Villagersonline : blogs : emily : sitting around

From: emily
Date: Sat Nov 24 22:17:34 EST 2007
Subject: sitting around

Responses
ryan: being content (12/1/07)

Patricia: opportunity (12/7/07)

Responses (sorted by date)
Patricia: opportunity (12/7/07)
ryan: being content (12/1/07)

Well, I'm sick. So I'm sitting around. The mail comes and I read it all...because I'm sitting around. There's the tool catalog that says Jeff should buy something and a political thing that says I should vote for something. And then there is the TUSD newsletter. I hadn't realized that we needed one so I decided to see what was up.
Coupons for various stores dropped out and then a "newsletter". It described the great stuff that they could do with my state tax. Wow! Violin lessons for kindergarten kids that will help them do math better! Middle school students going to Washington D.C.! More and more exciting opportunities to...um...do more stuff!
My mind started to spin. I thought about how I had not pursued these kinds of opportunities for my kids and wondered if I was a bad parent. My sister-in-law reminded me that I don't really value that stuff. Oh right. I'm just being the parent that I am. But is that enough?
It reminded me of another newsletter I read recently (when I was first getting sick) from a big church with a big kids ministry. The kids were featured in this issue and the ministry took 2 full pages to describe. There were a dazzling array of activities and many organized layers of learning. They were blooming with resources and enthusiasm.
Then my mind really started to spin. I was already light-headed from my fever but the amount of detail that went in to that kids program made me feel down-right dizzy! Or maybe it was all the primary colored T-shirts in the glossy photos? Well, anyway, I still started to wonder if I was just crazy to think that kids don't need all that to be content and "training up in the way they should go".
So that brings me around to something I've been thinking about a lot. What is important to teach kids at church? If they don't need all the bells and whistles, then what?
My kids will listen to bedtime stories every night of the year and never get tired of it. The younger ones will listen to the same favorites over and over. They ask questions sometimes, or make comments. So we talk it over. Could it be as simple as that?
Could a good Sunday School room just be a bookshelf and a good reading chair for a willing grown-up?

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From: ryan
Date: Sat Dec  1 01:07:55 EST 2007
Subject: being content

I've really been contemplating a similar notion. Like, what do we as human beings need to be content, whether as children or as adults? The notion that children don't really need all the resources and activities is radical to our culture, but what if it's really true? And by overloading our kids with the `dazzling array of activities and many organized layers of learning', what are we modeling for them as far as an adult lifestyle? That somehow we always have to be busy and productive? That life is a polished, glossy photo?
I think that kids don't really need a lot to be content. I experience that when my kids derive hours of entertainment from a couple cardboard shipping boxes, ignoring the best that the Playskool toymakers can dream up. They frequently pass up toys in the yard; digging with their bare hands is far more interesting. Why play with a plastic shovel when you can have the feel of a nice stick or a clod of really good dirt?
Don't get me wrong, they really do enjoy their toys. I am sure they would enjoy polished organized activities too. But I wonder how much we inflict organized activities on our children, as if our kids would have nothing whatever to do with themselves without their toys and programs. I suppose that eventually, with enough toys and programs and time, they will completely forget about the charm of simpler things, and sure enough they would have nothing whatever to do with themselves without their toys and programs.
I value the simpler things. I want my kids to value the simpler things. So I celebrate the fact that my kids would rather play with cardboard than Elmo. Maybe they really don't need all the battery-powered gizmos that eventually wind up leaching toxic chemicals in the landfill anyway. Hopefully they'll grow up knowing how to make their own fun, whether they have toys and programs or not. Maybe they'll grow up more content, with less a sense of `need' for all the bells and whistles that are pushed on us every time we check our mail.
I like the Sunday school room with a bookshelf and a comfy chair (perhaps with a soft pillow or two). I also like the Sunday school room with a whole bunch of comfy chairs and a willing adult ready to ask and answer questions about the Monday Through Saturday school.

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From: Patricia
Date: Fri Dec  7 12:18:49 EST 2007
Subject: opportunity

Emily and Ryan - I LOVE your observations and thoughts. I have often heard (and asked) the question 'why do we buy our kids toys, when they'd rather play with the box - or rocks and sticks?'
Kids really do enjoy stories as much as they love the attention they get from adults who are ready to spend the time to make it happen. In fact, I believe that the children's entertainment business thrives so well because adults have a hard time investing time into their children for a variety of reasons.
Emily, I think you already moved KidVespers into the direction of storybook time. There is one aspect I'd like to explore more and that is the drive for little hands to be busy. In fair weather, I suppose, we could move storytelling outside, where there is dirt and sand to dig around in. Indoors? Maybe, in addition to pillows and bean bags to sit on, heaps and piles of small pillows? Random simple toys and manipulatives? In the past we have been doing much coloring and drawing. Would that be a 'keeper' or should we try to do without for a season? How much maintenance should be invested?
The more I think about this, the more I find myself excited about the possibilities...

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