P2P August 2015

One of the volunteers, Judy, arrived on Monday & helped make up stationery packs from the donations left by ODFL. On Tuesday she joined us shopping for hygiene pack items and for a visit to the bird park in Boksburg. There was a beautiful mottled peacock, and we found one of the two geocaches hidden there. The STACK Class resumed in the afternoon, with about 18 kids attending. We did literacy exercises with the older group, and played a game where you have to try stack cylinders on top of the flat side of a crescent shaped block. Armetta continued to experiment with stacking the cylinders - using various different arrangements of the sizes to see which worked better - long after the others had tired of the game. The other four volunteers, Deb, Jeanne, Adam & William arrived Tuesday evening, just in time for Bible Class at the Adieu Center.

The group split up on Wednesday, with the women going to the sister's class at Birgit's home and the men visiting Thembi Nkosi special needs school, where they played chess with the students. Jeanne led the sister's class, connecting the Jewish feasts to the different stages of pregnancy. I had the girls with me. Zanté managed to occupy herself beautifully with Dieter's train set, but Lexi has solidly entered the terrible two phase. She eventually got fed up with my attempts at entertaining her quietly, took my iPad and hid behind a chair. Win! The afternoon passed in a frenzy of preparation for Bible lessons to be presented at preschools the next day, as well as for Deb's workshop on Brain Buttons. Leona also took the P2P'ers on a tour of Tembisa. Zanté and I made up resource packs for the preschool teachers, which turned out to be a great math lesson. Firstly I set out the same  number of chairs as we needed packs. Then she was tasked with placing a certain number of each item on each chair, e.g. Two sets of chalk, or 5 red pens, or 10 pencils, and so on. She was confident up to number 5. She also really impressed me by being able to appreciate how pretty the pencils were (and they really were!) without wanting them for herself. I am grateful that our work has encouraged my children to be generous.

I assisted Deb during her workshop at the Aphiwe Good News Centre on Thursday, which was well attended and very interactive. Michael chauffeured the others to and from the various preschools where they had a grand time presenting the bible lessons and delivering the resource packs. In the afternoon the men went to pick up a furniture donation, and the sisters helped make up the hygiene packs for the KINOS group. Zanté helped by placing the soap in the packets. The rest of the afternoon was spent preparing for the Women at the Well retreat. In fact I was still completing my gifts for the sisters while the girls were taking their bath that evening! 

We spent most of Friday morning waiting on sisters who arrived over an hour late before leaving for the Drakensberg. The first half of the trip was a nightmare - I was fighting a monstrous wind which did its best to rip the steering wheel from my hands and shove the car off the road. We also took a detour which made the trip much longer. I was very relieved when we stopped at a rest stop for lunch. A God moment happened when we got back on the road - my prayers were answered and the wind died down completely, which made my first time traversing that mountain pass a breeze. There was another nerve-racking stretch of dirt road with the sun blinding us from the front, but by God's grace we arrived without incident. 

The Women's ReTREAT was an incredibly uplifting experience, with thought provoking studies, fulfilling fellowship and lots of late-night laughter! On the Saturday we took a mini-roadtrip into the Central Berg, which many of the sisters attending had never seen before. They were blown away by the majesty of the mountain peaks. I was once again struck by the peace that those steadfast peaks instilled in me in even such a short time. While chatting to the owner of the B&B I learned that there is in fact a Montessori school in Winterton, and also that houses are few and expensive due to a shortage of developable land. So much for that idea! We returned both exhausted and yet somehow incredibly energized on Sunday evening. The group met for a short meeting where we discussed the schedule for the week ahead.

On Monday we undertook an upgrade of "World of Saints" preschool. The GPS took us on a bit of a detour but once we found it we quickly got stuck in, starting with painting a dark bottom border in the toddler classroom and a new base coat on the perimeter wall. We also repainted the preschool classroom. The toddler class then got murals - flowers and insects created from geometric shapes - that can be used to teach shapes, colours, numbers, position, size and emotions. On the back of the door we painted a boy holding 12 balloons which can be used as a birthday chart. Michael put up a few shelves and fixed the shelves they already had. Adam designed an African scene for the outside wall which had a lion lying in the grass underneath the school name. It turned out very well and now the first impression of the preschool is much more exciting! We left at sunset after receiving a lovely handmade thank you card from the principal. At the very last minute we fortunately remembered to give her the bag of resources we had collected for her too!

