How Many Mexican Children Did I Reach?
The phone call went something like this:
“Hola, you’ve reached Boca Beth!”
“Hi, Beth, this is Vonnie. You don’t know me, but I went to high school with your sister Mary. I ran into you all at the Early Childhood Conference in Orlando last year, and I work in Largo with the Florida First Start.”
“Cool. I went to Largo High too. What can we do for you all?”
“We have an event in May for our families, and we want to see what your fee would be to come and do a Boca Beth show for them…”
And that my friends/amigas/amigos was the start of a wonderful, touching and rewarding morning for this little Florida-born gal!
Never would I have pictured the crowd we had this morning at the Discovery Room to be the picture we saw! Those little Mexican babies have such cherubic, adorable little faces you just want to plant besos/kisses all over them! And the mommies, they were so not sure of me at first. I almost read their minds as they entered the room with two or three little ones each in tow………….”Ay, ¿Quien es ella? Tengo que escuchar solamente Inglés esta mañana….yo no puedo entender…¡Que pena!” “Oh, who is she? I have to listen to English only this morning…I can’t understand…What a pity!”
But I turned the whole room around. From one of anxiousness (mommies’ feeling) and uncertainty (babies’ and toddlers’ reaction) to We Be Lovin’ This Boca Beth Stuff!!!!!!!!!! We sang about 20 Boca Beth bilingual songs and used my Dollar Store props to bring the Spanish and English to life for all! I can’t wait to share the pictures with you…Lynne from Florida First Start will share some with us soon!
It’s so cool what they do - this organization - they go right into these people’s homes and help them realize that they are their children’s first teacher. They help provide them the tools and resources needed to give their children a fair start in this world of English, new culture, new community. I so admire each and every one of them as I grew to love them in my short time of singing and dancing and playing in their native language Spanish as well as their new language English!
I am so proud to be part of events like this……it brings me joy to know that I made a difference in many of their lives in such a short time.
Happy Educating! ¡Sea feliz educando!
Boca Beth
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