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Teaching Alhan
Ok so Last week was my first time teaching alhan to small children, after an hour I wanted to rip their heads off!!
What do you guys do when your teaching little kids that REFUSE to learn?!
What do you guys do when your teaching little kids that REFUSE to learn?!
Comments
may i ask a question....... what would be the effect on a person (little kid who doesn't like or want to learn alhan) when we FORCE hymns on them?!....especially coptic ones.
they'd hate their lives! But their parents force them to, you know how egyptians are.
alhan is had to teach, especially towards kids.
There are two things you can do:
-try to give out prizes. trust me..it works.
tell them "ok guys we are going to learn this small part of the hymn and whoever can sing it by themselves gets a prize"
and keep doing that the whole time while teaching it. Break up the hymn into parts and give them a chance to earn a pirze each part.
Then, have like a competition between groups to see who can sing it better & also give them prizes.
Make the groups like boys against girls or something..trust me the girls are actually good too!
- another option is to continue to threaten them..lol it works with egyptian kids. Say if they wont be quiet then abouna will come talk to them or they wont get to play outside or they wont get prizes..something like that lol.
Good luck!!
I do not believe in prizes it teaches bad habits and associations.
I do not believe in prizes it teaches bad habits and associations.
I thought I was the only one... for some reason, i can't even bring myself to giving out prizes based on how well the kid said the hymn. the most I do is give them a high five and I make sure the high five is equal regardless of how well they said it. The uncle at my church is the one who gives the prizes... lol.. he has this whole coupon thing going on where they can collect coupons and then get toys with them or whatever. When I was a kid, things like that, didn't really make a difference with me.
I think with little kids you have to move around as much as possible when teaching the hymn. You also have to stop the hymn every once in a while and give them a little fact about the hymn and then later stop again and ask them about it... about one or two people will remember, so say it again and later ask again and hopefully more people will remember. Also, make sure everyone is singing and if you see someone who is not, encourage him.
but here's is what i did...
first of all PRAYYY!!!!! you have to know that you are NOT running the class... you couldn't do it even if you think you are, Christ is running it.
at first they are gonna be uncomfortable with a new servant try showing them that you are a friend, an older brother or sister so they can be intersted in what you have to say.
not that mean servant who walks all over them.. all what they will think the entire class is "WHO DOES HE/SHE THINK THEY AREEEE???!!" they will rebell more than co-operate
put your self in their shoes at first. be easy going yet keep the class under controle you do not want them to walk all over you,
encourge those who are doing well and point them out. and the ultimate solution is CANDY! but that is only at first
hope that helped and pray all goes well for you.. after a few months you'll LOVE teaching alhann just like i do
You can teach them the basics that all needs to know; general congregation responses that all need to know. and you can encourage that in all ways possible. that is for young kids who, as we all know, forced by their parents to go to alhan.
But then for older kids (probably 6th grade or older), you have to give them the choice since the standards of alhan to be taught is higher.
first of all giving out presents is fine and one of the powerful methods of teaching especially for younger children. You ought to really consider it for your whole life and not only teaching hymns.
I can see where Mina is coming from and I do agree to some extent. The Coptic hymns are complex artistic pieces of music that not every larynx can replicate at any time and therefore my take on this is to teach the young simple hymns (eg hidan or agios) not necessarily epideacon's altar responses. As for those children who do not believe hymns are for them or that they are not skilled enough then you can attract them by giving them educational hymns cd's to listen to them on their own if they will be interested. Otherwise they may be encouraged to do other things like drawing icons for example if they like drawing.
Finally I'd like to say that I'm one of the people who never intentionally learnt any hymn (let alone know what midnight chants is all about) until I was 22 years of age... Not that that is a good example but a proof that God works strangely in the most unexpected of times