Update
It's been a crazy week and some! Under the cut you will find VBS, religion, child development, miscellaneous family business, college plans, TV, gardens and July 4th plans!
Last week I was the Bible Story Lady for Vacation Bible School for the preschool group. There were 60 kids in five groups, and I got to teach the same lesson every 25 minutes or so. The kids were grouped by age, which was good, because I could adjust the lesson for the age. We had a group of 5s, a group of 4-5s, two groups of 3-4s and a group of early 3s. So the lesson changed quite a bit between the already-reading-5s and the barely potty trained 3s. It was a LOAD of fun though; my assistant was really good at assisting and taking initiative when I wasn't on top of something, but letting me lead. Having seen unhelpful helpers before, I was quite relieved.
Each group of 12 kids had 4 counselors aged 6th grade - high school, and we honestly had more trouble with them than the preschoolers. We had a couple of instigators who loved to tickle the kids in the middle of lessons and answer the questions we asked the little kids during the lesson (there was a competition for the most correctly answered questions, so when the counselors would hop into it it just was not cool.) The worst thing was when a couple of jr high boys decided it'd be cool to go down the 8 foot slide on one of the little tot riding car toys... the really big ones that kids sit in (if you watch Jon and Kate + 8 they have two of them for outside). Then one high school kid tried to be helpful and get the riding car down from the top of the slide (which he claimed someone else put there) and so dropped it over the side at the swings where the 4 yr olds were playing. Very not cool. But we got through it, and no one was hurt and feelings were mended.
Our VBS theme was "The Army of God" and all the kids were grouped into Companies and we did lots of stuff on the armor of God and things like that. It makes people nervous, including myself, and I didn't really go into it with an accepting attitude. Some churches go way overboard on the whole "Us vs. Satan" thing, and we end up raising little bitty solders ready for the Crusades. Totally not my thing. But I was given permission to be flexible with the lesson plans and teach it how I saw it, which was cool. It ended up being a general overview of the plan of salvation (and why it's needed and stuff) and what'll happen in the end. It was a LOT more of God vs. Satan (and why Christians need to chose to do right) as opposed to Christians vs. Non-Christians. I think it worked well, and I was pleased with the message I was able to convey.
People just don't give kids enough credit. Our church's Sunday preschool program really bothers me, because the leaders have the attitude that "Oh, well, they're only 4 years old, they won't sit still anyway." While there's usually a grain of truth in the lesson, it's almost always poorly presented or just not age appropriate. For example, they spent two weeks on the story of Jonah, which is honestly pretty cool when you're four (eaten by a whale?? COOL!), and all they could tell me the next week was that Jonah was thrown off a ship by pirates. (NOT the way the story goes, btw.) Mostly because the teachers' attitude is that they'll get what they get and they're too young anyway. I was talking to a parent who was helping with VBS about the level of the lessons for kids, and she was honestly worried because her 7 year old wanted to read the Bible and she thought it was too old for him, and didn't want to sit down and take the time to explain it. It's SO SAD! Kids soak up knowledge so much better when they're younger... give them as much as they can get!
Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and the kids went away learning stuff which was cool. I'll be subbing for Kid's Church the rest of July (after the holiday) while Tina takes a vacation, so that'll be cool too.
Last Monday we finally got our car registered and got SC plates and drivers licenses. We still have our NY cell phone numbers, so we're not completely official yet, but definitely moreso than we were.
Lessee... what else did I promise to talk about? College, right. OK. So right now Walden's still the only college that I've inquired of that's communicated with me, despite my attempts. So right now I seem to be going with them, although I haven't been accepted yet. There's one more step to take which I have to make a call for, but I had to wait until 9 central, which was 15 minutes ago, so I'll do that when I'm done here. *heh* Then, hopefully, I'll be accepted. If I get into the early program, I'll start online classes on the 14th (of July). They're enrolling me as a Junior, which is good, but I still don't know how many credits are going to transfer. The degree plan is as follows: BS in Early Childhood Development, preschool concentration, followed by their 16 month "post-baccalaureate degree" (is that a Masters?) in Early Childhood Education, which covers preschool through Grade 3. Then I can go test for my SC teacher certificate. Yay! That's the plan, we'll see if I get accepted, and in enough time for the July 14 start date. They also offered a 25% course fee reduction for the extent of my schooling if I get into the July 14 start. So we need to put the speed on.
I also applied to a job with La Petite Academy daycare two weeks ago, but it was an online app that went to the national headquarters, and I haven't heard back yet. If I haven't heard after the holiday I may just drop my resume off at the local place.