The group once again split up to present bible lessons at preschools on Tuesday morning while Jeanne visited with a local clinic and got roped into examining pregnant ladies right away! In the afternoon the STACK PROJECT Class was focused on "construction". The older group received a set of instructions on folding paper planes, which unfortunately turned out to be much too complex and the folds much too intricate for them to successfully fold. They then went back to folding more basic planes from memory and had a grand time competing against each other with regards to their planes flight capabilities. The younger group learned about the "tower of Babel" and built various towers by stacking plastic cups in different ways. They then each made a double pinwheel and ran and spun around to make the pinwheel turn! We all enjoyed dinner at Mickey and Karen Scheepers' home before having Bible Class in the dark thanks to loadshedding. This didn't darken the mood though, with everyone chatting until past 10! The girls each fell asleep on a parents' lap and were no trouble at all. 

The group spent Wednesday at the Aphiwe Good News Center, leading a women's bible class as well as GOGO GYM. They also sorted out all of the cupboards at the center and the BEC. In the evening they visited us for supper. Michael had prepared a roast leg of lamb, delicious!  

On Thursday Jeanne taught a workshop on ante-natal care and the development of the child in the first year of life while the rest joined us at the preschool where we were scheduled to perform a puppet show. The show was about Joshua and the walls of Jericho, after which the p2p'ers reinforced the story by having each child make a "trumpet" by covering a toilet paper tube with tin foil, and then reenacting the marching around Jericho and walls falling down part with them. They all had great fun, and I don't think the poor teacher enjoyed much silence for the rest of the day!

In the afternoon we visited Lory Park Zoo, which we had all to ourselves since it was a weekday! The p2p'ers enjoyed playing with baby hyenas and lion cubs, and Michael played with a young caracal, which is one of his favorite cats! The zoo attendant then gave us a special treat by bringing out a white-faced owl, which is tiny, for the girls to stroke and even have perch on their arms. They loved it and even the adults enjoyed the interaction with the beautiful bird. As usual the rest of the animals were a delight to see too. The P2P group treated us to a dinner at Mimmo's that night. 

Lucas and Leona took the P2P group on a safari to the Pilanesberg Nature Reserve on Friday. They had an incredibly blessed day with amazing sightings - they even had a leopard cross the road for them! The rest of us were busy prepping for the Youth Gathering, buying all the food and so on. 

We were all up early on Saturday, travel arrangements were somewhat complex with us having youth from all over Gauteng  needing us to transport them to the camp venue. Thankfully, and prayerfully, we managed not to forget any of them, but did manage to forget a whole lot of other things! Fortunately the venue was close enough for one of us to quickly return and collect said items. 

The Youth Gathering itself was a really blessed time away from worldly cares. I felt quite spoilt to have two spiritual weekends in row, even though I spent most of the Youth Gathering caring for and entertaining my daughters. I did manage to partake in every praise session which was wonderfully uplifting! The feedback from the youth regarding their study sessions (themed "Agents for Christ") was that it was inspiring and life-changing, and everyone was very sad when we had to say our good-byes. We kept them busy with plenty of outdoor and indoor games throughout the three days, the most fun was when we played several of the "Minute to Win It" game show games. Definitely recommend them for group activities! We handed out the hygiene packs we had made the previous week as we loaded youth into cars, but as we didn't have any for the youth from other ecclesias we tried not to make it too big of a deal. Those that received were very grateful and excited about them, even though Junior insists that he will never need a razor! 

During the weekend we discovered that Jeanne had booked her flight for the wrong date - a whole week later. She and Deb then accompanied Michael to the airport when he dropped off Judy, to try and convince the airline to let Jeanne be on the same flight as Deb. They had to jump through some hoops and weren't assured of the fact until the very last moment, but in the end she did manage to get the same flight. 

When we returned home Monday evening, exhausted from having almost no sleep the entire weekend, Lexi tripped while walking backward and hurt her arm. At first we simply put tiger balm and a bandage on it, but as the evening progressed and I did some research we decided it would be best to take her for x-rays. Knowing that we were in for a lengthy process at the hospital we dropped Zanté off at my parents. Several hours, rands, and lots of tears (hers and mine) later we discovered that she had a greenstick fracture on her radius, near her wrist. We returned home after midnight with her fast asleep and her arm in a little cast. 

