I intially joined this service because I thought it’d be fun doing gymnastics with kids and through this, I am learning new skills such as gymnastics. Since the kids come from lower-income families, they might not have access to physical activities as much as we perhaps do at UWC so I thought by doing this, I could teach them the skills that I have and also learn a new skill myself. Through this service, I want to challenge myself to become a better collaborator and a better coach for them.
Since I have done gymnastics in the past, I have a few skills that I still have which I could teach the kids. All of us in the service have different abilities with some more developed than others. Therefore, I made a goal for myself to develop my own skills while also teaching the kids. This service will be very fun as it’s a physical activity which is a really important aspect of living a healthy life and I will be more than happy to coach the kids. In order to do so, we came up with an action plan before the kids arrived in order to maximise the activity of our service (see below)
SGM – Murni Child Care Centre Service Learning Action Plan
Furthermore, I will develop new skills in the process of this, such as tumble turns. I have not done gymnastics in 10 years so I am very excited to restart this and build on my previous skills. This will be challenging because not only do I want to develop my skills but also developing the kids’ skills. Some of them might have done gymnastics in the past but for others it could be a completely new thing. Some of the challenges that I will be facing is keeping the kids on track to make sure there’s no injuries. It will be hard considering they are only 5 years old meaning they will want to run around, play games, but in order to make the most out of this service, an action plan is an essential aspect that we will need to follow.
Before the kids first came to our school, we discussed the global issue in the Singaporean community where parents have to work multiple shifts in order to be able to afford an education and a home. This issue may not seem as serious as poverty or famine but it may cause social distress and anxiety in kids when they barely see their parents. I developed an understanding of this issue by researching the SGM website in order to find out more details.
I am looking forward to a year of coaching these kids:)