TV: Hell's Kitchen finale tomorrow night!!! WHEEEE!!!! I'm rooting for Christina. And Saturday's (in England) Doctor Who? GAH! So very disturbing. At least I have lots to distract me this week so I don't go insane waiting for part two! It was sad that they didn't put more effort into the special effects though, some of the space scenes were really hokey. And I'm NEVER impressed when the TARDIS goes flying through the air. It "disappears there, reappears here." Grrr.
I'm glad to report that my plants have made a good effort at recovering from my stupidity. Though, I did compound my stupidity with a bit more stupidity... got home from VBS on Friday and was sad to see my tomato plant all wilty. Thought to myself that it must be a delayed reaction to the spray that the other plants had reacted to. About half an hour later I went "DOH!" realizing that I had been so distracted that I hadn't watered them all week, and we'd had 90+ degree days. *sigh* So I went and watered everything thoroughly and it's all better now. :) I'm so dumb sometimes.
AND Finally...
We leave for Charlotte tomorrow night, catch the plane from there to NY on Wednesday, and we'll be there until next Tuesday. It'll be our first time back, and I'm feeling kind of sick about it. Visiting family and friends will be really good, but we're spending Thursday afternoon and evening with some good friends who happened to be next-door neighbors to us, so we'll be right back at "our" house again, and I don't know if I'm ready for that. When we moved, everything aligned so well that I KNEW that God wanted us here. I was excited and ready. Now that I've sat around on my butt for months, I'm finally starting to feel the anger and mourning that I never really felt a year ago when everything was happening. It just feels too soon to see the house again. OTOH, Susan tells me that they painted the house, and have done some renovations, so it won't -look- like our house, so maybe that'll help. It helps me feel a bit better just thinking about it. So we'll see.
But we plan to spend Thursday visiting friends, Friday with the family for the 4th and Grandpa's birthday, then the gaming group agreed to reschedule to Saturday or Sunday, so we can play with them, and otherwise there's just little errands like finally closing the bank account and getting copies of medical records and stuff that we didn't do before. And going to church, which'll be good. :) The neighbors here are going to watch the cats and water the plants and take care of the house, so that's a relief. Someone will be home ALL DAY, so if you're local and reading this, there's no use breaking in. :P
All right then! I think that's it. My baby Kaylee niece turned 4 months yesterday, and went swimming for the first time on Saturday. YAY GOGGLE BABY!! *grin* She's adorable. I'm completely in love.
I got up at 7:30 this morning full of energy, so I watered my plants, transplanted my tomato seedlings, had a good breakfast, made some business calls, and did all kinds of stuff online. Now I think I might take a nap after I make that school call. Yeah. That sounds like a plan. :)
Last week I was the Bible Story Lady for Vacation Bible School for the preschool group. There were 60 kids in five groups, and I got to teach the same lesson every 25 minutes or so. The kids were grouped by age, which was good, because I could adjust the lesson for the age. We had a group of 5s, a group of 4-5s, two groups of 3-4s and a group of early 3s. So the lesson changed quite a bit between the already-reading-5s and the barely potty trained 3s. It was a LOAD of fun though; my assistant was really good at assisting and taking initiative when I wasn't on top of something, but letting me lead. Having seen unhelpful helpers before, I was quite relieved.
Each group of 12 kids had 4 counselors aged 6th grade - high school, and we honestly had more trouble with them than the preschoolers. We had a couple of instigators who loved to tickle the kids in the middle of lessons and answer the questions we asked the little kids during the lesson (there was a competition for the most correctly answered questions, so when the counselors would hop into it it just was not cool.) The worst thing was when a couple of jr high boys decided it'd be cool to go down the 8 foot slide on one of the little tot riding car toys... the really big ones that kids sit in (if you watch Jon and Kate + 8 they have two of them for outside). Then one high school kid tried to be helpful and get the riding car down from the top of the slide (which he claimed someone else put there) and so dropped it over the side at the swings where the 4 yr olds were playing. Very not cool. But we got through it, and no one was hurt and feelings were mended.
Our VBS theme was "The Army of God" and all the kids were grouped into Companies and we did lots of stuff on the armor of God and things like that. It makes people nervous, including myself, and I didn't really go into it with an accepting attitude. Some churches go way overboard on the whole "Us vs. Satan" thing, and we end up raising little bitty solders ready for the Crusades. Totally not my thing. But I was given permission to be flexible with the lesson plans and teach it how I saw it, which was cool. It ended up being a general overview of the plan of salvation (and why it's needed and stuff) and what'll happen in the end. It was a LOT more of God vs. Satan (and why Christians need to chose to do right) as opposed to Christians vs. Non-Christians. I think it worked well, and I was pleased with the message I was able to convey.
