the great family

We have been a bit delayed in our Godly Play series on Wednesday evenings for a number of reasons.  It takes time that I don't always have to get the materials ready and in place.  To do the lessons really well, I also need to practice telling the stories with the materials once or twice.  We took Halloween off to distribute candy and hospitality to nearly 300 children in our community.  I told the story of the flood last week with no materials at all - that was an interesting experience.  The children were quite rapt, and clearly using their imaginations as I sketched and gestured out the story with my hands. 

Last night we got into the Desert Box, which is of course a draw.  Anytime sand is involved, young ones tend to be very curious.  Last night was no exception.

This first year we do Godly Play at church, I'm doing everything on the cheap.  I'm making as much as I possibly can from what we already have around, and trying not to buy all the spendy handcrafted materials available online.  Besides, I don't usually have it together enough to know what I need to order online for it to arrive in time! 

The story of the Great Family is that of Sarai and Abram's wanderings in the desert, as God led them from Ur to Haran to Hebron, with stops to build altars at Shechem and Bethel.  The stones are the altars, and the pegs represent the figure in the story.  As God leads them along, they are also being led from polytheism to monotheism.  This moment is from near the end of the story, after Sarah's death when Abraham sends his emissary back to Haran to find a wife (Rebekah) for his son Isaac.  The figure leaving Haran is Rebekah, while Isaac and Abraham stand at Hebron waiting for her. 

The kids loved the story, and when I asked where they saw themselves in it, they said in the baby Isaac or in the wedding. 

Then we pulled out our work (the little paints and the clay continue to be most popular), and finally had our feast of bananas, oatmeal cookies and water.  A splendid evening.

circle of the church year

We began our Godly Play sessions on Wednesday evening.  Godly Play is a Montessori-inspired faith formation program using story, wondering, response, and feast as a way to communicate God's love and desire for each of us. 

We face a dwindling number of children at our church.  This is not at all uncommon.  It causes you to face a sort of existential question:  at what point does it just no longer make sense to offer children's programs?  I have decided that so long as we have one child that needs to learn the story of our faith, I will continue to offer developmentally appropriate ways for that to happen.

So, our small group of three on Wednesday evenings gathered and shared our first presentation:  the circle of the church year. 

Like all Montessori-based learning, Godly Play uses special materials that are calibrated to engage children and provide natural control of error.  The circles of the church year that I looked at online were gorgeous.  Carved and painted wood, fitted to slots so that each tab occupied its own natural place:

But it also cost $160, and we are not exactly swimming in that kind of money!

I set out to make it myself.  Crafting is decidedly not my thing, so please don't laugh too hard at my measly efforts.  It was kind of calming and meditative to set my mind to a task using my hands, though.

I cut out two felt circles, one larger than the other.  I'm sure I could have used a compass to make this all much more exact, in terms of size of each tab in relationship to the diameter of the circles.  But where's the fun in that!?

Then I cut out 53 itty bitty tabs (one for each Sunday of the year, plus one for Christmas on those years it doesn't fall on a Sunday).  There are white tabs for our times of celebration (Christmas, Easter), purple tabs for our times of preparation (Advent, Lent), the great green season of tabs for our times of growth, and the special red-hot tab for Pentecost (they loved that one!).

I also cut out four arrows and secured them to the center of the felt circles with a brad.  Three white arrows and one red.  The three whites point to our great feasts:  Christmas, Easter, Pentecost.  The red one points to where we are now (18th Sunday after Pentecost). 

The kids enjoyed it.  They were entranced during the presentation and time of wondering.

Afterwards, they were invited to choose their work for the evening.  Because we are just starting and I am making everything as I go, they don't have many story materials to work with.  They all chose to respond using the art shelf:

There are carpets for all work, big paints, little paints, clay, drawing, and journaling. 

Our three children chose purposeful work and worked diligently.  The work they chose did not seem to engage much with the presentation, but that is okay.  They are there to confront their four existential limits (death, the threat of freedom, the need for meaning, and fundamental aloneness)*, not do a craft that relates to the lesson. 

Finally, we shared our feast:  clementines, oatmeal-raisin cookies, and water.

They served one another with grace and courtesy.

It was great fun, and I'm excited for next week!  Creation cards.  Stay tuned.

Jerome Berryman, Teaching Godly Play, p. 68.

wee helper

Wednesday is typically my day off.  I go in for our Wednesday evening supper and program at church because I run it, but I get to spend the day with the dog and the little one.  Today's been a good one, so far.  We:

-Had an electrician out to look at the oven.  Computer busted, cost:  $500.  Kill me.  Pretty please, home warranty, cover this?
-Prepped for Godly Play sessions that happen Wednesday evenings.  Today, I'm working on the Circle of the Church Year wall hanging!  More to come on this later.
-Helped Jeff/dad celebrate his 29th birthday!  Happy birthday bartender!
-Tried unsuccessfully to take a morning nap (why, oh why, must we lose two naps and go to one!?).
-Toyed with Google Analytics. 
-Tried out Vicki's new underpants for the morning!  (Big girl.)
-Finished up some laundry:

My assistant loves to help with laundry.  She uses her walker wagon to collect her dirty clothes and bring them to the washer, then take the clean ones from the dryer back to her room for folding.  Jeff just commented this morning that he hopes Vicki continues to love chores this much for the rest of her life!  She can't get enough of washing, wiping, folding, collecting, sorting, loading and unloading the dishwasher, and feeding the dog. 

Happy Wednesday to all!  Oh, and guess what I'm getting the bartender for his birthday??  That's right - a tattoo of a wedding band!  Now he can never get rid of me!

something new and thrilling

One part of my ministry in my new appointment includes children and their families.  I have worked in a classroom before, and also been a children's pastor, so this was nothing too new or daunting for me.  I love being around children.  Their frankness and playfulness delight me, and sometimes I feel it is much easier to speak and be with them than it is with adults. 

Since Vicki Jo's birth, I have also been drawn into the Montessori method of creating environments and approaching development. 

I knew, from some research, that Maria Montessori had developed a spiritual formation approach called the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.  Her collaborator, Gianna Gobbi (for whom the fabled Gobbi mobile is named), is largely responsible for organizing and cataloguing this approach, along with Sophia Cavalletti.  Here is a good webpage about the genealogy of this amazing way to allow children to discover God inside them.

Gobbi, Cavaletti, and Montessori were, of course, Roman Catholics.  That is not my particular tradition, and so some of the details of the curriculum do not make sense in my context.  What to do?  How to incorporate the Montessori ideals of beauty, learning first through the hand, and having meaningful work?

And then I found Godly Play.  Dreamed up by an Episcopalian priest named Jerome Berryman (a Kansan!), this approach modifies and builds on Catechesis of the Good Shepherd to make sense in a Protestant environment.  And trust me, dreamy it is.

This is a shelf of materials for telling Biblical stories, wondering aloud together, and working to develop a language about the God of grace that already resides in each child. 

I am deep into reading his work and preparing to slowly implement this method with the children in my care.  We will do our wondering and working on Wednesday evenings together.  Expect regular updates as I figure out what I'm doing, collect materials (like everything Montessori, Godly Play is heavy on specific items), and collaborate with children.

I will leave you with this quote from Teaching Godly Play:  "For example, when children prepared for their first communion they harvested the wheat and processed through the school, carrying it tied in small bundles with ribbons.  They then ground the flour and stamped the rolled-out dough they had made with a personally chosen Christian symbol.  Finally they baked their personal communion hosts to be consumed on the grand day when they first participated in the Holy Mysteries."  (p. 24, describing how Montessori helped children prepare for their first communion at her school in Barcelona).