On their last day here, Tuesday, the men visited the school for mentally handicapped children once again, while Deb and Jeanne were asked to observe two children at one of the preschools, as the principal suspected they had autism. One of them does in fact fall on the autism spectrum, although he is not a severe case. The other is simply not responding well to the principals method of discipline, and they discussed other methods with her. They then visited a local flea market to pick up some curios to take back home. 

Adam was staying on one day longer and he volunteered to lead the older group of students at the STACK CLASS in the afternoon. He taught them about different types of angles and the theory of Pythagoras. He managed to make it very practical and had them hanging onto his every word. Due to the drama with Lexi I was too exhausted to think of something fun to do with the younger group, and so I grabbed a box of what looked like construction toys that the ODFL group had donated and tipped it out. Turned out to be a construction set involving cogs, which ended up being a fantastic activity, with lots of learning possibilities. Definitely a God Moment! 

The next morning Michael and Adam went to the recycling center to deliver the bread tags the group had collected and collect the first 4 wheelchairs! A fittingly exciting end to a fantastic two weeks! 

Mon 2 March 2015 - Sun 8 March 2015

Well we started off with one of those 'everything goes wrong' days. We had agreed to meet my parents at the Amway shopping Center and then go for brunch at a small cafe near there. On the way to Amway we get stuck in a roadblock- induced traffic jam. We then followed my parents to a different cafe due to a miscommunication - which was closed. Then back to the cafe I had originally wanted to go to - closed down, completely gone! Finally decided to go to Dros as we were running tight on time with Mike needing to go to college. I had a glass of wine there which made me soooo tired for the rest of the afternoon! 

On Tuesday Mike collected 20 odd pc's from a school, which he now has to fix up and distribute. Our house has way too many pc's now! Most of the KINOS kids and two teachers have already ordered them though so shouldn't be for too long. At homework club we played a bunch of games focussing on mathematic concepts - rummicub, dominoes, battleships and had playdough as a sensorial activity for the younger ones. The afternoon went really well, with us managing to coordinate the small groups playing different games quite well. Having Mike there full time hands on makes a big difference! 

On wednesday I was home with the girls all day - a rare occurrence! It was a lovely slow day full of the kinds of stuff toddlers do! 

Thursday was the epic garage sorting day! At first Ded wasn't very keen on us clearing out all the random stuff he has hoarded over the last two years but once we did, and threw away a trailer and bakkieload of useless stuff there is now lots of space for him to start hoarding the next two years worth of junk. Also the passage to the new bathroom is no longer a safety hazard so the KINOS kids can walk through without fear! 

On Friday we took the KMP KINOS kids shopping for school uniforms. We had 14 kids between Mike, Kam and myself. The tricky part was that they each had only R500 to spend so they had to prioritize their needs accordingly - which they found really hard to do! It was a great lesson in being content with a no-name brand bag so that you could also afford shoes! The staff at Boundary Silk were surprisingly patient and helpful which was a real God-Moment. Each child managed to buy at least three items which is that much less that their parents need to buy. 

Bible Club went really well with myself really enjoying the younger class - we made peg "Isaacs" after learning about God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Michael unfortunately had to be really stern with the older boys who were being destructive and taking the stationery outside. 

The meeting went surprisingly smoothly too - i just kept telling the kids to go play outside with the playdough and the books and managed to hear quite a lot of the very educational exhortation re the sacrifices in Leviticus. Liezl taught the youngest Sunday School class about the walls of Jericho and had them make a tower of blocks fall down which was great fun. We then had Leone and Lira visit with us for the afternoon while the Get Going meeting was on. Despite their obvious lack of discipline the afternoon went well and all the kids enjoyed playing together very much! 

Sat 14 Feb 2015 - Sun 22 Feb 2015

I have decided to rather work Sunday to Sunday as that is how most of our programs run. Also I constantly forget to write on Fridays! 

