FESA Facilitator Stories: Beibei Lu

Beibei Lu has been running FESA's virtual Rhyme and Story programs for a little more than one month. It’s a very new experience for the facilitator as well as for the program participants, since it’s challenging but also rewarding.

Nowadays, Beibei finds props very helpful to attract the young audience during virtual session time. They're excited to sing "Old McDonald" when shown toy animals one-by-one. The participants sometimes volunteer to show their animal toys and request to add their animals into the singing. When it’s time for the counting song, Beibei asks a few children to show what they wanted to count that day. Then the group would sing to the tune “One little, two little, three little (e.g., red cars if a child provided their red toy car).” The children are eager to sing the counting song with the showcase of their toys.

Beibei would usually include one or two books with the toddlers in the past. However, the young children couldn’t sit still and listen to the book at all during the middle of the virtual session. They seemed entirely lost. Beibei eventually tried reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? at the beginning of a session. Right afterwards, the group sings the song "Old McDonald" with the animal images in this book. It's a success — they were so engaged! Beibei has done this ever since and it works out much better than before.

Gradually, the participants are getting used to the virtual program model. Beibei feels more and more comfortable delivering virtual sessions. It’s rewarding to see what can be done for moms and young children during the impact of the COVID-19. Beibei says she is looking forward to meeting everyone in classroom when it is safe to do so.

The Further Education Society of Alberta (FESA) is currently raising funds for our family literacy programs with our Pie in the FESA fundraiser. Our Board has agreed to take a pie in the face to raise money. Donors donate to the Board Member they would like to see pied and the three board members with the most amount raised will be pied. Board members can be saved from being pied with a donation of $1,000. If we reach our goal of $10,000, all Board Members will be pied in the face! Click here to learn more and to donate.