Day 36-gainful empolyment

   February 9-When Spencer started going to the Hraunborg kindergarten here on-campus, Bára the director, mentioned to us that she did not have an English teacher.  Apparently,
English instruction is an essential component of the Hjallastefnan preschool system, so Bára asked Shan to help.  I said that I could and we agreed to talk about it further in February.  So, I headed into Bára's office this past Tuesday and she gave me the handbook that has been developed for use in their preschool system.  I sure was appreciative of that, because I was not sure exactly what they wanted me to do!  Bára also knocked 15,000 krönur off Spencer's monthly bills.  I told her I was happy to just volunteer, but she insisted, so I guess I am gainfully employed now!

   This morning we took Spencer into kindergarten and then Sally and I had some espresso to wake us up before I headed back over to Hraunborg to start working with the kids.  I was unsure about the capabilities of the kids, so I figured I would spend today meeting them and seeing how the classes operated.  I started out with the 2-year olds.  I was a little surprised that they wanted me to work with kids that young.  I spent about ten minutes with them singing some songs in English.  I am still unsure what to do with these kids.  I think I need to play more games with them in the future or make the songs more active and interactive.  At least one little boy took a liking to me, wanted to sit on my lab, and asked me to come over to his group to play when I left to go to the next class.  It is likely that his interest in me had to do with the fact that every teacher in the preschool is female.  I know that Spencer and his cohort at Tenderfoot in Gunnison treated the few male teachers they saw much more differently than the ladies.  In any event, it was awfully cute.  It is hard to believe that Spencer was that age only three short years ago! 
   The older kids were able to repeat English words more and understood that they were speaking in a different language.  I think they could actually learn some words with flashcards and the such.  Spencer's kindergarten class was last.  Many of those kids could already count to ten and properly introduce themselves in English.  That is amazing, when you consider that most American adults can't do this in any foreign language!  So, is teaching preschoolers different from teaching college students?  So far, yes and no.  I will have a better idea about it in a few months.
   Speaking of gainful employment, Sally is even more gainfully employed, or maybe gainfully more employed.  Anyhow, she has agreed to teach an intense three-week developmental economics course in early May.  It is outside of her area of expertise, but after careful consideration and with the helpful advice of her colleagues, she decided she could manage it.  Because this will interfere with the time she had set aside for doing research, Jón, the provost, agreed to let us stay in the apartment through July, so that has effectively extended our time abroad to the later part of summer.
   Every kid played with a friend today after school.  Alex had Brynja over and we played a game of Settlers of Catan, which Alex won.  Joslyn played outside for a while with Águsta and Bryndís and they then spent some time in the campus workshop, which is run by Águsta's father, Gaui, who also runs the hiking club.  Joslyn has really enjoyed the wood-working class at Varmaland, so the opportunity to see some of the machinery in action in the shop was quite a treat. 
   Finally, Spencer went to his first Icelandic birthday party!  Einar, who is the son of Sally's officemate, Sígrun, turned five today and Spencer was invited to join to fun.  He shopped at the on-campus store for a gift and wrapped it and then kept checking the clock in the apartment every few minutes until it was 5pm, when Sally took him over.  When they got there Spencer's first question was whether parents were staying.  Sígrun said, "not necessarily," so Sally came back to the apartment.  Spencer had a great time.  It sounds like the party was pretty similar to an American birthday party, with presents, candles on the cake, an Icelandic happy birthday song, and present-opening.  When I went over to pick him up, the boys were all watching a movie on the family's new 3-D TV set.  Pretty snazzy!
   The evening continued with the girls going over to a seminar put on by a popular handball player.  They did not understand much, but the slides cued them in to the topics being discussed and some of their friends were in attendance as well.  At its conclusion, they got the guy's autograph.  Handball is a pretty popular sport in Iceland, so the seminar was well-attended.  In case you were wondering, the Icelandic handball team only made it through the first qualifying round in the European championships this year; I understand that there was a fair bit of disappointment country-wide.
   Joslyn got to finish her day by visiting with her old American classmates.  Sandy Merrifield got Skype set up on the classroom computer and we arranged for her class to call over shortly after dinnertime there, which was shortly before Joslyn's bedtime here.  At first, Joslyn was a little overwhelmed by being the center of attention, but eventually she really enjoyed explaining her life over here and hearing about the recent goings-on back in her old classroom.

 Lake Hreðavatn. I took this picture while on a short hike around its western side today.