Queriquita, thanks for asking! Update it is! There were lots of attempted changes in how we were trying to manage the program during the summer, but now we’re in the auspicious situation of daily reports! I have a backlog of about twenty of these, and I’ll post translations of the first three now, and go like that until I get caught up!
DOMAN 2013-11-12 A***********
DESCRIPTION OF THE BABY A*****
A***** is a girl born to a child-mother. (It’s my understanding that “fille-mere” is a euphemism for the mother of a child born out of wedlock.)
The mother of A***** lives in a house right next to the **** market. (The market features a lot of small livestock like goats and chickens, and also has a great selection of basic household necessities, but lacks the computer cafes, banks, or extensive clothing selection as is available downtown.)
A***** did not encounter the education of Doman by accident. It was because of her grandmother that A***** loves Doman, because she had remarked on the changes in the behavior of a neighbor’s baby. She came to the center to ask how she could introduce her baby to the education of Doman. She was welcomed by the organizers of OJEPAC, who gave her the directions.
The mother is named W*****. This mother hasn’t had much time to spend with her baby but she has had the intention for some time, because she had seen how the child of a neighbor had adapted to Doman. After school, the mother of A***** sells manioc flower at the market to support herself. Then come nightfall, she chooses a good moment to study with her baby girl.
In her place of habitation, she lives among difficult people: prostituting girls, and drug-addicted youth. She lives like this. She cannot leave her baby alone, but she has wanted to enter the program for a long time. In effect, this mother is still young. She has strength and is dynamic. It’s clear that she is intelligent, but she has had the problems of being without a husband, and she does commercial work to earn her rent, food, and health insurance for her and her little girl.
Finally, she has decided to start the program for her daughter. I started to help her how to use the cards and the timings necessary. She has learned this very quick, because she has had this thought of putting her daughter in our early education program. She is courageous, for sure!
She spends about 9 minutes every day on Doman with her daughter A*****. She prepares the food first, and afterwards gives the food to her daughter. After, she washes her daughter to freshen her up. Then, she quickly finds the cards, and she also makes her own cards as well. Her own carts have one word that she wants to teach the baby. It’s super! She is really responsible for her task, she does not wait for me to come to help her. No. She started because I have given her all the techniques and behaviors that a mother or other educator should apply to introduce her baby to early learning for babies.
When she has the cards in her hands, she begins to review them with her daughter. She does twelve cards per session, a few seconds each so as to not tire A*****. After, they sit together and she sings briefly and teases her to prepare her enough. Then, she speaks a word face to face with her daughter. She says the word in a loud voice without showing the written word. The child is stimulated and her mother then directly presents the word, the child watches it and then she hides it and laughs joyously and her daughter does the same. A game and a joy begin like this. They play and play for two minutes and the mother calms down as if to invite the baby to pay attention. She speaks in a loud voice, she speaks it while fixing her eyes on the face of the daughter and reveals to her the word again on the card, the baby is also curious to see it, the mother speaks while showing the word, and the child watches it with interest as her mother does. All this takes two seconds.
When A*****'s mother presents her the words, it’s good, she laughs and attaches much interest in the word already shown. When she shows the drawing, it passes quick so that the child doesn’t love the drawings too much more than the words. I had also advised her of this. And this is the way that most of the mothers do it. That’s what I always say when I supervise. (There had been a misunderstanding a few months previous, when the drawings were getting much more attention and the words neglected. Clearly this has been fixed.)
That’s also how A*****'s mother does it for the other flashcards.
Who is A*****?
A***** is a baby girl thatis always joyful, that is about 2 1/2 years old. She has “irinde” hair, she likes smiling. She is always joyous. She has started to speak a few words, but when she is studing with Doman, her mother does not ask her to repeat. No. She sees the words only. A***** loves other babies and when she sees other people she runs to greet them and directly reproduces the words that her mother showed her on the flashcards.
She loves to play and doesn’t cry almost at all, except for particular situations like an illness or not having had eaten, etc. Her mother proposed that A***** could come to OJEPAC when her mother is at school. We haven’t confirmed that yet. (OJEPAC runs a kind of day-care for children too in-between toddler and elementary-school age. But not for 2.5 year-olds.)
But, the people who live near A***** admire a lot how she loves repeating the words for anyone who passes. The men say that this girl will be a minister [?] because she is beginning to be intelligent before her time. A***** also surprised me because she recites things a lot.
Her mother tells me that during the session, A***** doesn’t eat. She loves just that only. That’s why she prepares her the food first, and the session after. Because she’s playing with mom, she loves that, etc.
But W*** the mother of A***** has a problem:
The men want to have sexual relations with her because she is poor, but she refuses in order to not have other babies when she is still in school. They want to profit from her weak social standing. Also when I speak with her, she tells me that studying without enough fees is a problem, and finding food to eat is difficult. She works to find food and doesn’t have the time to review her studies. Also she lives in a bad place with people who dont give her a good sense of security.
She doesn’t have a place to leave A***** during her school, and that’s why she wants to leave A***** at OJEPAC. That’s a little about A*****.
C’est Angelique
DOMAN 2013-11-18 K******
K*******
This girl is the only child in her family so far. Her mother is a teacher, and her father a mechanic. She has been doing the Doman program for more than a year.
Her mother perseveres with the techniques of educating the baby. She has taught her daughter more than 40 words from the words that I have sent to you a while ago.
K******* is surprising for the neighbors. She has learned the words well, and she repeats the same words on the way to town, and even visitors to the house are surprised. The people who don’t know the Doman program ask the mother how the child can know things like that.
Her mother uses the flash cards well, and respects well the length of their demonstration.
Dear Steven, I am describing the babies one after the other. Like that I will finish with the babies that are currently following the Doman and after that we will add new ones. I think that you like that.
So, for K*******, her mother gives thanks and appreciation to the Doman. She is proud of the fact that she has known about Doman before the others. It’s an advantage for the family.
K*******'s mother doesn’t live in her own house, she rents. But she is happy with the Doman. Today, K******* takes the flashcards with her mother and begins to show the words, it’s not the drawings that are important, but the words.
K*******'s mom hopes to bring K******* to the kindergarten because her daughter shows the more potential than the other children of the neighborhood. (OJEPAC has grand ambitions to start a kindergarten.)
That’s K*******. Thank you.
-Angelique
DOMAN 2013-11-19
Report on the first advantageous signs of the Doman for the child “Baby.”
Baby is a girl that is 26 months old. She is the third in her family.
Her mother carries little dried “isambaza” fish across the border from the Congo to sell. Her father works in the brewery / beverage bottling complex as a mechanic. Her mother is named Q******* and her father is S*******.
Baby is a girl with two older brothers.
Baby shows characteristics of weakness; while they are not large you can see that her neck is out of equilibrium. We have brought the Doman to Baby. This girl could not even laugh. But it’s superb. When the doman is brought, the mother has accepted quickly to teach her baby the Doman, though she did not believe in it.
Here come the miracles!
Before presenting a word to her daughter, her mother plays and laughs with Baby. Baby begins to laugh a little and to wach what her mother says and shows. Now, Baby surprises people. She sees mother, she brings any book, and gives it to mother to read. She begins to open her mouth and pronounce every time the words that mother has shown. It’s as if she has developped her language, because the weakness, even if it was light, had prevented her from communicating. With the Doman, Baby found there as space to flourish, that will help her a lot.
We have asked her mother to bear a long witness on this. She tells us that she will prepare this tomorrow, and I will publish that!
Angelique
I would like to start a group locally, too, ideally for first time teen mothers, so seeing this was perfect! Merci