Sunday School Shenanigans - November 6, 2016
I simply love being a Sunday School teacher! There, I’ve confessed. You see, offering to be a Sunday School teacher is considered to be a special kind of martyrdom, or penance for a life ill-led thus far. But it’s not that way for me. I have a hoot, and sometimes I think the kids actually enjoy it too. All one to three of them!
We start with a prayer circle which isn’t always complete since our granddaughter Emma doesn’t always want to hold hands with our grandnephew Manny. Then we sing a song. We sing it every second Sunday for two months to give the kids a chance to learn it. It’s led by me without any musical accompaniment and with lots of actions. Sometimes Manny just opts for something that looks like the “hokey pokey.” I understand.
Then we have our story about Jesus or as told by Jesus. I pick it fairly randomly from our Shine Story Bible, but always go for the stories that I think will “grab” the children. The Beatitudes and the Woes are not the biggest hits. In class, I read our story with them. Or if I can find a PowerPoint on line, I’ll use that. Our age range is 3 to 12, so it’s nice to have something the older kids can read along to. And then I find an online video of the same story – that tends to glue them to their chairs for a good five minutes.
But then I ask the kids to tell the story back to me so that by the time we are finished, they’ve heard the Jesus story three times. This past Sunday we had a few visitors who were visiting family and who I think may attend a more upscale Sunday School. One girl sighed and asked, “Can we talk about something other than church?!” I’ve never been asked that one before. I responded, “What would you like to talk about?” She replied, “I’d like to know what else these kids like to do. I like swimming.” Emma then piped in, “I like gymnastics.” A little boy chirped, “I like running.” And on it went.
Hmm, what to do!? Ah ha! “It’s craft time, I announced.” And I brought out the makings for a pig puppet. Yes, I know, Jesus lived in a culture that saw pigs as unclean, so why the pig puppet? Well, there was a man who had two sons and the second son wasted all his inheritance money and had to go look after pigs in order to eat. What the kids commented most on about this story of “The Prodigal Son” was all the pig poo. One of my students suggested, “Maybe we should put brown on our pig puppets to show some poo.” Her sister responded, “That is very inappropriate.” Phew!
Turns out ten and nine year olds aren’t much interested in making pig puppets and they were relieved when I gave them a word search. (This Sunday School is all ages – meaning old enough not to need diapers and young enough that the adult sermon is still more boring than mine.) By the end of Sunday School, my crew was getting pretty restless and opting for jumping jacks competitions. I understand. Jesus did say there are times we ought to “leap for joy.” (OK, this was for times of oppression – and I don’t think my class was that bad.)
*****
We head off to AZ in just over a week and I won’t have a Sunday School to teach. Good heavens, I’m actually going to have to be quiet and sit still during a whole service. I don’t know that I can...
We start with a prayer circle which isn’t always complete since our granddaughter Emma doesn’t always want to hold hands with our grandnephew Manny. Then we sing a song. We sing it every second Sunday for two months to give the kids a chance to learn it. It’s led by me without any musical accompaniment and with lots of actions. Sometimes Manny just opts for something that looks like the “hokey pokey.” I understand.
Then we have our story about Jesus or as told by Jesus. I pick it fairly randomly from our Shine Story Bible, but always go for the stories that I think will “grab” the children. The Beatitudes and the Woes are not the biggest hits. In class, I read our story with them. Or if I can find a PowerPoint on line, I’ll use that. Our age range is 3 to 12, so it’s nice to have something the older kids can read along to. And then I find an online video of the same story – that tends to glue them to their chairs for a good five minutes.
But then I ask the kids to tell the story back to me so that by the time we are finished, they’ve heard the Jesus story three times. This past Sunday we had a few visitors who were visiting family and who I think may attend a more upscale Sunday School. One girl sighed and asked, “Can we talk about something other than church?!” I’ve never been asked that one before. I responded, “What would you like to talk about?” She replied, “I’d like to know what else these kids like to do. I like swimming.” Emma then piped in, “I like gymnastics.” A little boy chirped, “I like running.” And on it went.
Hmm, what to do!? Ah ha! “It’s craft time, I announced.” And I brought out the makings for a pig puppet. Yes, I know, Jesus lived in a culture that saw pigs as unclean, so why the pig puppet? Well, there was a man who had two sons and the second son wasted all his inheritance money and had to go look after pigs in order to eat. What the kids commented most on about this story of “The Prodigal Son” was all the pig poo. One of my students suggested, “Maybe we should put brown on our pig puppets to show some poo.” Her sister responded, “That is very inappropriate.” Phew!
Turns out ten and nine year olds aren’t much interested in making pig puppets and they were relieved when I gave them a word search. (This Sunday School is all ages – meaning old enough not to need diapers and young enough that the adult sermon is still more boring than mine.) By the end of Sunday School, my crew was getting pretty restless and opting for jumping jacks competitions. I understand. Jesus did say there are times we ought to “leap for joy.” (OK, this was for times of oppression – and I don’t think my class was that bad.)
*****
We head off to AZ in just over a week and I won’t have a Sunday School to teach. Good heavens, I’m actually going to have to be quiet and sit still during a whole service. I don’t know that I can...