I guess what I really need to get on paper and off my chest is the fact that for the last month Sundays have been absolutely awful for me. Three out of the four have caused me emotional breakdowns when we get home. Some of it was the vast number of new kids suddenly attending and not knowing what/where/when they're allowed to do what, but this last Sunday it is Leone and Lira in the mother's room, causing chaos with my daughters and constantly nagging me for stuff, tea, yoghurt, banana's... Also Nosipho left baby Tariro with me so suddenly I am the only adult with 5 kids - all wanting my attention, and even my girls acting out which they don't usually do. Another factor is that I had become accustomed to my daughters occupying themselves so that I could actually feel part of the service and so that was my expectation for today, which of course did not happen. I know I could tell their mom that they are her problem but I am too softhearted, wanting her to rather enjoy and learn from the service. Murphy's law played a part in that we had a visiting speaker who just went on and on and on... 

The only good part about today was that Catherine got baptized. 

Zante has been ill all week and really bad Thursday - Saturday. She has a low fever, earache and constipation, and really struggles to sleep. Needless to say, that hasn't helped matters either. 

At Bible Club we made Valentine's Cards with the focus on how much God loves us, and that is why we should also love others. My daughters and Leone and Lira were there and none of them wanted to cooperate. Kam was also there so fortunately he could help Mike with the older group. The second Saturday Mike and I were supposed to go to a SAMA meeting but stayed home with Zante being so ill.

Either way there was no Bible Club.

On Monday we took the four girls to the bunny park. Because we could only fetch Leone and Lira after 10 we arrived after the animals had been fed, and so they had no interest at all in us. The kids still enjoyed the play equipment and the walk though. Mike then had to go to college and the girls and I played outside most of the day. My mom, Llewellyn and Phoebe came by for a coffee which broke the afternoon nicely. 

Homework Club took an exciting turn for Cameron when he volunteered for Michael's magic trick which ended in him being covered in water! I took cloud dough for the younger ones and my girls and Leone and Lira, Martin and Cherish and Mikayla really enjoyed it for about an hour, after which fortunately Liezl fetched the four girls to bake a cake for Lira's birthday the next day. Martin and Cherish and then Mikayla continued to play for the rest of the afternoon. The older group played hangman and then did language based exercises in books. Armetta surprised me by being able to read quite well for her age so I will need to give her more challenging work in future. 

At the creche course we started to wonder whether anyone was going to return as there was no one there until 2:10pm, even though we are supposed to start at 2! They did all eventually arrive, and hopefully we can start building some momentum now. The next few weeks are the more fun ones! 

On Saturday afternoon Zante seemed a bit better so we went to Jolene's for Ronan's 5th birthday gathering.

After that we had a 'cuzzie-get-together' at the Viljoen's. We all made sushi again, and it was delicious! Leon brought his brother, Louwrens, along and the two of them were serenading us with songs they had written themselves. They are both very talented! 

Sat 7 Feb 2015 - Fri 13 Feb 2015

Mike and I went separate ways on Saturday - Mike to Bible Club and myself to a SAMA regional meeting. I was incredibly nervous about going and there being a bunch of strangers but I ended up really enjoying my time there. We each had to take a food related practical life exercise to demonstrate and I took a cheese slicer and then also showed everyone how to slice cheese with cookie cutters. Not many of the others brought anything so I'm glad I did! It was great meeting Shan again and also several other older teachers - one opened her school when I was only a year old! As an added treat we all learned to make our own sushi and it was delicious!

Sunday was again a very stressful day. 4 new kids arrived, plus all of the ones that were there before, and the youngest class had 12 kids attending. Although my mom presented the class I was helping her and afterward it just felt like everyone was asking things of me at once. We then also went to the Congolese in the afternoon where they ended up arguing after the meeting about that Patrick and Nyota were planning to poison Paderi. I did however take a worksheet for the kids to do while the meeting was going so that is one step in the right direction! Another disappointment was confirming that Nyota was indeed pregnant again - how irresponsible! 

Michael spent most of Monday working on Llewellyn's new car, my parents came to our home as we have internet and they don't, and helped me do some cleaning. 

Homework Club was quite chaotic as the Hill family joined us. We made Valentine's cards using toilet rolls shaped into hearts as stamps. There were several glitches - one being the unexpected extra attendees and the other being that they stamped thick blobs and so the paint didn't dry fast enough for us to glue their message to the back. Next time I will leave the painting part till last. The kids all seemed to enjoy it though, even Lexi did really well, and didn't eat any paint! 

It was my responsibility to present the study at sister's class this week. I looked at the character "archippus" in Colossians. He had not yet fulfilled his ministry from God and Paul was calling him out for it. Class was at sister Rene's home and her carer also attended the class. 

