A reader recently asked as to why I'm not a vbs fan, to be honest I'm not really sure that it is just one thing; there is just something about the way I've experienced vbs that just doesn't set right. Maybe it's having been on the planning side too many times, maybe it's the notion that people just use it as daycare for their children, maybe it's too much playtime and not enough Bible learning....
Even the successful years felt off... Maybe it's that the curriculum I've had experience with, is from mainstream Christian publishing houses, who have sales, rather than souls in mind. It has seemed that as the years have floated by that the curriculum publishers are competing against one another for the top spot, so it's about who can have the flashiest program...
When I was growing up, I went to a vbs program, it was held by a Baptist family one cul-de-sac over from us, my parents knew the family, they let us go... I don't remember what was taught, I do remember there being lots of children in the small living room of the family and at the end of the week, we went to the church for a celebration of some kind... We earned some sort of "bucks", I had enough to buy one of those little cards with that brownish drawing of Jesus on one side, on the other was John 3:16... I cherished that little card... I remember feeling so excited that Jesus was my friend, yes, a seed was planted.
When these children who've attended these flashy vbs programs, grow up- what will their memory be? Will it be the theme of the event or that Jesus is their special friend? Even for our children who are in church everytime the doors are opened; vbs {at former churches, new church does not have vbs} was all about games, food & friends- if they didn't catch the Bible teaching for the day, then how will children foreign to church catch it?
I guess it's just that somewhere in making the curriculum child friendly it's become to showy- when in reality a child who is Saved, and comes to know Jesus Christ as the Saviour is what it's really all about.
Some of you may have been part of some truly on-target vbs programs, that are KJ Bible based. It's just not been my experience.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
The Long Weekend, prt 2
We woke on Monday to beautiful clear sunny skies! The only plans we had made was to BBq at home and enjoy fireworks as the darkness came... Our day was wide open... we did not do any chores, {the laundry was piling all weekend; I was tempted to run a couple loads to hang on the lines... since it was so nice}
We decided to bring deli sandwich lunch stuff over to my parents- My Mom stretched something in her hips and has been a little house bound in the last couple weeks, she hadn't been getting out much. It is just fun to treat my parents once in a while. My parents live in a 55+ gated community; the homes are individually owned, manufactured styled homes. The community had a little parade planned, it was really cute; a few of the folks have old cars that they decorated, the local fire department "entered" a couple trucks, and a few ladies got together and had a little drill team... It was short and sweet, it was really fun to cheer for the seniors, they had put a lot of effort into the event. My Dad had helped to decorate one of the vehicles.
We then came home, for a little quiet time before the evening arrived. The neighbors just across from us buy a ton of fireworks each year, the last two years we've bought just a few ourselves, it's really a fun time- they have family over, we BBq and eat supper out in the front yard, while they begin shooting off their huge pile...
We like to wait until it's a little bit dark-This was the first year that Hubby let the boys do the lighting... Oh, they were thrilled, I think they had shivers up and down their spines, it was very exciting for them.... Boys love to explode things.... Things really got exciting, at one point, a firework malfunctioned, just missing Miss S and Miss E- I was in the house when that happened, it could have been a very serious situation, thankfully it was just a warning that fireworks can malfunction and that there is an element of danger involved...
When all the fireworks had been shot, we came in for late dessert, exploding Twinkies. You place the tip of a can of whipping cream in one of the holes on the bottom of the Twinkie and load it up, just until the cake part begins to separate... It's pretty fun :)
Tuesday it was back to work for everyone, including me, we tackled the laundry mountain and the babies were here. We all were pretty tired and poky.... Wednesday morning me and the four slept in!
We decided to bring deli sandwich lunch stuff over to my parents- My Mom stretched something in her hips and has been a little house bound in the last couple weeks, she hadn't been getting out much. It is just fun to treat my parents once in a while. My parents live in a 55+ gated community; the homes are individually owned, manufactured styled homes. The community had a little parade planned, it was really cute; a few of the folks have old cars that they decorated, the local fire department "entered" a couple trucks, and a few ladies got together and had a little drill team... It was short and sweet, it was really fun to cheer for the seniors, they had put a lot of effort into the event. My Dad had helped to decorate one of the vehicles.
 |
| My parents really were happy we were visiting, some one was making a funny expression in all the shots I took. |
When all the fireworks had been shot, we came in for late dessert, exploding Twinkies. You place the tip of a can of whipping cream in one of the holes on the bottom of the Twinkie and load it up, just until the cake part begins to separate... It's pretty fun :)
Tuesday it was back to work for everyone, including me, we tackled the laundry mountain and the babies were here. We all were pretty tired and poky.... Wednesday morning me and the four slept in!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The Long Weekend, prt 1
Hubby took Friday off, what a blessing that was, as it was the "quiet" day of the weekend. That is if sewing a blouse, a dress and an apron; errands and yard work are considered quiet activities!
