When we said goodbye to our senior buddies at Christmas time, they asked if we could come back soon. We decided that Valentine’s Day was a great time for a visit because Valentine’s Day is when you show people that you care about them. So we made Valentine’s cards for our buddies and learned some Valentine’s songs and poems because they like it when we do things like that! We packed up our Valentine’s cards and our tablets, because last time we visited they had a lot of questions about how we use technology to help us learn. We were glad that it was a warmer day for a walk. It was only -15 degrees Celsius.
They were very happy to see us! They loved our songs and poems, and we weren’t as nervous or shy as we were the first time we visited. Next we showed them our tablets and how to use them. Some of the seniors said that they would probably break them because they didn’t know what to do. We told them that the only way that you can break it is if you drop it really hard on the floor. That seemed to make them feel better! We showed our senior buddies how to turn the tablets on and off, and what to do if you want to get back to the home screen. We had Valentine’s games on our tablets and we played them together. We also showed our senior buddies how to use storytelling and voice recording apps that we use to share and explain our learning. A lot of our buddies are really interested in learning to use Skype so they can talk to their families who are far away. We think that this would be great but the big problem is that there isn’t any wireless internet at the seniors’ residence.
We have been learning about the Olympics a lot, so we had a sharing circle with our senior buddies. Everyone went around the circle and shared their favourite Olympic event and why. We were surprised that a lot of our buddies liked the same events as us! Most of us said that we liked hockey, curling, and figure skating the best. A lot of our buddies grew up doing those sports, and we are playing hockey and learning how to figure skate right now! It was neat to see how much we have in common!
We did our goodbye song and got ready to leave. The hour just flew by, and our buddies asked us to come back soon. We can hardly wait to see them again! What a great morning!
