Objections to a song

Last week at playgroup, in the middle of one of my songs, three year old Max stamped his way to the front of the kids.

One hand went on his hip, the other was pointed at me and gesuring as he talked.  He has the most adorable Aussie/Polish accent.

"Belinda.  We shouldn't sing this song.  It is a bad song.  Spiders are bad.  They bite you and they put venom in you and they hurt you and kill you."

The Mum's in the group began to laugh, while I did my best to keep a straight face, to keep singing, and to use gaps in the song to rescue poor Insy-Winsies now tanished reputation!
love B

Teaching the Christmas story at playgroup

(This is actually a post I planned and took photos for last year and never got around to posting, but better late than never!)

The nature of our playgroup is that it is a group run for people in the community, and our prayer and hope is that it might lead parents and kids to develop an interest in God and Jesus.  This means that times like Christmas and Easter are important- because they are very natural times for talking about such things.

The first year I ran playgroup I decided to do two weeks on the Christmas story with the kids.  The first week I found a good story book and read it through.  On the second week, when I got to a picture of the "nativity scene" I asked if any of the kids remembered who the characters in the story were.  One boy yelled out "Santa" and another girl cried "The Wiggles".  I realised then that perhaps with pre-schoolers I needed a few more weeks to get the story to stick :)

The follow year, and this year, I worked out a cool way to cover the Christmas story, assisted with some suggestion from the website kidzlink which has some great ideas which I stole and adapted for my situation and style.

The first thing I did was get a plastic plant we had at church and turned it into a Christmas tree!

Then I brought in my nativity scene which my sister bought me when she went to Israel.  I like it because its really rustic, it's not very comercial, and in some ways it represents quite well I think the simplicity of the first Christmas.

Each week I choose part of the Christmas story to cover.  Usually in the first week I do the Angel telling Mary and Joseph they are going to have Jesus, the second week they go to Bethlehem and have Jesus, the third week the shepherds and the fourth week the wise men.

I wrap up the pieces of the nativity scene which come up in that week.  I don't have an angel in my set so I had to use this ornament :)

Once the pieces are wrapped, I place them underneither the Christmas tree

Each week I pick a few kids (making sure its not the same ones every week!) to unwrap the "presents" and then I use the figures to tell the story.

I love it, because it involves the kids, they don't just hear but they see and touch as well, and we have multiple weeks to go over the story.  It also starts with things they associate with Christmas (presents and trees) and uses them to bring it back to the real reason behind the celebrations.

To keep emphasising it, I also show them the pictures from the Beginner's Bible, which I think does a great job of covering the Christmas story.

It is amazing how much more the kids take it.  They love looking at and holding the Baby Jesus.  And each week I get to say- "Christmas is actually all about Jesus"

And so far this year, we haven't had a single mention of the Wiggles.  Thought the term is not over yet!

love B

Two terms of Playtime to Go!

We've hit the "5 months to go" mark in the previous week.

Quite extrodinary.  Really, moving to Melbourne seems to get closer and closer every day ;)

But of course there is a lot of sadness, particularly when I think of saying goodbye to the kids and families I've been working with over the last three years.

I was thinking of some of the most memorable Playgroup kid moments (warning- some of these are repeats from other posts):

-Little Lisa, such a gorgeous little treasure! If she sees me sitting down will come up behind me and pretend to "cut" my hair.  "It's too longer, it's too longer" she says, as she pretends to cut it with some fake sissors from the playgroup doctors kit.  "Stay still" she says, if I move my head to much, in a very hairdressery voice.

-Little Hayley, after struggling to say my name for nearly a year, finally calls me "Aunty Bananna"

-Ren, who insisted for a while on "Playing Belinda" before meals, which meant saying the following "Dear God, thank you for friends and food.  If you haven't paid for this term, please see me afterwards.  Amen"

-Little Max, with his gorgeous big blue eyes.  On the week of his birthday (when we did a cake for him) he said "I love you Belinda, you are the best Belinda ever".  Another time he said to me "I like you Belinda" before saying quietly to himself "Beautiful Belinda".

-Oli and Matty- who like to play "Aunty Bawinda" at home, which basically means getting out their teddie bears and ordering them to sing and dance.

-Shy little Harper, who will quite often announce (after she has warmed up a bit) "Look I can hop".  And so she does and soon she has the 7 or 8 other kids hoping around in front of me.  So gorgeous.

-Nathaniel- whose Mum will suggest he gives me a hug.  He will walk towards me, and as I drop down and open my arms, he will bolt in the other direction- laughing hesterically at his own little joke.

-Little Hanna, who spends all week singing playgroup songs at home.  When she is tired and struggling to get out of bed her Mum says "maybe you are too tired for playgroup".  She shakes her head and says "No, we have to go.  Belinda is WAITING for me".

-And little Xavier, who at 6 months old always gives me the biggest grins whenever I smile at him.

So special to be involved in these moments :)
Belinda