The Gospel was Matthew 5: 1-12 (the Beatitudes). Funny enough, our 'words' were Gospel and Jesus, so they were both sort of gimmies. :)
Deb came up with this activity from a book of her daughters, where the kids would make their own 'Prayer Books' and 'Mass Books' by cutting out these pages, and we photocopied them, yadda. It didn't turn out as well as hoped, because the copies had lost the page numbers at the bottom, so the kids couldn't figure out which pages were meant to go in what order...we sorted it out, but it took *much* longer than it should have...
The 'random running conversation' of the day was shock and dismay over the fact that I'm 27 and don't have a boyfriend or a husband. *head desk* I'm not even joking. We were working on the books, and M, one of the girls, asked me if I had a boyfriend (I have no idea where this question was meant to go, cause we never got there...), I said no, and then she sort of did that, 'no wait, I meant husband', and I told her no, I wasn't married either. *shock* as the room suddenly falls silent. '*How* old are you Miss Amber?' '27' 'And you don't have a boyfriend? Why not? Have you tried? How about blind dates? Speed dating? (okay, they totally didn't know the term speed dating, but they described it.) *Why* don't you have a boyfriend?' The conclusion they came to is that it's a tragedy, I'm pretty so I need a boyfriend and they can't understand why I haven't got one. You and me both, kids. You and me both.
Another discovery is that we're going to have to go over Genesis, at least briefly. At least one of the boys had *no idea* who Adam and Eve are. Seriously. These kids are 6/7, on up to 12. How do you get to that age, raised in a nominally Christian household, and not have heard those names? I am boggled.
See, here's the thing I really don't get. They boy, J, was asking about angels, and if they really had names. I said yes, they did, but we don't know all of them, because there're so many, and he was talking about a show he'd watched that was talking about angels and their names and the hierarchy, and M asked about the devil, so we were talking about that, and I mentioned Adam and Eve, and J was...'who's Adam?' Soo....his parents let him watch History Channel stuff about Kabbalah and angels, but they don't bother to tell him Genesis? What?
I just have to say I love that your kids know what speed-dating is (even if they don't know the name) and, like you said, know so much about angels, and haven't heard of Adam and Eve...I mean, even in pop culture, I grew up hearing about them in movies and TV shows!
ReplyDelete(I am also impressed your little kids like History channel)
Ack, I don't know what speed dating is! I need to come to your class so I can ask the kids. *blush*
ReplyDeleteWow, didn't know Adam and Eve...wow. My next-door neighbor as a thirty-something adult who grew up in NYC area said Adam and Eve's sin that got them thrown out of the Garden was that they had sex.
I love the running question of the day. :-) Thanks for the report!
I cannot believe how much kids know about dating! Thats crazy! really funny, but crazy. I'm not even sure I knew what a date was at 6 lol
ReplyDeleteSanil,
ReplyDeleteI know, I was standing there, and they were describing it, and it was sort of 'huh?' moment, because they clearly knew what they were talking about. It was kind of cute, because they were trying to come up with ideas I hadn't heard of before....
The Adam and Eve thing...I know some of them know, but some of them clearly don't. One of the girls, Al, came to me at the end of class to explain that *she* knew all about Adam and Eve. :)
I'm not sure how far spread the History Channel love is in class, but hey, I'll take what I can get. :)
Susanne,
ReplyDeleteSpeed dating is where you sign up, and there's a group, an equal number of men and women. And you get, say, 5min to talk to each person, and then rotate, so that by the end of the night, everyone has talked to everyone else, and from there you can decide if you're interested in having a longer date with any of the people.
I've never done this, but that's my understanding of the process. :)
LK,
ReplyDeleteThe things these kids know is scary sometimes...
Dating is only the tip of the iceberg, I swear.
LOL on the kids. How funny! Relationships with the opposite sex can be so stressful, singleness is really a blessing. I know that I miss being single sometimes, and even though my new honey is a great guy who treats me well, it's still difficult (mainly because I'm so stubborn and like to do things my way).
ReplyDeleteThere have been clashes of wills that rival anything from Greek mythology. LOL
The scary thing is when little kids talk about having a boyfriend or girlfriend. My reaction is "What the heck?! You're kids, just babies! Enjoy being young and save the "dating" until you're at least 20!"
Kids just want to grow up too fast now, and our culture does nothing to discourage it, dressing elementary school kids like 18 year-olds and telling them that not having a boyfriend/girlfriend is a mark of shame. *eye roll* It really is ridiculous.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteThey're too cute. :)
I sometimes think I don't have a boyfriend because I *know* I'm too selfish to share my time! I wanna do what I wanna do, when I wanna do it! *inner child stamps foot* Dating means having to compromise and share....
Ugh. I know, one of the girls who isn't in the class anymore was talking about how upset she was because her boyfriend moved away! She's ten! Ten! Why does she have a 'boyfriend' in the first place?
LOL!!! That's true. A relationship with two strong-willed people can be such a tricky thing... I do agree with you, though. I like to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, darn it!
ReplyDelete10? *shakes head and sighs sadly* Utterly tragic.