People just don't give kids enough credit. Our church's Sunday preschool program really bothers me, because the leaders have the attitude that "Oh, well, they're only 4 years old, they won't sit still anyway." While there's usually a grain of truth in the lesson, it's almost always poorly presented or just not age appropriate. For example, they spent two weeks on the story of Jonah, which is honestly pretty cool when you're four (eaten by a whale?? COOL!), and all they could tell me the next week was that Jonah was thrown off a ship by pirates. (NOT the way the story goes, btw.) Mostly because the teachers' attitude is that they'll get what they get and they're too young anyway. I was talking to a parent who was helping with VBS about the level of the lessons for kids, and she was honestly worried because her 7 year old wanted to read the Bible and she thought it was too old for him, and didn't want to sit down and take the time to explain it. It's SO SAD! Kids soak up knowledge so much better when they're younger... give them as much as they can get!
Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and the kids went away learning stuff which was cool. I'll be subbing for Kid's Church the rest of July (after the holiday) while Tina takes a vacation, so that'll be cool too.
Last Monday we finally got our car registered and got SC plates and drivers licenses. We still have our NY cell phone numbers, so we're not completely official yet, but definitely moreso than we were.
Lessee... what else did I promise to talk about? College, right. OK. So right now Walden's still the only college that I've inquired of that's communicated with me, despite my attempts. So right now I seem to be going with them, although I haven't been accepted yet. There's one more step to take which I have to make a call for, but I had to wait until 9 central, which was 15 minutes ago, so I'll do that when I'm done here. *heh* Then, hopefully, I'll be accepted. If I get into the early program, I'll start online classes on the 14th (of July). They're enrolling me as a Junior, which is good, but I still don't know how many credits are going to transfer. The degree plan is as follows: BS in Early Childhood Development, preschool concentration, followed by their 16 month "post-baccalaureate degree" (is that a Masters?) in Early Childhood Education, which covers preschool through Grade 3. Then I can go test for my SC teacher certificate. Yay! That's the plan, we'll see if I get accepted, and in enough time for the July 14 start date. They also offered a 25% course fee reduction for the extent of my schooling if I get into the July 14 start. So we need to put the speed on.
I also applied to a job with La Petite Academy daycare two weeks ago, but it was an online app that went to the national headquarters, and I haven't heard back yet. If I haven't heard after the holiday I may just drop my resume off at the local place.
TV: Hell's Kitchen finale tomorrow night!!! WHEEEE!!!! I'm rooting for Christina. And Saturday's (in England) Doctor Who? GAH! So very disturbing. At least I have lots to distract me this week so I don't go insane waiting for part two! It was sad that they didn't put more effort into the special effects though, some of the space scenes were really hokey. And I'm NEVER impressed when the TARDIS goes flying through the air. It "disappears there, reappears here." Grrr.
I'm glad to report that my plants have made a good effort at recovering from my stupidity. Though, I did compound my stupidity with a bit more stupidity... got home from VBS on Friday and was sad to see my tomato plant all wilty. Thought to myself that it must be a delayed reaction to the spray that the other plants had reacted to. About half an hour later I went "DOH!" realizing that I had been so distracted that I hadn't watered them all week, and we'd had 90+ degree days. *sigh* So I went and watered everything thoroughly and it's all better now. :) I'm so dumb sometimes.
AND Finally...
We leave for Charlotte tomorrow night, catch the plane from there to NY on Wednesday, and we'll be there until next Tuesday. It'll be our first time back, and I'm feeling kind of sick about it. Visiting family and friends will be really good, but we're spending Thursday afternoon and evening with some good friends who happened to be next-door neighbors to us, so we'll be right back at "our" house again, and I don't know if I'm ready for that. When we moved, everything aligned so well that I KNEW that God wanted us here. I was excited and ready. Now that I've sat around on my butt for months, I'm finally starting to feel the anger and mourning that I never really felt a year ago when everything was happening. It just feels too soon to see the house again. OTOH, Susan tells me that they painted the house, and have done some renovations, so it won't -look- like our house, so maybe that'll help. It helps me feel a bit better just thinking about it. So we'll see.
But we plan to spend Thursday visiting friends, Friday with the family for the 4th and Grandpa's birthday, then the gaming group agreed to reschedule to Saturday or Sunday, so we can play with them, and otherwise there's just little errands like finally closing the bank account and getting copies of medical records and stuff that we didn't do before. And going to church, which'll be good. :) The neighbors here are going to watch the cats and water the plants and take care of the house, so that's a relief. Someone will be home ALL DAY, so if you're local and reading this, there's no use breaking in. :P
All right then! I think that's it. My baby Kaylee niece turned 4 months yesterday, and went swimming for the first time on Saturday. YAY GOGGLE BABY!! *grin* She's adorable. I'm completely in love.
I got up at 7:30 this morning full of energy, so I watered my plants, transplanted my tomato seedlings, had a good breakfast, made some business calls, and did all kinds of stuff online. Now I think I might take a nap after I make that school call. Yeah. That sounds like a plan. :)