The creche course has finally started! We had 11 ladies and 1 gentleman attend at the Tswelopele Good News Center. It felt really strange to be presenting again after such a long break but went smoothly enough. One of the attendees is Erika, a mother that my gran has gotten involved with at MES. Things have progressed as such that she, her husband and two daughters (Leone,6, and Lira, 4) are going to be living in the caravan at Adieu for the next two months. 

The Bible Class at Adieu was really interesting, we studied the theme of whether dead people can "curse" you (eg Tokolosh, ghosts, zombies). It was very informative and Leon and Erika also seemed very interested. 

The involvement with such a family is quite new to me, and it will be interesting, if nothing else, to see how it all turns out. Zante seems to enjoy playing with them, and they are quite attached to me too. 

Sat 30 Jan 2015 - Fri 6 Feb 2015

This week at Saturday Bible Club we started following a "Bible Hero's" series that I found on a website called "Jesus without Language". Michael shared the lesson on 

the Apostle Philip who teaches us to invite people to come to Jesus. After that we split the kids into a younger and older group for the craft - we had already precut the younger group's craft for them. This system worked really well and I look forward to trying it with Zante and Lexi there too.

Sunday. Oh man what a day. Hendri sat with the girls which meant I could be in the meeting room and I really enjoyed that and my dad's message re the name of God. However during teatime 8 new kids arrived for Sunday School, 11 and younger. One of the boys, Abraham (5yr old), was there with his father, Peter. I welcomed them, showed them where to go and offered refreshments, then asked Peter whether he wanted to stay with his son or attend the adult's bible study class which Mike was leading. He said he would stay with Abraham because he was, and I quote, "naughty". When the time came to start Sunday School we gathered the children inside but had to ask Peter to fetch Abraham out of the rubble filled empty swimming pool as he refused to listen to us. When we broke up into classes I had to run around collecting extra stationery for the classes with so many extra kids, while also trying to keep an eye on Lexi and prevent her from being a distraction. There were about 12 kids in the youngest class which Liezl handled really well. We quickly realized that there was something seriously "off" about Abraham as he could not even colour and was very aggressive toward his dad. When the class was over he promptly tipped out all of the stationery onto the floor. In the midst of trying to jot down the new attendees' names, change a dirty diaper, and prevent the horde of preschoolers injuring themselves and/or Zante on the jungle gym I noticed Sipho in tears. He is in the "middle" class and the older class had shooed him out of their classroom even though they were done with their lesson and watching funny videos on youtube. I did my best to reassure and console him and then went in to admonish the teens, when I heard Liezl's voice raised in concern in the swimming pool area. Worried that it might be one of my kids I went to check and found her and young Tania trying to stop Abraham from throwing rocks at the dogs. Liezl then asked him and some of the others to go play in the front yard. The others quickly ran off but we had to "herd" Abraham in the right direction. Liezl eventually took him by the arm and walked with him to where we could see Peter sitting talking to Bro Itayi. She told Abraham to go to his dad. He took three steps away from her, picked up a big clod of earth and threw it at her, hitting her on the back of her head as she managed to turn away. I then ran to him, took him by the arm and marched him to his dad, angrily telling Peter what had happened and that such behavior was not welcome at the church. Then, and only then, he starts explaining that Abraham has a brain tumor and is severely mentally and socially delayed. I then told him that he needed to be with Abraham at all times then and make sure he didn't hurt anyone or thing. This whole episode upset me to such an extent that I was in physical stress-induced pain the rest of the day, and ended up crying in bed that night. I do not regret my actions so much as I am furious with Peter for not clearly explaining Abraham's situation to me right at the start. I certainly believe the day would have turned out very differently if he had. 

On Monday the guys went fishing and Zante along with them. She absolutely loves it! Lexi and I enjoyed our morning together and then went to the dam in the afternoon, which was lovely, lush green grass and not another soul (except the security guard) in sight. Sadly the day ended with Hendri and Mike having to rush to the aid of my parents when the Mahindra developed trouble on their way to Nelspruit. They then had to tow it back so we slept over at Adieu Monday night. 

