look beckie! i'm posting!! (aka the UU church pt 1)

ok so i’m going to really try harder again…i just can’t seem to stay consistant with this…but here goes with another try…

so today was another kick back weekend. we started the day off with maeven and tyren and i going to the unitarian church for their “hogwuurts” sunday school…their version of harry potter’s hogwarts…hogwuurts with 2 U’s for unitarian universalism, get it? 🙂 cute idea.

Here’s the blurb on the program:

Dear UU Friends,

This summer our Sunday morning Church School will be Harry Potter themed. We’ve chosen Harry Potter as our theme because the books, although maligned by some, teach many of the values Unitarian Universalists hold dear. The books teach honesty, fairness, bravery, creativity, acceptance of differences, respect for nature, cooperation, self discovery, self mastery, and friendship.

This summer our children will be invited to attend HOGWUURTS School of Unitarian Universalism. Each Sunday from June 25, 2006 though September 3, 2006 our activities will be led by a “Professor” (church member) who will teach one the courses offered at Hogwuurts. The classes will have titles similar to the Harry Potter books, but will be UU style.

For example, Professor Carolyn Maxwell has offered to teach the Care of Magical Creatures by bringing her horse to church and sharing her knowledge of horse care. Other classes that could be taught are Astronomy, Potions (Chemistry or Cooking), Herbology (Gardening or Healing Plants), Defense Against the Dark Arts (Police Officers, Firefighters, and Doctors who battle our world’s threats), Quidditch (Sports & Games), the Triwizard Ball (Dancing), Divination (Spirit Animals/Totems?) and choir. The first week, June 25, children will make spell books for note taking and collecting specimens throughout the summer. Classes may be offered several times if we have several professors with knowledge in those areas. We may also have several professors teach simultaneously allowing children to rotate through stations with each professor.

well it sounds like a really cool idea but so far it hasn’t been all that impressive. (we’ll see how it goes next week.) for one thing, there’s a ton of kids and we don’t know any of them and i really expected some of our friends to come. so maeven was feeling shy. i went with her (wouldn’t think of leaving her when she doesn’t know anyone) and tyren really made it difficult. we made it through church, just barely, without any major screaming (have i mentioned tyren is a real screamer? i’ll have to post a clip of him sometime) …they only have the kids in church the first 10 or 15min or so, then they go out for children’s church…

so then we went to the sunday school rooms and they told the kids they would split up into 2 activities…make a wand or choose your house/make your spellbook. maeven really wanted to make her spellbook so we stayed for that…but there wasn’t any “making” involved…they were already made, just had to write their names on them…and they read off the 4 choices…4 different people’s names and what they stood for and the kids were to choose which one they wanted…well maeven wasn’t paying attention when they were reading them (and even if she had she wouldn’t have gotten what they were saying, it was way over her head)…so i just helped her pick beatrix potter (an author i really can’t stand, but seemed most appropriate for maeve) because that house stood for being kind to all living things and nature and stuff…seemed suitable for maeve. then the kids had to sit on a special chair and have a witch hat put on their head and declare their house they chose and then they used a wand to sort of knight them to that house. i have no idea what this is all about since i’ve never read nor seen anything harry potter…neither has maeven…but i think its pretty creative of them.

then we went and made her wand…she chose to make a heart shaped one. with some pretty jewels.

then the kids formed groups and played some games, but maeve didn’t want to play because she didn’t know anyone and frankly i didn’t blame her because all the kids were older than her…well most of them…and it just didn’t feel inviting to the little ones…seemed more suited to the olders and to the regulars.

so since i’d been wrestling with tyren the entire time, trying to keep him from screaming because he was bored and wanted to get down and tear the place up, we just decided to go into the nursery and let them play. maeven is technically too old for the nursery but we said we wanted to bring the baby in to play and they let us. she actually had more fun just playing with the toys in there. and so did tyren. next week i’m going to try leaving tyren w/daddy.

so next week we’ll see what will happen. this is supposed to be a program all summer through the beginning of september. the week after next they are supposed to bring a horse and teach about caring for him/her. something about the care and keeping of magical animals or something. maeven really wants to see the horse.

i’m totally willing t o give it more of a chance…i realize this was the first day and chaos was pretty apparent. all in all i guess it went ok in the scheme of things. i just wish there were more kiddos maeven’s age and that they were dividing them by age. i also picked beatrix potter because i figured they might have more little ones and more girls in that one…we’ll see. i hope they are broke into smaller groups next week.

look beckie! i’m posting!! (aka the UU church pt 1)

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