Explore and Express

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Quote of the Day

“The first essential for the child’s development is concentration.

The child who concentrates

is immensely happy.”

- Maria Montessori

Friday, July 1, 2011

Summer Nature Table

This is our beach-themed July nature table!

Below a couple of wooden figures enjoy the beach surrounded by our

nature treasures. Some of the shells are from the Müggelsee, a lake in Berlin,

that we collected this year. The other seashells are gifts from friends and the shark tooth

was a flea market find. My daughter then added pink deco pebbles to the sand.

Here we find a wooden heart to remind of the two greatest commandments:

Love God and Love People.

And the motivation behind them: God loves us.

This is the whale from Jonah to remind us that life with God can be an adventure and that it's okay to make mistakes. Glass fish swim around the whale. My daughter added pink pebbles the water insisting that there are "rocks on the bottom of the ocean".

Below my daughter puts the finishing touches on the nature table. She brought out the Godly Play statue of the cross that is also the Risen Jesus.

And I had a postcard of Edvard Munch's "Girls on the Beach"

that just seemed to fit.

School just got out here and we are enjoying the laziness and slower pace of summer.

Hope that your summer is going well!

Linked to The Magic Onions and Raising Memories

Monday, June 27, 2011

Change of Plans

Family Brunch unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last minute this week. Taking a cue from the old adage, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!", I told the story I had worked on to my own children and husband in a small, intimate and impromptu worship service.

This story is called "The Good Shepherd and the World Communion" and combines the ideas of Jesus as the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23 and John 10 with the liturgical ritual of communion. It is a fairly short text, but loaded with things to think about. It ends with people from all over the world and the children gathering around the Good Shepherd's table.

Here are the materials for this story. There are two "pastures", a literal one and one in the church.
The Good Shepherd leads the sheep out of the stall on the left to his table on the right.

At the end of the story, the Good Shepherd and sheep
are joined by people from around the world and the children.
For info on how I made the materials, click here.

This was also the first time that I have ever told a Godly Play story in English. That was slightly amusing, because I was translating from the German in my thoughts the entire time. I think it actually helped slow me down and make the whole story more meditative.

It was also a good opportunity to practice the language of silence with my own children. My kids sometimes have difficulty separating Mom from children's pastor and teacher (I am also my son's English teacher at his school!). And as anyone who has ever taught their own children in a group setting knows, your own children can often be the cause of the worst disruptions. So this was a chance to explain again what I expect of them and why.: )

During the Wondering Phase, my children seemed more thoughtful than usual, perhaps because we were at home. I asked three questions:

"Have you ever been near the Good Shepherd's table?"
Here my children had specific memories of being near the Good Shepherd's table not only in our church, but in other churches as well and talked about the different types of bread that were at the Communion table.

"Do you think the people around the table are happy?"
This question about whether the people were happy or not led to a conversation about whether or not the people are always happy when they came to the table. I mentioned that sometimes people come to the table when they are sad and need comfort. Then, one of my children said, "Sometimes people come when they are in trouble and need God to forgive them." What a beautiful thought, that we can come to the Good Shepherd's table anytime and in any state to find what we need . . .

"Have you ever heard the words of the Good Shepherd?"
Here both children said that they didn't hear God with their physical ears. One said she heard Him with the ears of our her heart, and the other child said he saw God with his "third eye" or spiritual eye. We also talked about how we can hear the Good Shepherd through the Bible, other people and nature.

Then, we celebrated feast time with grape juice and spelt crackers. Sometimes the unplanned things in life turn out to be the most fun!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Quote of the Day

"Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves."

~Abbé Dimnet, Art of Thinking, 1928

Friday, June 24, 2011

Sneak Preview

On Sunday I am planning on telling the Godly Play story called "The Good Shepherd and the World Communion". I've been wanting to do this story for a long time, but couldn't figure out how to get affordable materials. The set from the Diakonie Leipzig, the official supplier in Germany, costs 167 Euros, and our church plant doesn't have that much cash lying around for one GP story. And the materials from the American supplier aren't much cheaper. Lately though I've been inspired by on-line friends such as Storyteller, Leslie, and All Play on Sunday who make their own materials. So I decided to give it a go at making my own materials for this story. Am Sontag möchte ich die Godly Play Geschichte "Der Gute Hirte und die weltweite Einheit der Christen"erzählen. Ich wollte schon länger diese Geschichte spielen, aber ich wusste nicht, woher ich das Material dafür bekommt. Die Teile von der Diakonie Leipzig, die Godly Play Sachen in Deutschland herstellt, kosten 167 Euro, welches Geld wir als Gründungsprojekt nicht haben. Und aus Amerika zu bestellen ist nicht unbedingt billiger. In den letzen Monaten bin ich von Storyteller, Leslie, und All Play on Sunday inspiriert, die GP Material oft selber basteln. Und vor Kurzem dachte ich mir, ich versuch's mal . . .

Taking inspiration from the Waldorf world, I decided to use wooden peg dolls for the people of the world. And since I live in the land of Waldorf, the wooden pegs dolls are in every hobby shop and economical. Here's a look at the results below: Von der Waldorfwelt kam ich auf die Idee Holzpuppen anzumalen. Sie kosten ungefahr ein Euro pro Stück und sind deshalb preiswert. Hier sind meine Ergebnisse unten:

I have new respect for people who earn their living with decorative painting, because the flowers and stripes on these dolls were not entirely easy to paint. They require a very steady hand, careful planning, and a dose of patience (something that I am not naturally gifted with!). I intentionally did not give them faces taking a cue from Waldorf education to allow the children to project their own interpretations onto the figures. My daughter gave her approval by immediately playing with them and telling her own stories. Ich habe eine neue Respekt für Künstler, die solche Holzspielzeuge dekorieren, da es nicht wirklich einfach ist die Designs auf einer 3-D Fläche anzumalen. Ich habe die Gesichtsausdrücke mit Absicht nach einem Waldorfprinzip wegelassen, damit die Kinder phantasievoll die eigene Intepretationen bei der Geschichte machen können. Als meine Tochter sofort anfing mit den Puppen zu spielen und Geschichten zu erzählen, wusste ich, das hat gut geklappt.

For the sheep I used polymer clay that hardens in the oven. Aren't they cute? Für die Schafe habe ich Fimo benutzt und ich war zufrieden mit der Ergebnis. Süß oder?

And last but not least, here is the Good Shepherd with the sheep. Und jetzt kommt Der gute Hirte.

Stay tuned to see how things go on Sunday in the park! Bis Sonntag im Park!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Breaking News . . .

I'm a giveaway winner!

I'm fairly new to the world of blogging and haven't participated in very many giveaways, but when I saw the beautiful felted kitchen toys (below) from Stephanie at Petals and Sunshine, I just couldn't resist. : )