Part two of
the Adam and Eve story. We reviewed that
the first people had lived in a beautiful
garden, so everyone helped put last
week’s flowers and trees up on the whiteboard (because we borrow classrooms
that are used by other groups during the week, we can’t leave anything
posted). Now, in the garden, they could
basically do anything they wanted, such as—and we all did these
together—playing ball, running around, eating a snack, singing and dancing,
“swimming”, and “sleeping.” There was
just one thing they couldn’t do, and what was that? But they did it anyway. Not good!
So we need to try and do better
than they did, and learn to make the right choices. We reviewed our 4-character Bible verse
which, taken word by word was learn, review, do good. So first we “learned”: everyone stood in a
line & we read off ten different scenarios (e.g. I let my sister use the
computer, my brother took my candy so I hit him, etc.). If they were “good,” everyone could take one
step forward, otherwise they weren’t supposed to move. They were not real coordinated with their
stepping, but the real point was discussing whether or not it was good, so that
was okay. Next we moved on to
“review.” Ten scenarios again, but this
time one kid at a time came up & was asked questions like, you have
homework to do, do you get it done or play on the computer? Everyone was allowed to give hints. If the kid who was “it” chose the “good”
answer, he/she got a happy face sticker.
Our first kid stuck to his I’d-play-on-the-computer answer so didn’t get
his sticker. But then I realized I
hadn’t been entirely fair to him, so called him up to ask him one more
time. Only this time, I worded it, “Do
you play on the computer, or do the homework first?” and of course he answered,
do the homework first. He always chooses
option #2 in an either-or question (great way to get him to do what you want,
ha)!
Next we went on to “do”. Since not everyone will necessarily face all
our scenarios, we need to apply our learning to something specific. Each of us took a couple of kids and helped
them brainstorm ways they should choose good behavior (e.g. verbalizing instead
of grunting, not sneaking food from the fridge); then we prayed for God’s help
for each one. One of our newer girls
couldn’t think of anything. I asked her
if she was feeling shy about it and she nodded.
So I asked if we could pray that she would not feel so shy and could
speak up more spontaneously. She
nodded. So after we finished praying and
moved on to our next activity, she started asking all the other kids what their
birthdays were! Too bad most of them
didn’t know, but she obviously had taken her need to learn this good thing to
heart! Sweet!
The word for “do” in the
particular Bible phrase we’d chosen also happens to be the word for
“walk.” And what body part do you walk
with? Your feet, of course. So we made these cute little “footprints” for
a craft, using our fists. Of course none
of them had ever seen them done on frosty school bus windows like I had growing
up in Minnesota. It never gets below
freezing here!
We had a little time left and
decided to redo last week’s game with the M&M’s. First we practiced the cup passing until they
basically got it. That took a while. Then we played one round and the girl who
hadn’t been there last week got the brown one.
Unlike all the kids from last week, she chose to eat it right away and
be out of the game. Well, it turned out
to be the right choice for her because the adults came in & we never got to
round two!
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