I was signed up to teach Jr Church (ages 2-4yrs) on Sunday. My sister, two brothers, and one of my brother's friends came to help. I wanted to be more prepared than we usually are for teaching jr church. Our usual way of teaching comes the day of. We look in the bulletin and find out that we're down to teach. We rush down stairs, read through the material as fast as possible, and assign different sections between us. This time, though, we were ready! I'd gotten the typed materials a week before! ...and looked at them the day before! I got props, snacks, and crafts ready before getting to church early.
When we all got down there, I gave a quick run through with my co-teachers and got things as ready as they could be. We had five little boys. It reminded me of teaching my two-year-old class through the summer of '06. Four out of five were very controllable and did what they were told. The fifth we will call Matt. I would say "Matt, please come sit with your friends" and he would respond with "I might want to later, but right now I don't feel like it". He's a smart kid, but a troublemaker. For some reason, I am attracted to troublemakers as they are to me... at least as kids or youth are concerned. I guess its the challenge of wondering who will win (and hoping its me).
Throughout class, Matt kept acting up. He wouldn't sit and listen. He would try to outwit me by not answering straight forward. He knocked crafts down. He wouldn't participate with much of anything. Thankfully, I had enough help that it was a "teacher" to each student.
During snack time, he finished before anyone else. In order to keep him around his seat, I began a conversation with him. He carried it very well and was distracted enough to stay put for a while. In this convo, he told me he likes tractors, is a drum major, is a tv star, and investigated who put dirt on the table (which was a few crumbs from snack). He was super cute!
When it was game time, he knocked one of the crafts down. I put him in time out. I explained why and how long. He cried and said he wanted his mommy. Still, he sat there which surprised me a bit. Everyone else kept doing what they were doing and left him to whine. When his time out was up, I went over and explained again. He let me pick him up and he stopped crying. I put him down and he went on.
Right before class was over, when we were getting the kids' things to them, he came up to me. He started apologizing for everything I'd told him to do that he didn't and the things I told him not to do that he did. He remembered everything (from beginning to end). No one prompted him to do this either. I had forgotten most of them even. I gave him a big hug and told him that it was okay. He left me with a grin on my face.
I tried to get all them to remember the lesson (about Ruth) and one of the kids said we learned about "Jesus". Well, even if they didn't exactly remember what the lesson was, I'm sure they learned something, had some fun, and reminded me of how wonderful children are. (PS For a while, I've been thinking that I'm glad I don't have children right now and how much responsibility/time it takes to have children. I'm still alright with not having a kid right now, but I have a renewed spot in my heart for one {or more} of my own one day.)
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