Saturday was full of church stuff- our church had a big celebration planned for Sunday- The boys were at the church at 9:30am for the set up, we girls joined in around 10am to decorate, with many hands doing the work we finished about noon, enjoyed a pizza lunch then went home- us girls anyway.... For the boys it was nursing home visitation week... They changed their clothes and went back to church... After the visitations, it was back to church for them so K could practice some songs for the celebration on Sunday {the nursing home group, was going to be our live music entertainment}.... The boys were doing church stuff from 9:30-5:30; they loved every minute of it too! I was glad that we had finished early, as my sewing projects had a deadline! I needed to finish before church on Sunday morning.... However, when they came rolling in we went out to buy a few fireworks - we ate a late supper, I went back to sewing, but by about 10pm I was seeing cross-eyed, at that point I had finished my dress, most of the apron and just buttonholes and buttons were needed on Miss N's blouse... I called it a night. The weather was just glorious on Saturday.
Sunday we woke to clouds, threatening to rain on the celebration.... Which they did, sort of. Each year for about the past 10 years of so; they've put on a giant BBq, inviting the neighbourhood, to come celebrate freedom... {They don't do VBS and I'm glad, as I'm not a VBS fan}... This year, the church was allowed to give flyers, advertising the event, out to the local {gov.} elementary schools, like 15,000 invitations went out on top of that another 5,000 or so invitations were left on doorsteps and with apartment building managers.... Back to the rain.... It took all sorts of back and forth car trips to get ourselves to the church {we live close enough to walk, we parked the car at home, to free up parking for guests} just as church began....so did a rain shower {remember Saturday was gorgeous}... Pastor actually was watching the rain as the service was happening and extended the sermon just a bit..... and the rain ceased, just in time for lunch to be served. {I haven't heard the numbers officially, I know that a few souls were saved during the call in the service} Hundreds of folks received a nice lunch of burgers, hot dogs, macaroni and potato salad, baked beans, chips and a dessert, at one point I looked to see the length of the lines, I couldn't see the ends!
There were bouncy houses, face painting, cotton candy, sno-cones etc.... The children that attend the church had been earning Baptist bucks since May, to spend on the activities, {fun} food and prizes; Miss E had earned 688- She was really cute, spending the frugally to make the last for the event....
After lunch, It would be time for Mr. K and his fellow musical friends to share some hymns with us...... Would you believe that as soon as they had all the guitars out of the cases, tuned and ready.... It began to rain! All the music guys retreated, many of the guests left also. It wasn't that bad of a shower, it was rather soaking though... And wouldn't you know, that as the designated end time of the event arrived.... So did Mr. Sunshine....
Saturday was full of church stuff- our church had a big celebration planned for Sunday- The boys were at the church at 9:30am for the set up, we girls joined in around 10am to decorate, with many hands doing the work we finished about noon, enjoyed a pizza lunch then went home- us girls anyway.... For the boys it was nursing home visitation week... They changed their clothes and went back to church... After the visitations, it was back to church for them so K could practice some songs for the celebration on Sunday {the nursing home group, was going to be our live music entertainment}.... The boys were doing church stuff from 9:30-5:30; they loved every minute of it too! I was glad that we had finished early, as my sewing projects had a deadline! I needed to finish before church on Sunday morning.... However, when they came rolling in we went out to buy a few fireworks - we ate a late supper, I went back to sewing, but by about 10pm I was seeing cross-eyed, at that point I had finished my dress, most of the apron and just buttonholes and buttons were needed on Miss N's blouse... I called it a night. The weather was just glorious on Saturday.
Sunday we woke to clouds, threatening to rain on the celebration.... Which they did, sort of. Each year for about the past 10 years of so; they've put on a giant BBq, inviting the neighbourhood, to come celebrate freedom... {They don't do VBS and I'm glad, as I'm not a VBS fan}... This year, the church was allowed to give flyers, advertising the event, out to the local {gov.} elementary schools, like 15,000 invitations went out on top of that another 5,000 or so invitations were left on doorsteps and with apartment building managers.... Back to the rain.... It took all sorts of back and forth car trips to get ourselves to the church {we live close enough to walk, we parked the car at home, to free up parking for guests} just as church began....so did a rain shower {remember Saturday was gorgeous}... Pastor actually was watching the rain as the service was happening and extended the sermon just a bit..... and the rain ceased, just in time for lunch to be served. {I haven't heard the numbers officially, I know that a few souls were saved during the call in the service} Hundreds of folks received a nice lunch of burgers, hot dogs, macaroni and potato salad, baked beans, chips and a dessert, at one point I looked to see the length of the lines, I couldn't see the ends!
