A New Calling?
IN THE NEWS: According to World Magazine, there was a study commissioned by a pet insurer in the UK and found that 34% of British dogs are obese--only 5% of American dogs. The problem? What else? Poor diet and lack of exercise. "As a nation we are less inclined to take long walsk, so our dogs get much less exercise," said a senior veterinarian with a pet health and welfare charity.
One of things I forgot to mention this past Sunday was that it was my first time teaching Children's church. (Yes, I know, heaven help your children. Tee-hee.) Anyway, not only was this my first time, but the church is adopting a whole new type of teaching/lesson format, so it was new to the old-timer teachers, as well.
Basically, the teacher of the 6-8 yr olds and the teacher of the 3-5 yr olds (that's me) bring everyone together and sing and see a puppet show before the kids go into their individual classrooms. Simple, huh? Well, the other teacher puts on a CD and begins leading the kids in the song, which I'm glad about because I missed last week (remember the whole Wildwood water park chicken fiasco?) and didn't know any of the songs. 2 lines into the song, the teacher gets interrupted and she has to leave, so she asks me if I would mind leading the children in the singing for her.
At this point, I'm thinking, Yes! Yes, I DO mind. I've never heard this song in my life and now I have to stand in front of the classroom and make sure the children (who've never heard it before either) sing it, too. But I couldn't allow the children, the teacher--and the OTHER teachers observing--see me sweat. So I said brightly, "Sure!"
The children really weren't singing, so I tried to show some enthusiasm and sang louder to compensate. Thank goodness I had a CD to sing with, but it still sounded like I was a doing a bad Amy Grant karaoke. Of course, the teacher comes back at the very end of the song and was able to take the lead and introduce the puppet show, and I was able to slither to the back of the room again.
My class went well, although my craft ran a little long. I'm very anal, so I wouldn't let the children go home until they had their perfect "Jesus Loves Me" necklaces to display to their parents. When the kids were, finally, able to go home, the other teacher came back in to thank me for a job well done and for singing. Some of the other people looked at me and said, "THAT was you? Wow. You have a very pretty voice." I was asked to join the choir and even had a mother ask me if I was teacher by trade.
Hmm. Maybe I didn't do such a bad job after all.
I have ponder that. I won't teach again until November, so at least I'll have a nice long recovery before the next time. Whew.
5 comments:
Good for you! I know you were a great leader for the kids, because you sound like such a good mother to your daughter.
Many moons ago, I let them guilt me into teaching Children's Church -- 4 and 5 year olds. I lasted about two months! That's a tough group - very rambunctious. So I asked to be switched to the baby nursery where I worked for ten years. Babies don't argue with you or bite and kick each other. I discovered I'd rather change stinky diapers and mop spit-up than deal with older ones!
Yeah, they're a tough crowd, but fun.
I do baby-sitting, too, but that is tougher to me. Probably because I get the babies AND the toddlers together and they're just doing whatever they want. I'm always worried somebody's going to die. LOL!
What do you know? You can now lead the sing-a-long every day, uh? *winks*
Good for you! I admire those who work with young children, especially after having a few of my own. They take a lot of energy and patience. Sounds like you, of the "perfect" necklaces, have both.
Dh and I did kids church once. Um...I was totally reminded why I do not want kids. He's good with them, but me? Not so much.
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