite a challenge faced by teachers at MS Youth Home.

In the classroom, board games and hands-on activities were used to help teens familiarize with basic money management concepts like savings and investments (stocks and real estate). The 6-hour course covered the fundamental concepts and the fun learning activities made time fly. MS Youth Home planned to provide teens with more financial literacy lessons in 2022 that would help them incorporate money skills in their daily life.

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Jan 24, 2022
The Little Artists in Agape Children's Home

By Daisy Su | Director of Agape Children's Home

On a Friday afternoon, several elementary students in Agape Children's Home were expecting their favorite after-school program—art class. They were waiting for the teacher's arrival and looking forward to what project she would provide today.

The children put their aprons on as soon as the volunteer teacher arrived and listened carefully while the teacher said, "For today's lesson, we're painting with acrylic." The announcement created a vibrant discussion between the children. "Acrylic painting? What's that?"

The teacher introduced the children to acrylic painting by presenting a video. After viewing the video, children were thrilled at how fun it was and could not wait to explore it.

"First, we're practicing mixing colors," the teacher said. "In order to create the color we desire, what color combinations should we mix up?"

"I think…this color should go with that soft one…" Charlotte whispered. The teacher encouraged Charlotte to try out her idea. Charlotte added the colors together and bingo! It worked. The teacher praised Charlotte for being able to mix accurately, which made Charlotte happy and gave a boost to her confidence. All the children soon mixed and created their own colors.

"Dip the chain in acrylic paint, then drape the chain onto the board and pull the chain horizontally off the board." The teacher demonstrated for the children. "Dip the chain in different colors one by one and repeat the previous steps, then you'll create floral like forms."

Being accompanied by the teacher, children moved their tiny bodies to pull the long chain again and again. They were hugely excited in the process and said, ''Amazing! How fun it is!"

At the end of the class, everyone created his or her own beautiful painting with fluid acrylic. To the teacher, the greatest reward in teaching art was seeing children smile and hearing all the oooh's and ahhhh's from them. Each classroom experience was full of pleasure and great memories for both the teacher and the students on a learning journey.

When asking children what they had learned in art class, all of them replied, "We had a great time and learned a variety of drawing and painting skills!"

"I used to paint skies simply with white clouds, but teacher taught me to add some light blue and white paint on it, which made the sky scene more enjoyable," a child added.

In the leisurely afternoon, children demonstrated unlimited creativity and were capable of applying what they had learned in their work. Children had different personalities and character traits, which created unique moods in their paintings—some were vibrant and others were implicit. The teacher was delighted to see the children gain confidence and a sense of accomplishment in their own work. Teachers at Agape Children's Home tried to use drawing and painting as a form of therapy to help heal kid's inner world in hopes that there were more fond memories they could carry throughout their life's journey.

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Oct 6, 2021
A Self-Breakthrough Experience

By Ms. Daisy Su | Director of Agape Children's Home

Agape Children's Home: Life-wide education

The purpose of life-wide education is to impart knowledge and to build character and ability. However, we are all unique individuals with different talents. There is no absolute good, bad, right or wrong, although we all want to develop ourselves in an all-round and balanced manner so that we can adapt to whatever life offers. However, most children are not like this. Especially those who are placed in the institutions. It is not uncommon that these children choose to withdraw themselves because of lack of self-confidence. It is not because they don't possess good qualities but because they don't believe in themselves. Therefore, in order to make them believe their own abilities, it is necessary to try every possible way to let them have a taste of success which then can turn into the source of their self-confidence.

Breakthrough and Never Give Up

During the long holiday, the Agape Children's Home arranged activities such as road running and mountain climbing for the children, hoping that through personal experiences they would discover the joy and fun following the hard work as well as collecting small successes along the way. During this year's road running race, many children who have previously participated the 3 km category race chose to challenge the 10 km category. One of them is Lynn, a kid with flat feet. Because of her physical condition, it is difficult enough for her to walk or run as it hurts. However, this year she wanted to challenge the 10 km walk and she invited the teacher to accompany her. During the walk the teacher asked her a few times whether she wanted to turn back as it was apparent that she was in pain due to her flat feet. But she said:" No! I must complete the challenge." So, we spent more than one hour to complete the whole 10km. Lynn was very happy that she has successfully made a breakthrough.

Children in Agape Children's Home excitedly joined the race

Lynn finished her race regardless of her feet pain.

During the mountain climbing trip the day after, Lynn also looked after younger girls while completing the journey herself with all others. It took the volunteer by surprise as Lynn used to mind her own business only. But this time during the mountain climbing trip, she showed the caring side of her. The volunteer was very surprised that Lynn, being a first year junior high school kid, had already learned to look after younger kids in the Children's Home.

During this long holiday, we have made special arrangement of physical activities such as road running and mountain climbing. We hope that through cheering each other up in a team, the children learn the spirit of never giving up. They completed the whole race even if they had to walk instead of running. Mountain climbing allows children to appreciate and respect the wonder of the nature. During these two activities, it was not just Lynn who demonstrated great breakthroughs, the other children also showed perseverance and physical strength unlike their normal selves. They ran, they walked and they held on to the end. They helped and supported each other. It was thought that these elementary school kids would need to be carried by the adults during at least part of the mountain climbing. To everyone's surprise, not only did they require no such help, they also each carried about 5 kilo supplies on their own and completed the whole journey. The potential of children is truly amazing.

With the love from everyone and the contribution of all kinds of resources, we are allowed to bring the children different experiences and to activate the appreciation of the beauty of life in their hearts.

With your help, one day our children will be able to fly high in the sky with their own brave strong wings.

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