7 Purpose-Driven Activities the CEA Children Did To Survive and Thrive in Quarantine

As you may also be experiencing in your location, we’re on lockdown here at our orphanage mission facility in Tanjay City for almost eight weeks now because of a government-imposed community quarantine, which is part of the national effort here in the Philippines to stop the spread of the COVID-19 corona virus. These days, the staff and children under our care are free to roam only within confines of the perimeter walls of our 4.94-acre mission compound with only one person allowed to go out on certain days of the week to purchase new supplies.

The children at our Casa Esperanza of Angels orphan care facility inside the mission are quite aware of the situation and are resigned to the idea of not being able to go outside for quite some time for their own safety. Knowing children, however, we felt that sooner or later, ennui from the inactivity and routine will take its toll and so we designed and facilitated a few purposeful activities for the children to keep learning, have fun, remain busy, and feel safe during our confinement.

Thankfully, we’d already created a Summer Learning program earlier for the kids as part of our Child Education & Youth Ministry core program so adding a few more activities to the mix wasn’t quite a struggle. Quite frankly, we were amazed at how successful these activities were in bringing up the morale of both the children and the orphanage staff who instantly took to these activities making our quarantine experience at the mission bearable and eminently productive.

1. Learning the Word of God

 
A major pillar of child education at Casa Esperanza of Angels is for the children to learn the Word of God by heart and internalize the teachings of Jesus Christ. For this activity, CEA Education and Activities Director Gigi Brown and house parent Renante Dela Torre teamed up to share to the children pure scripture-based lessons that focused on the central role of God and Jesus Christ in our lives. Our aim in this activity is to introduce these lessons to the children at an early age for them to, hopefully, grow up and become upright Christians and conscientious members of the body of Christ.

Interestingly, the Bible study sessions also served as a language training vehicle for the children to learn Basic English. Gigi shared scripture verses in English to the children and explained both the idea behind the passages and the meaning and pronunciation of the words. After a few lessons, the children were able to pick their favorite verses and recited those during a presentation that we also organized for them (see activity below).

In the future, once things go back to normal, we plan to invite kids from the neighboring communities where we are also doing our outreach and evangelism programs to join the CEA kids during Sunday Bible Schools inside the mission.

2. Learning Numbers, Language, and Life Skills

Before it became apparent that we’re all going to be forced to stay inside our facility for an extended period because of health concerns, our Child Education and Activities Director, Gigi Olis-Brown, already designed a summer schedule for the children to be taught basic arithmetic operations, English language lessons, and basic life skills.

Facilitated by our resident Social Worker, Jessica Dayao-Arangorin, the children took lessons in reading, spelling, and vocabulary enrichment during the quarantine period. They also learned to cooperate and work with each other during a team-building session also facilitated by Jessica.

 
These classes, like the Bible study and language sessions, were also done at our recently completed multi-purpose tent designed to (temporarily) host worship services and meetings of the church of Christ congregation we’re establishing in Tanjay City.

To make the Math lessons more interesting, Gigi designed a series of fun-filled modules incorporating games such as Tic Tac Toe, Multiply & Roll, and other exercises to drill the children on basic math operations. Using the same methods, Gigi also guided the children through their lessons learning English grammar.

 
More importantly, Gigi made the effort to explain the lessons using household budgeting and spending examples. This way, the children not only learned their math lessons, she was also able to teach them life skills such as budgeting and running a household, common courtesy, proper hygiene, etc. As noted above, basic life skills are a pillar of CEA child education – to make them more competent and self-sufficient adults in the future.

3. Gardening & Learning Sustainability

 
Naturally, working outside with their hands dirty from tilling the soil, gardening was one of the activities that the children enjoyed best.

We have a sizeable patch inside the mission grounds allocated to cultivation of vegetables, herbs, and fruits as part of the our mission’s sustainability program and this is where we allowed the children to help out with the garden chores one afternoon during the lockdown – tilling the soil, removing weeds, watering the plants, and harvesting produce.

