Kinder - Catchup Post

I'm still teaching, I just sort of forgot to tell ya'll about it.

So:

1/31 Class - They were *horrible*. We had a full class, plus one (one of the girls brought a friend) and they just would not listen or be still or quiet or behave! It was so bad that, while Debbie had half the class out to the bathrooms and I was trying to move on with what we were doing, I had to have them all put their heads on their tables and be silent. I waited a few minutes and asked them if they thought they could all behave so we could do something, and two of the boys said 'no'. So we continued to sit with out heads down. The next time I asked, those same two boys said 'no', but the rest of the class jumped in and said 'yes'. So I said that everyone who thought they could behave could sit up and participate, and those two boys could keep their heads down. Suddenly, shock of shocks, those two decided they *could* be quiet and participate.

2/7 Class - This week, we only had about half of the class. They were back to normal, a little rambunctious, but so much better. Must have been the full moon or something last week. *rolls eyes* We had them cut out hearts and on one side write 'Jesus Love Me...' and fill in why they think Jesus loves them (something good about themselves) and on the other side write 'I Love Jesus...' and fill in why they love Jesus (most of the answers started with, 'He created...' and inserted whatever the kid likes best) and we hung them up on our cabinet.

Our Gospel reading was...Luke 5: 1-11 (I believe). It was the story of Jesus calling Simon (Peter) and the Thunder Brothers (James and John) (Okay, I just like calling them that, alright?). One of the kids was confused as to how they were going to 'fish for men'. He wanted to know if they were going to start throwing nets on people.... :) I explained that no, Jesus was just talking to them in terms they would understand. Because they'd been fishermen all their lives, He used 'fishy' words to get them to understand what He was asking them to do. Then, one of the boys wanted to know what the difference was between Jews, Catholics, and Christians. First, I explained that Catholics *are* Christians - followers of Christ. Then, I (briefly) explained who the Jews were. And I told them, 'Jesus was a Jew' *dead silence* 'He was?' 'Yes'

We somehow got on to sin, and I was explaining about how people can't go to Heaven with sin still on them, which is why Christ came to us and gave us the Church and the Sacraments, and one of the boys (It's always the boys, have you noticed?) asked, 'what about the people who get stuck on earth as ghosts?' *insert evil laughter here* *cough* So. The last ten minutes of class were all about ghosts. :)

I explained, basically, that we don't know, really, what causes ghosts. Another of the boys explained that 'yes we do, it's when people die and then years later somebody builds a house over their grave and they get disturbed...' and I said, yes, some people think that, but really, pretty much everywhere we walk or build there's likely to be peoples bodies, so that can't be it. I got back to the whole, 'we don't know' and a kid brought up orbs. Well, as I explained, 99% of the time, orbs are dust or bugs that get caught in the camera flare. And the same kid said, 'but this one had a smiley face in it!' So...try to explain matrixing and the minds ability to pick out human features where there are none (in nature). *Anyway*...one of the kids said, 'but it's paranormal!' I said, 'yes, but all paranormal means is that it's 'above normal' it just means that we don't *know* what causes it yet.' and then I told them about how the ancient people thought that when there was an eclipse it was caused by a giant monster in the sky trying to eat the sun. *insert gasps of shock and laughter* I explained, they didn't know better, and they had no way of knowing that the earth was revolving around the sun and the moon was revolving around the earth, and that every so often, they intersected just right, and the sun 'disappeared' temporarily. 'Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' So, just like that, we may, eventually, one day have the ability to understand what causes what we call 'ghosts'. And I explained that sometimes, people just jump to the wrong conclusion, without looking for regular, boring reasons for things happening.

I told the kids that my house has a ghost, but we basically ignore it. I told them that my bedroom door swings shut on its own every so often. And I told them, at first, my family thought it was the ghost. Then, I told them, I figured out that, even though it looks perfectly flat and level, my room is actually just very slightly titled! And it's *just* enough that, if the door isn't pushed back far enough, it starts to slowly swing shut, builds up a little speed, and *bam* slams shut. Nothing paranormal at all. Just gravity. :)

Also, at one point, I had taken two of the kids to the bathroom, and realized that my scarf was slipping. So I whipped it off to fix it there in the hall. The boy came out, glanced at me, bent to drink out of the fountain, and did a double take. 'You *do* have hair!' *lol* 'Yes, I do.' :)

~~~

So, this weekend we're off, and the next weekend I'm going to tell them that I'm out of town, which is (mostly) true. So I'm going to have two weeks 'off'. I plan to go to Holy Trinity this weekend, but I'm not sure about the weekend after that. That'll be Lent, and I don't know if maybe they have 'heavier' services...plus, it's Greek Fest. So...yeah.