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Aug. 3rd, 2008 06:37 pmThis past week was interesting, challenging, and- frankly- a great deal of fun.
Because I have SUCKER tattooed across my forehead, I agreed to help out with Vacation Bible School at church. I agreed to be a "family group leader", and said yes, I work well with the 3-5 age group. The theme of the week was "The Adventures of Martin Luther", which is kind of lame, but the kids had fun anyway, what with the crafts and songs and storytelling and stuff. So it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it might be.
Now, as a family group leader, I was under the impression that we would be kind of like a homeroom teacher- greet them in the morning, and deliver them into the hands of whoever was in charge of the next thing. It turned out to be that we had a good 30-40 minutes with them, where I was supposed to present the theme of the day, and talk about it. I don't know how the older kid groups did, but nothing for preschoolers should ever be scheduled in 30-minute blocks. Twenty minutes would have been too much- for VBS, think closer to 12-15.
On top of that, instead of having six to eight kids in my group, I had.... SEVENTEEN! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I wrangled seventeen preschoolers for three hours every morning last week. And it wasn't just homeroom- turns out we were expected to accompany the kids to each subsequent activity, and assist with it.
Wow. I'm tired again just writing it.
Oh, but we're not done. Oh no, we're not done.
Every year this church gets ten times more kids than actually ever attend service or Sunday School. That is because it not only partners with the Arabic congregation, but somehow manages to recruit neighborhood kids, kids who come for the after-school program during the year, and kids who attend various classes and groups that meet at the church, but are not necessarily associated with the church. This is super cool, and leads to a very diverse group- Pan-Latino, Arabic, and white kids and leaders.
Now, this is cool. Problems arise, however, when fully 1/4 of the kids attending either don't speak English at all, or speak very little. A good 1/3 to 1/2 of my group were Spanish-only speakers. Luckily, I had two amazing teenage helpers, one who was a native Spanish speaker and did a marvelous job of translating, and one kid from the Arabic congregation who is incredibly charismatic, and very good with kids. Add into that equation the various moms who stayed to help, either with the camp in general, or specifically to make sure their kid was okay- preschoolers tend to want mommy a whole lot.
I didn't really know what I was getting into when I signed up; I'm glad, because I probably would have backed out. It was a very challenging week for me, physically, because not only did I need to be on my feet a lot, but working with preschoolers requires a great deal of bending and squatting, and even of running after. Come the middle of Thursday morning, I really thought I wasn't going to survive- mind you, when camp let out at noon, I picked Habibi up from the nursery (where he had a BLAST every single morning) and headed back to his place to spend the afternoon with him. At least we both had naps in the afternoons!
But despite all the things that could be considered drawbacks, the camp was fantastic, the kids had a great time, and even I had a great time.
I learned some things:
1) I really need to get cracking on both Spanish and Arabic learning. There is no reason why I shouldn't already speak Spanish to a certain level, considering I am semi-fluent in French, I have lived and worked in Hispanic-heavy neighborhoods for more than four years, and have volunteered with Spanish-speaking people. Its pretty ridiculous. By next year's VBS I hope to be able to talk with the kids in Spanish.
2) I really love working with the 3-5 age group. Preschoolers and I have very similar outlooks on life, and they really appreciate my silliness. I mean, I love working with kids of all ages, but there is something special to me about working with the kids at that stage of development. I think I may be experiencing a new calling that bears exploring.
3) I'm much stronger than I think I am. I was out/up late three nights in a row last week, and therefore got less sleep than I would have liked, on top of all the other craziness. I do hurt some today, but it is mostly in areas where there are muscles that I haven't used that much in more than two years. My ribcage (where the nerve pain radiates) hurts a little more than usual, but not much, and after a day of virtual bed rest (I really did get to wear my moose pajamas all day today!) it has distinctly subsided.
All in all, I'm pretty stoked. I'd really love to start exploring taking on students.
Oh yeah, I need to post about my two big "serendipity" moments, but not right now, and not here. They're kinda weird. But really cool.
I know this is fragmented, and I apologize. I needed to actually write it all down, but my brain is kind of scattered right now. I'll try to be posting more often again, if I can.