There were bouncy houses, face painting, cotton candy, sno-cones etc.... The children that attend the church had been earning Baptist bucks since May, to spend on the activities, {fun} food and prizes; Miss E had earned 688- She was really cute, spending the frugally to make the last for the event....
After lunch, It would be time for Mr. K and his fellow musical friends to share some hymns with us...... Would you believe that as soon as they had all the guitars out of the cases, tuned and ready.... It began to rain! All the music guys retreated, many of the guests left also. It wasn't that bad of a shower, it was rather soaking though... And wouldn't you know, that as the designated end time of the event arrived.... So did Mr. Sunshine....
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Zoo
We had a zoo outing with the Mom's group from church today, it was a fun time of getting to know more ladies from church. The children in our group were as young as 11 weeks and up to 17 years, all the children are well behaved, all had a nice time! Here are our 4 {S- was working, of course}
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Clearance Sale
So, one of the little girlies needed a bigger pair of tennies.... We visited three different stores- all were having an "end of the season" sale.... That being summer! Hello, we haven't even had a good stretch of summer like weather yet! Good news for us though, I found a pair for her at a great price and {ha ha} they are still in season!!!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Taking Breaks- Homeschool
Burn out comes like a thief in the night to homeschooling households...And not just the Momma's. It really can wear the whole household down.
As homeschool newbies many years ago, we thought we must emulate the "school" environment.... Those first years we ran our schedule according to that of the local government school district... Only problem with that was that Hubby wasn't necessarily having days off when that particular district had days off, so we were doing school when he was home. The other problem was Momma-Burn out, back then we had babies... 4 of them in five short years, but we still were of the mind set that we had to follow some schedule dictated by the local school body.... Soon all those babies were of school age, our days were even more packed with tons of learning, important building block type learning. That left me, the teacher, with no spare time for little things like grocery shopping.
Another consequence was that we were filling Hubby's precious Saturday off time with the basic household chores and errands, which left no time for other family activities... We were all burning out, we had to make some adjustments.
Enter the 4 day school week. We've found that we can school 4 days a week and still have plenty of weeks for vacations and breaks. Most prepared curriculum have about 170 lessons, which equates to 34 weeks @ 5 days a week. The 4 day school week, equals 42 1/2 weeks. We still can take a nice long break in December and about 6 weeks in the summer {which is July and part of August} and still have a week or so to spare for a vacation at another time during the school year. We always take off school; days that Hubby has off from work.
Friday's are favourite days around here. The children and I do lounge a bit on Friday mornings, then we do a thorough cleaning of the house, {change the beds, deep clean the bathrooms etc}, we sometimes do errands, like grocery shopping. Mostly it's just a quiet day at home. I might do some sewing, baking or scrapbooking. The children mostly spend time in the activities they enjoy.
Really we are just thankful that God showed us that we don't need to be duplicating anybody else's schedule. Our home is much more calm and relaxed these days, thanks to the 4 day week.
As homeschool newbies many years ago, we thought we must emulate the "school" environment.... Those first years we ran our schedule according to that of the local government school district... Only problem with that was that Hubby wasn't necessarily having days off when that particular district had days off, so we were doing school when he was home. The other problem was Momma-Burn out, back then we had babies... 4 of them in five short years, but we still were of the mind set that we had to follow some schedule dictated by the local school body.... Soon all those babies were of school age, our days were even more packed with tons of learning, important building block type learning. That left me, the teacher, with no spare time for little things like grocery shopping.
Another consequence was that we were filling Hubby's precious Saturday off time with the basic household chores and errands, which left no time for other family activities... We were all burning out, we had to make some adjustments.
Enter the 4 day school week. We've found that we can school 4 days a week and still have plenty of weeks for vacations and breaks. Most prepared curriculum have about 170 lessons, which equates to 34 weeks @ 5 days a week. The 4 day school week, equals 42 1/2 weeks. We still can take a nice long break in December and about 6 weeks in the summer {which is July and part of August} and still have a week or so to spare for a vacation at another time during the school year. We always take off school; days that Hubby has off from work.
Friday's are favourite days around here. The children and I do lounge a bit on Friday mornings, then we do a thorough cleaning of the house, {change the beds, deep clean the bathrooms etc}, we sometimes do errands, like grocery shopping. Mostly it's just a quiet day at home. I might do some sewing, baking or scrapbooking. The children mostly spend time in the activities they enjoy.
Really we are just thankful that God showed us that we don't need to be duplicating anybody else's schedule. Our home is much more calm and relaxed these days, thanks to the 4 day week.
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