Adventures in Sunday School...

When asked to teach Sunday School last fall at church, I declined since I knew in advance that I would be traveling several weekends throughout the year and wouldn't be a very dependable teacher. Well, turns out, after I bought a house the amount of traveling decreased significantly so when asked again for the 2010-11 school year, I decided to give it a shot. Luckily I am paired with an amazing and experienced teacher, Straton, who is also a good family friend. As he had already been doing so for the past few years, we are teaching 5th & 6th grades. Middle school, oh joy. Many of our students are my summer campers so I was already familiar with them but oh boy, I did not know exactly what I was getting in to.

The amount of energy these kids have on Sunday mornings after church amazes me. Yes, I admit that I did go out to celebrate my sister's birthday last night and may not have gotten enough sleep but still, holy Moses. We usually start class by sharing something from our past week. And as we've learned that if you give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk. If you give a middle schooler the opportunity to share ONE thing, he'll share three. We usually spend about 75% of the class time trying to get everyone to calm down, sit down and keep the volume down. Successful? I think not. 

Fast forward 45 minutes till the end of class, 10 minutes at coffee hour then on to Greek dance practice with the same kids. After 2 hours of dance practice (and dozens of squats from the boys) silence is finally upon us. Now if only we had dance practice before Sunday School......