The purpose of this activity was not just to let them experience the joys of gardening – something that most of us from earlier generations were fortunate to enjoy during our childhood – but also to teach the children the basic skills of cultivating the soil and growing their own food. The gardening activity became more deliciously meaningful for them the next day when their house mom, Erlyn Dela Torre cooked the sweet potato they harvested from the gardens the day before.

4. Doing House Chores While Bonding with Their House Parents

With the Bible and school lessons adequately covered, we figured that another bonding activity during the quarantine will prove beneficial to the children. With nowhere else to go, this was the best time for the children and the house parents to intentionally spend time together and get to know each other better.

To make this happen, we devised a routine for the CEA children to perform assigned household chores properly supervised by the house parents during which time, they just talked and shared jokes and stories just like any normal family, while performing household tasks.

The house parents, as we pointed out elsewhere, are an integral part in the orphan care environment at Casa Esperanza of Angels. For them to be able to develop stronger bonds with the children through shared activities like this, we feel that it would certainly add some tremendous motivation as they perform their tasks of taking care, nurturing, and guiding the children.

For the children, the house chores helped them to learn responsibility and be always mindful of what is expected of them. It also helped them to learn to trust their house parents – something that’s absolutely necessary for them to find their bearings in unfamiliar settings – and be at ease in their house parents’ presence.

5. Reciting Bible Verses

Being in an orphanage, no matter how embracing the environment might be, can sometimes engender a deep sense of inferiority and inadequacy in children. This is a tendency that we’re actively trying to minimize at the CEA orphan care facility.

 
As noted above, the children became quite familiar with their favorite Bible verses during the Bible study lessons and that gave us an idea to hold a semi-formal program where the children can make individual and group presentations reciting their favorite verses.

With this activity, we allowed the children to put their best foot forward, so to speak, as they recited the Bible verse they already learned by heart. Our purpose here was to develop a strong sense of accomplishment and self-confidence among the children in our care. The result, as you can see from the video and the images, was a truly heart-warming presentation that brought out the best in our children. Great job, kids!

6. One-on-one Coaching and Counseling

 
As you may have read from previous posts, some of our children come from troubled backgrounds. Our role at the orphan care facility is to make sure that as much as possible they are well-adjusted to the new environment and that they are happy in the new setting with their family at Casa Esperanza of Angels.

 
During the quarantine, we took turns to talk to each kid to let them know that we’re all family here at the Philippine Mission and that we’re always there for them when needed. These are also listening sessions in a big way where we try to clarify their impressions on their new life at the orphanage, their frustrations, and their dreams for the future.

We sincerely believe in growth and that in due time, for as long as they have us for emotional support and guidance, and their faith in Jesus Christ, they will someday evolve into well-adjusted individuals – self-sufficient and faithfully walking in the right path of life.

7. Playing and Being Children

 
All work and no play invariably make children express their innate playfulness in ways that are sometimes counter-productive.

With this in mind, we arranged for the children to have a block of play time, after they’re done with all the learning activities and chores, each day.

More often than not, playing breaks out spontaneously in the hallways, the library, and outside, in between their activities. Children will be children and they have this tremendous amount of pent-up energy they need to expend to get to focus on tasks better and sleep soundly at night.

At CEA, we want the children to be able to express themselves with playing – we believe playing has a major role in molding these kids to be well-adjusted individuals when they grow up. At the moment, we have an ongoing fundraising project for a children’s playground. If you share our belief that children should be allowed to have time to play, please consider helping us to complete this project.

In a nutshell, that’s how the children here at Casa Esperanza of Angels not just coped with, but survived and thrived during quarantine here at our Tanjay City facility.

For those of you with kids or grandkids, how did your children spend time during the forced isolation and social distancing? If you have any tips, insights, or suggestions on how to keep the children safe, calm, happy, and productive during these times, please feel free to leave a comment below.