On Tuesday it dawned on me that I had a majority of preteen boys at Homework Club, but I was still doing a lot of 'girly' crafts with them. Pinterest to the rescue - found some simple catapults made from popsicle sticks and rubber bands. God moment: I had exactly the right amount of popsicle sticks for the amount of kids that showed up! The younger kids, including Zante and Lexi, completed several worksheets. After making their catapults the boys came inside to test them in a game that we had created by sticking targets to the floor. The further the target the higher the value. After the first round they realized that some of the catapults performed much better than others. We encouraged them to consider in what way they differed and then adjust their's accordingly before the next round of 'shooting'. The best kind of learning is when you think you're just having fun! Everyone had a blast - not sure what we're gonna do next week now that we've set such a high standard!

We are still taking the girls swimming several times a week and they are becoming more and more confident in the water, floating on their backs and swimming backwards too. 

I finally found a shelf wide enough for my math rods, and after an epic traffic-delayed journey and lots of rearranging the classroom is now pretty much full! Zante finds the math rods past 4 quite a challenge and tries several times a day. Lexi is enjoying building towers out of the knobless cylinders. 

On Friday while Michael went to present the Bible class at Aphiwe Zante and I played 'shop', with items costing either 1, 2, 3 or 4 coins. At first she struggled to count out only 4 coins but after about an hour of playing she managed great!

Sat 24 Jan - Fri 30 Jan 2015

Still a 'quieter' week, with the creche course not yet running. I am however finalizing a lot of the pre-course admin work as more ladies register. So far I have 17 ladies registered for this course. 

We had a ton of fun at Bible Club, last week I mentioned that we 'might' bring water balloons, but that they did NOT need to wear swimming costumes. So of course they all arrive in their swimming costumes, while we have no water-including activities at all planned. We had planned for it to be a games day and so left the girls in their grandfather and aunt's care - which turned out to be a very wise decision as 45 kids running and playing in a small space can seem chaotic, is loud and potentially dangerous to toddlers. We opened with a few songs then played the always popular "groups" game (a few times) and split them into two circles for a game of "fruit basket". We adapted the fruit basket game by having either myself or Michael shout out characteristics/colors according to which the kids then had to find new chairs as they are too young to think of such criteria themselves. After a juice break we asked them to congregate outside and Michael turned on the hose. Our plan was to play "poisonball" and simply intermittently spray them with the hose but they just jumped in front of the hose and started dancing and playing in the spray! They were having so much fun and were so eager to get wet that we didn't even start any structured game. So much fun! 

Sunday was pretty epic, no Sunday School due to it being our AGM. It was the last Sunday of the month which meant it was a "praise and worship" Sunday too. A lot of the Aphiwe youth join us for these Sundays so our "new" hall was choc-a-block full. I was quite thankful to be in the mother's room, where Zante was delighted at being able to hold little 3-month-old Tariro for ever such a long time! I then held and rocked him to sleep which I haven't ever done for a child not my own! It was great! The praise session was fantastically uplifting and the AGM nothing unusual. I managed to miss almost an hour (and apparently all the excitement)  by having to put Lexi down for her nap. 

Homework Club ran more smoothly this week - mostly due to it being a "computers" week. However I also set up a waterpaint activity for Cherish, Mikayla and my girls. Cherish and Mikayla painted numbers 1 - 10 with corresponding amounts of objects underneath and Zante and Lexi just painted for fun. It is interesting that Zante paints an entire picture all in one color while Lexi uses many different colors. Later the four of them played on the jungle gym and I realized that Cherish, now a pre-grader, was only as old as Lexi when we first met her! No wonder these kids are so dear to us!

Wednesday dawned cold and rainy and we should have known better but my mom convinced us to still take the girls along to sister's class, as the sister whose home it was at has a heated pool. Bad idea. The girls were not able to keep themselves occupied, even though I took snacks and activities along. So I heard none of the class, and spent tea-time chasing after Lexi who was chasing after their pet rabbit, all around said pool. It had also started to rain so we ended up not even swimming. 

On Thursday Michael was away all day going to fetch Happy from the boarding school, and I went shopping for clothes for the girls with his mom. This was a first but the day ended up being quite enjoyable, even the girls were on their best behavior despite the many stops and even a half-hour wait while a salesman tried to convince her to buy beauty products. When I dropped her off the girls were desperate to visit a while (they get to watch tv there) so I left them there and enjoyed a blissfully silent three hours home alone. It's incredible how much one gets done without two toddlers around! I discovered a really useful if sometimes slightly doctrinally "off" website for sunday school, or in our case Bible Club, lessons, namely Jesus Without Language. We will be following her "Bible Heroes" series and see how it goes! 

