Cluster

"What happens in cluster stays in cluster."

No blogging allowed. But, a few snapshots that are classically this group of high school girls... 

Knitting. Our Christmas party involved tacos, a gift exchange, the Polar Express, and piles of girls knitting/Knify Knitting/crocheting for several contented hours. The winter months mean yarn and needles/hooks coming to cluster, just like the summer months mean hair wraps and henna.

Pushups. This is our second time through the E100 Bible reading plan, and the girls decided early last summer that there was a penalty of five pushups for every missed day of reading. Only small group I've ever been involved in where pushups are a regular part of the schedule!

Steel drums. Several of the girls play steel drums together. It sounds awesome. Enough said. 

What Works for Me: Relay Races

 Every few years, I end up with a group of Sunday school kids who think that relay races are the best thing ever invented. Typically, it has been my 3rd or 4th graders (or 5th graders with limited exposure to running like crazies at church). The great thing about relay races is that they are a wonderful way to work on memory verses.

And they can be modified to fit the needs of the group.

In the past, we have used rocks to spell out virtues (summer months), or kept it simple with "Run down. Read the verse off the sheet. Run back. Tag the next person." Weeks with more visual, tactile kids who are confidant in their spelling/copywork skills have involved a giant sheet of paper and a large Sharpie. The week we talked about Abraham leaving his home involved adding a couple of Kenyan skirts to the mix.

Lately, though, we have gone from an all girls 4th grade group to having 25-35% of the group as 4th grade boys - and often been adding 5th graders into the crew at the end of the hour. Reading all of those big words, with the added pressure of needing to do so quickly, has tended to put our 4th grade boys at a disadvantage, and, well, no one likes knowing that they are going to loose, so...

Our most recent modifications:

1) Two lines. Run down to Jessica. Draw a card from the stack. Follow the instructions to get back. Tag the next person. 

On the back of each card is a sticky note (so that we can use the cards more than once) with part of the verse. First team to get all of their cards back and put the verse in order wins.

We often, but not always, give them the large print sheet to leave on the floor between the teams for reference.

2) Run down to Jessica. Pick up one puzzle piece. Run back. Tag the next person. First team to get their puzzle assembled wins. 

This time, two of the girls helped me fill in this template in the few minutes before music. 

Classic Sunday Afternoon Post:

One of those "easy" days in Sunday school this morning, where it feels like you've hit a sweet spot and the temptation is to think that you might be able to do this without praying. Because, well, this is simple, right? You put smiles into kids and you get smiles back. Kumbaya and daises and all of that.

(Good news for my heart and humility is that, most weeks are far more likely to be messy, train wreck, herding cats, too much caffeine, and too many big feelings in too small of bodies sorts of days, where you hold on tight and pray that there is a divine plan under all of the layers of hurt and hyper.)

4th graders listened well during a long story, sang their best - even with songs that they weren't sure they knew - and, let me squeeze their brains into trying to understand Isaiah 53:7 for the memory verse. We "kept" the boys rather than sending them off to fifth grade and split off into two groups. They checked and double checked to make sure that the goofy thing that I did when the story teller asked for a volunteer was supposed to happen. We talked about promises and how, even though there are sometimes good reasons for humans not keeping promises, God keeps his no matter what. We ran a relay race to work on the memory verse and, then, after the fifth graders joined us, we ran it again.

And, it was nothing special, but they left content.

Easy peasy lemon squeezey.

A 6th grader caught me on the way and walked me over to middle school, where we found a couple other kids, talked for a while, and set up the octagon. Leaders meeting. Octagon. Still a klutz, but slowly improving. Continued conversations and narratives from previous weeks. Pulled in some kids who haven't been there in months. Played a game. Listened to a talk. Broke out into small groups and talked about every sort of God thing under the sun. 

These girls that we so often draaaggg answers out of had questions and thoughts and more questions and more thoughts, and one topic would spiral into another and another and another, until we had covered more ground than I thought was possible in twenty-five minutes.

Everything from the concept of truth to Ancient Egypt, American coins, 2012, sharing faith with friends, and inner and outer beauty and pride.

Yep. Jessica. Alone. In a room with twelve preteen girls. Talking about beauty.

This... is one of those things that my middle school aged self would have sworn was never going to happen. Proof positive that I really do, very emphatically, love these girls. (Although, yes, I did go directly from that breakout group to playing running, chasing games with "my" 6th grade boys. So, not all is bizarre.)

Again, simple, content.

Sweet spot for the week? Found.