Monday, November 13, 2006
Blessings
I’m left thinking that in it’s simplist form, Jesus blessed the children. Big church, small church, in Jesus name, how do we bless the kids in our churches? How do we bless the kids in our larger communities? How do we bless the kids that God brings into our lives? An evergrowing knowledge of Christ Jesus to you.
just for fun
Yesterday I was standing in line with my teenaged daughter. She needed a winter coat. In front of us was a little girl sitting in a cart who happened to be three. The little girl took something from a box of left over Halloween impulse buys and the mom pointed to the side of the box where it said "4 years and up" .
her mom: "What number is that?"
girl: "4"
mom:"How old are you?"
girl: "3"
mom: "I think it's too old for you"
The little girl put it back in the box. End of story.
I was impressed and told the mom that. She said, "I'm a teacher. So I've learned a lot of little things like that."
I said, "As a mom of five I'm impressed. Really impressed." She smiled.
After they checked out, Jenny said to me, "Yeah, when she's five the mom can say, 'I think it's too young for you.'" That would work if you're more intelligent than your children.
That being true, it gives you until the child turns about 6 when she can read words like "and" "up" . At that point she'll just be excited to read the words but she won't really understand the implications. By 7 or 8 (when she understands the implications) she'll be so well trained (maybe) she won't even notice impulse buys in which case it won't matter whether she can read and understand the age range or not.
On the other hand there is the possibility she could figure out what you've been doing for five years. She could get really upset with you and never trust you again . . .
. . . or she could just laugh.
Cultivating a child's sense of humor would be an interesting topic. . .
You start seeing yourself when older siblings start pulling your tactics on younger siblings. That's when you decide whether it was actually as good an idea as you thought it was.
Anyway, as I say, for the moment I was impressed. :)
her mom: "What number is that?"
girl: "4"
mom:"How old are you?"
girl: "3"
mom: "I think it's too old for you"
The little girl put it back in the box. End of story.
I was impressed and told the mom that. She said, "I'm a teacher. So I've learned a lot of little things like that."
I said, "As a mom of five I'm impressed. Really impressed." She smiled.
After they checked out, Jenny said to me, "Yeah, when she's five the mom can say, 'I think it's too young for you.'" That would work if you're more intelligent than your children.
That being true, it gives you until the child turns about 6 when she can read words like "and" "up" . At that point she'll just be excited to read the words but she won't really understand the implications. By 7 or 8 (when she understands the implications) she'll be so well trained (maybe) she won't even notice impulse buys in which case it won't matter whether she can read and understand the age range or not.
On the other hand there is the possibility she could figure out what you've been doing for five years. She could get really upset with you and never trust you again . . .
. . . or she could just laugh.
Cultivating a child's sense of humor would be an interesting topic. . .
You start seeing yourself when older siblings start pulling your tactics on younger siblings. That's when you decide whether it was actually as good an idea as you thought it was.
Anyway, as I say, for the moment I was impressed. :)
Sunday, November 12, 2006
learning from glass blowers
Yesterday, we visited an art school in the Southern Tier. After the pre-planned morning info sessions, lunch, and the art tour we spent three hours in the glass blowing studio. We watched some demos - an older more experienced teacher or grad student with the help of undergrads.
As two visiting artists returned from lunch, the workshop filled up with students and grad students and professors and about 10 of these people all at different levels began working (as helpers) with these master glass-blowers. They worked for about 2 1/2 hours, each one seeming to know exactly what they were doing and when to do it.
It wasn't the actual work, though that was impressive. It was the way they all worked together to make something. No yelling, no screaming, no condescension. A few tense moments but nothing too bizarre. The experts came to do their work and share their expertise. The learners came to work, help and learn. All in all, they needed to work together (it wasn't a one person job) and do the work together (it wasn't a lecture) in order to do what they were doing.
Very informal, but so alive! An amazing thing to see.
As two visiting artists returned from lunch, the workshop filled up with students and grad students and professors and about 10 of these people all at different levels began working (as helpers) with these master glass-blowers. They worked for about 2 1/2 hours, each one seeming to know exactly what they were doing and when to do it.
It wasn't the actual work, though that was impressive. It was the way they all worked together to make something. No yelling, no screaming, no condescension. A few tense moments but nothing too bizarre. The experts came to do their work and share their expertise. The learners came to work, help and learn. All in all, they needed to work together (it wasn't a one person job) and do the work together (it wasn't a lecture) in order to do what they were doing.
Very informal, but so alive! An amazing thing to see.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
More Children's Ministry Blogs
Yet another list of CM blogs at Dave Wakerly's site.
If you're new, there are resources strewn randomly through this blog due to my profound lack of technoability. The most recent ones were
10/11/06
9/29/06
9/27
9/20
12/11 (but now you don't need this because of the new tags :)
If you're new, there are resources strewn randomly through this blog due to my profound lack of technoability. The most recent ones were
10/11/06
9/29/06
9/27
9/20
12/11 (but now you don't need this because of the new tags :)
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