As a teacher in the Netherlands for elementary aged children, Valentijn's love for children and for learning shines through in all that he does. He has created a reading nook in our toy room to provide a special place for our kids to learn to love to read. He has taken all of them to the public library and borrowed many, many books to keep their interests high and their reading practice going strong. He uses sticker charts and reward systems to keep up positive reinforcement and the expectations of them clear.
Valentijn has even brought his love of dance into many children’s lives by teaching them how to dance. Valentijn himself has practiced hip-hop dance for almost a decade and has even attended the hip-hop World Championships with his dance crew 5 times! A few weeks after his arrival he started to visit my son’s school once a week for an hour and a half. He goes to a few of the preschool and kindergarten classes teaching them a hip-hop routine to the popular Taylor Swift song ‘Shake It Off’. The kids loved it so much that many of the classes used the routine in their ‘year-end performances’ for their families.
Submitted by Meredith DeRoberts, host mom in Connecticut