Tom and Jerry
March 27th, 2011 by Thayer HamoudahSo we started this visit by talking about all the red tape they had to go through to get their IDs and sign up for school etc…The father kept apologizing for cancelling a couple of our recent meetings due to how hectic his week has been. We told him that we understand and not to worry about it. We then started working on English. The mom actually has her own workbook that’s completely in English and shes done almost all the exercises. The only problem with that is she’s mispronouncing a lot of the words. For example she kept saying stomach ‘pin’ instead of stomach ‘pain’. We worked out some of those kinks and did a lot of pronunciation work. As for the father, we had to start with the alphabet. He recognizing the big letters but not the small ones. For example, he recognizes the letter ‘A’ but not ‘a’. I wrote out the entire alphabet for him and we went over it a few times. The little boy actually has a little electronic game that he plays with and its helping him with the alphabet. I sat down with the boy and he had him repeat the letters after I said them. He got to the letter ‘M’ when all of a sudden he heard Tom and Jerry cartoon and he ran away waving goodbye and screaming ‘Tom and Jerry!’
We also went through their immunization records and WIC papers. We explained to them that they have to use their WIC papers before they expire. They told us that they have to go back to the clinic on Monday to get more shots so we offered to take them there. Were looking forward to taking driving them there Monday morning.
Tags: Spring 2011
March 27th, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Hey Thayer, the Iraqi family I have visited for two years also loves Tom & Jerry cartoons. I learned that the father used to watch the cartoons with his kids in Jordan after work while they were in exile. They seem to be popular in Arab countries and are easily translated to other cultures because they have no language associated with them — they are all pantomime. Once I learned that they enjoyed them so much, I bought them a few T & J DVDs to watch and we have great fun enjoying them together. It makes me feel good to know that it is something that brings them joy and something that reminds them of good times as a family. Thanks for helping this family with necessary chores such as going to the clinic that are hugely important during the first few months. You don’t know how much help you are providing and how much it is appreciated!