Because I have SUCKER tattooed across my forehead, I agreed to help out with Vacation Bible School at church. I agreed to be a "family group leader", and said yes, I work well with the 3-5 age group. The theme of the week was "The Adventures of Martin Luther", which is kind of lame, but the kids had fun anyway, what with the crafts and songs and storytelling and stuff. So it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it might be.
Now, as a family group leader, I was under the impression that we would be kind of like a homeroom teacher- greet them in the morning, and deliver them into the hands of whoever was in charge of the next thing. It turned out to be that we had a good 30-40 minutes with them, where I was supposed to present the theme of the day, and talk about it. I don't know how the older kid groups did, but nothing for preschoolers should ever be scheduled in 30-minute blocks. Twenty minutes would have been too much- for VBS, think closer to 12-15.
On top of that, instead of having six to eight kids in my group, I had.... SEVENTEEN! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I wrangled seventeen preschoolers for three hours every morning last week. And it wasn't just homeroom- turns out we were expected to accompany the kids to each subsequent activity, and assist with it.
Wow. I'm tired again just writing it.
Oh, but we're not done. Oh no, we're not done.
Every year this church gets ten times more kids than actually ever attend service or Sunday School. That is because it not only partners with the Arabic congregation, but somehow manages to recruit neighborhood kids, kids who come for the after-school program during the year, and kids who attend various classes and groups that meet at the church, but are not necessarily associated with the church. This is super cool, and leads to a very diverse group- Pan-Latino, Arabic, and white kids and leaders.
Now, this is cool. Problems arise, however, when fully 1/4 of the kids attending either don't speak English at all, or speak very little. A good 1/3 to 1/2 of my group were Spanish-only speakers. Luckily, I had two amazing teenage helpers, one who was a native Spanish speaker and did a marvelous job of translating, and one kid from the Arabic congregation who is incredibly charismatic, and very good with kids. Add into that equation the various moms who stayed to help, either with the camp in general, or specifically to make sure their kid was okay- preschoolers tend to want mommy a whole lot.
I didn't really know what I was getting into when I signed up; I'm glad, because I probably would have backed out. It was a very challenging week for me, physically, because not only did I need to be on my feet a lot, but working with preschoolers requires a great deal of bending and squatting, and even of running after. Come the middle of Thursday morning, I really thought I wasn't going to survive- mind you, when camp let out at noon, I picked Habibi up from the nursery (where he had a BLAST every single morning) and headed back to his place to spend the afternoon with him. At least we both had naps in the afternoons!
But despite all the things that could be considered drawbacks, the camp was fantastic, the kids had a great time, and even I had a great time.
I learned some things:
1) I really need to get cracking on both Spanish and Arabic learning. There is no reason why I shouldn't already speak Spanish to a certain level, considering I am semi-fluent in French, I have lived and worked in Hispanic-heavy neighborhoods for more than four years, and have volunteered with Spanish-speaking people. Its pretty ridiculous. By next year's VBS I hope to be able to talk with the kids in Spanish.
2) I really love working with the 3-5 age group. Preschoolers and I have very similar outlooks on life, and they really appreciate my silliness. I mean, I love working with kids of all ages, but there is something special to me about working with the kids at that stage of development. I think I may be experiencing a new calling that bears exploring.
3) I'm much stronger than I think I am. I was out/up late three nights in a row last week, and therefore got less sleep than I would have liked, on top of all the other craziness. I do hurt some today, but it is mostly in areas where there are muscles that I haven't used that much in more than two years. My ribcage (where the nerve pain radiates) hurts a little more than usual, but not much, and after a day of virtual bed rest (I really did get to wear my moose pajamas all day today!) it has distinctly subsided.
All in all, I'm pretty stoked. I'd really love to start exploring taking on students.
Oh yeah, I need to post about my two big "serendipity" moments, but not right now, and not here. They're kinda weird. But really cool.
I know this is fragmented, and I apologize. I needed to actually write it all down, but my brain is kind of scattered right now. I'll try to be posting more often again, if I can.
