Snacking on a Sandwich

I learned to cook from my dad.  But before you think of little me and my dad in the kitchen cooking together, I need to say, it wasn't like that.  My mom tried her hardest to give me her skills of cooking (alas, it was my little sister who inherited the cooking talent), and I followed my dad's suit in the kitchen - dough is better than the baked bread, cereal is a dessert, and if you like the foods, mix it together.  That last one is the key for most of my meals - just try it together and see if it works!  Saturday mornings growing up, I saw this in action as my mom went to her broomball league and Dad was in charge of breakfast.  I could always rely on scrabbled eggs with hotdogs pieces (and the occasional avocado mixed in).  My favorite food is a toasted sandwich.  It really doesn't get much simpler than that (which is good for this impatient cooker), but it is exactly that style of cooking I learned from my dad - just take everything you like and put it together.  Bread, meat, cheese, loads of vegetables, and sauce is necessary.  Of course, one has to be careful to not overload the sandwich, or the bread won't hold and you'll end up with just a mess.  I've found the days in my week are like a sandwich.  Each activity is so unique and brings a different flavor, and it is when I look at the week all together do I experience the greatest joy in what God is doing in this city.  As the school year has started underway, so has all the various activities, and I'm enjoying the flavor in each bite.

Boskovice Club

Fun with Puffy Slime and new girls at club

If my week is a sandwich, then kid's club is the meat of it.  I am at clubs three times a week and there is always so much to do and so many kids who come through the doors.  I enjoy greeting each kid when they arrive, and am thrilled to see some faces I didn't see in the summer months.  With kids arriving and leaving at different times, it is often hard to play some organized game.  One of our church members stopped in last week with some great game ideas that can be played on the kid's own time if they want to participate.  Last week, all the kids crowed around our snack bar to answer questions about the Bible to win a popsicle.  Since they don't study the Bible in school, it was an even playing field for all the kids from different classes.  One of the girls who comes to our Connect Club (Bible Study) was really excited as she knew a few of the answers exclaiming, "We studied that in Connect!"  When she got to a question she didn't know wrong, the little girl turned to me, "Why haven't we studied this yet?  Why didn't you teach it?"  I explained to the girl that there are many stories in the Bible and we are still just starting to touch all the main stories.  The girl said, "but I want to learn it all!"  I smiled saying, "to learn it all, we would need to have Connect every day of the week..." to which the little girl said, "That's a wonderful idea!"  I explained that it isn't possible to have Connect every day, but that we could talk about it more when we see each other at clubs.  She agreed for now, but I think God is pulling her deeper - after all, this is the girl who showed up at my house with six friends when I said "someday we will start a Bible Study," and see what happened!

Playing Bible Quiz and 6:30pm, when club closes and all swarms of kids head home for the evening.

English Class is like the sauce of the sandwich.  There is always a hint of the flavor everywhere as ideas seem to be constantly running through my head for these classes.  Sometimes the sauce is sweet, and sometimes very spicy.  I have both on my sandwich.  My first class is a darling class with a couple handfuls of the sweetest five to nine-year-olds.  My translators are two eighth grade boys, whom the kids adore.  (One of the translators was a student in my English Class three years ago, so it is really fun for me to have him back in the class!)  The kids are eager to volunteer, play, and help each other.  I can practically see them recalling the vocabulary, and their excitement for the class reminds me why I love teaching.  At the end of class last week, I told the kids to start cleaning up to get ready for home and one of my new students grabbed my shirt and said, "Please teacher Kendra, I like it here.  I'm having fun.  Can't we just have class a little longer today?"

Guessing Game

Rebus Reading Game

Translators are a part of the games and the kids painted their houses for the theme about our homes.

My second English Class is the spicy sauce (I like a kick of flavor!).  They are energetic, creative, spunky, and determined.  They teach me how to be a better teacher as I design lessons and activities around their interests.  Since these kids are older than the first class (9-13years), I am always looking for ways to challenge them in their English and bring new excitement to learning.  One of the things I quickly realized with this group is that they can't enter the classroom without also bringing in all the emotions they have felt during the day.  Somehow, Monday afternoons in English Class seem to become a place where they finally release it all.  We did a lesson on emotions so they can learn to express how they are feeling, and with that, we started a new system in class where each student puts their name in one of three cups upon arriving to class.  The cups are entitled "Today, I am happy," "Today, I am okay," and "Today, I feel bad."  I take a quick glance at where the students place themselves, and if they put their name in the last cup, I meet with them to ask why.  Sometimes they had a hard day at school, or a fight with a friend, or their stomach is hurting.  I ask the student if there is something I can do to help, and usually that is all the kid needs - someone to show they care.  

One of the girls told me she wasn't interested in playing Bingo, rather she wanted to play with her animal toys instead.  I told her I didn't see why they couldn't do both together, so she and her partner used the animals as place markers for their Bingo board.  The game had a new sense of excitement for these two! 

Matching the socks on the clotheslines to put together compound words

Compound words stations and practice

For me, the more vegetables you have on the sandwich, the better it tastes.  This Little's Class is like to loads of vegetables - each child is so unique, but they are learning how to play and work together.  The more kids who come to the class, the better the lesson seems to be as the Littles teach and prompt each other in learning about their world.  We have had lessons about Zoo Animals, Cooking, and Vehicles over the past few weeks.  As many of my students last year have since started Preschool, I am enjoying making some new little friends and getting to know the mothers.  (It is also fun to have younger siblings of students I had before in the class!)  We start and finish class with a "hello" and "bye-bye" song (the same song, just substituting "hello" and "bye-bye").  After we finished up class with the "bye-bye" song this week, I noticed four of the Littles remained seated in our circle.  The youngest one started sining "hello" again and two more Littles joined in!  The mothers and I chuckled as we realized it was their way of telling us they wanted to start class again.  I look forward to the mornings with these little learners.

Snack Time Buddies and Matching the Zoo Animals on the Flashcards

Matching Fruit Dominos for the Fruit Salad

Making Lego Zoos

In the sandwich, Connect Club is the cheese.  Simply because these girls always bring a smile to my face - Say Cheese!  We have been studying the story of Joseph for the past few weeks, and the girls are learning a lot about forgiveness, trusting God's plan, and gratefulness.  The group has had some amazing discussions surrounding these topics, and as leaders, we are inspired by their openness and understanding of the story.  There was much discussion around sibling rivalry and fairness as we tried to teach the girls that many times parents have to give different things to their children at different times, but that doesn't mean it is unfair.  The girls still looked confused, so a picked one who I've known for a while and said, "Let's say your parents decide to give you and your brother the same gift at the same time.  That's fair isn't it?"  All the girls nodded their heads, it sounded fair.  I looked at the girl and said, "So your parents give both you and your brother new cars!"  (I knew her brother had just recently turned 18 - driving age here).  The girl frowned, "but that isn't fair!  I can't drive!"  I saw many of the kids understand at that point.  We talked about how God as our Father gives us different talents and shows us His love in different ways because He knows what we need.

During this game, the girls could not stop giggling!  

Coloring Joseph's Coat

Time with friends, church, and youth group is evidently the bread of the sandwich.  It holds it all together.  After days full of kids and teacher planning, I'm often looking forward to the time of encouragement and conversations with young leaders, youth students, and my church family.  I love seeing how God uses each of us with our different skills to form together a community.

Over the last week of summer, the youth pastor wrote to our half-leaders and leaders and asked if we could meet for a morning.  Being that it was the last week of summer, we definitely did not except the turnout we had with the many excited leaders!  Even six of our Boskovice leaders made it out to Letovice for the early morning meeting on one of their last days of summer.  

We were joyfully honored to be bridesmaids for one of our dear friends who was married last week!  It was a fun way to spend time together as we all prepared and enjoyed the wedding with the many different responsibilities and excitement that came with the Bridesmaid title.