As I write this we are on our way to Bible Class at the Aphiwe Center. My mom has been kind enough to watch the girls so that Michael and I can both attend!

Sat 17 Jan 2015 - Fri 23 Jan 2015

A lot of our projects started up again this week - Saturday Bible Club, Sunday school, Homework Club - amidst a sudden flurry of maintenance work. We decided to try and include the girls in as many of our projects as possible this year (last year they were babysat a lot) as Lexi is almost two and a lot more capable and independent. 

Bible Club went okay with them both, they love singing with the kids and fortunately we had a volunteer (Eloise) with us to help with the activity (a craft on this Saturday) while I helped my girls. I can see that we will have to adapt our way of working if we don't have extra hands available though. Perhaps even plan for two activities - one much simpler than the other for the preschoolers and our two. I feel like that could work because there are about 15 under 6's that attend and their siblings have to help them with the activities. 

It was wonderful seeing all the Kingdom Kids at Sunday School on Sunday again. All of our regular kids as well as two sisters that hadn't been attending for most of last year were there, and one of the youths brought along his younger brother and sister which boosted our preschool class to 6 even though there were 3 others absent. I taught the story of Moses being hidden in the basket, and we "sewed" paper plate halves together using pipe cleaners to create a basket for the baby Moses which they colored. For the rest of the week Zante has been calling all of her baby dolls "Moses" and hiding them in various places. 

Homework Club was perhaps the hardest when it came to including the girls. We first made up 40 food parcels which was an activity that they could be a part of and really enjoyed, but after that we played a board game for which there were already too many players, all very energetic, loud, preteen boys. Again we were very fortunate to have Eloise assist with regulating the game, which requires full time vigilance as they are forever forgetting whose turn it is or accusing each other of cheating, or just being silly in general. Even so they absolutely love playing and board games are really good for teaching social skills as well as developing their critical thinking and planning skills. However during this time Zante and Lexi needed to be entertained too. Zante I could occupy with the many puzzles and matching games we have on hand but eventually I did take Lexi over to my sister Liezl's as she was not enjoying herself at all. Here again we need to change up the way we run Homework Club and include more toddler friendly activities if we want to include both girls on a regular basis. 

Since the Creche Courses haven't yet started for this year we had Thursday available and the team decided to use the day to both revamp our church meeting room as well as sort the knitted squares we receive from the States into piles of 30 - which is the amount necessary to make up one blanket. The elderly ladies (Gogos) that attend sister's classes join the squares together and then donate the blankets to children that need them. We had several huge bags full of these squares which we eventually just dumped out onto a carpet and then first made piles of similar stitch type, then sorted those into piles of similar sizes, and then made packs of 30 mostly complimentary colors. The girls loved this mountain of softness! After six hours of sorting we managed to have only one big bag of squares left over, but just couldn't any more. That night I saw different stitch patterns every time I tried to close my eyes! 

While us ladies were tackling this mammoth task the men did a fantastic job repainting the church meeting room, with an accentuating golden strip along the walls which really livens up the room. They also fixed the sliding door and put skirting along the wall, and Liezl plans to paint a bible verse along the golden strip. Of course Lexi managed to walk through the paint at least once, and Zante insisted on helping her dad fill up the holes in the wall and then complained bitterly because the polyfilla didn't come off her hands very easily! 

Holidays with toddlers: Should you risk it?

No, and here’s why:

Packing clothes: When packing for a toddler you need to remember that no item of clothing will be worn twice. This includes pyjamas. Because, you know, dirt is fun. So is painting yourself with your breakfast cereal.

Packing other necessities:  Mainly diapers. Wouldn't want to run out of those! However you start to get a pretty good idea of how big a contribution your child is making to landfills when half of your hatchback is filled with diapers. Don’t forget the wipes either! And bum cream, and sunblock, and baby powder, and and and… the one thing I seem to forget every time is a face cloth. Which is when I really appreciate remembering the wipes!

Packing stuff only toddlers need: You will probably not have much space left by this time. This is where you decide that you can totally pull off wearing the same jeans for the entire holiday. Besides, by the second day your toddler will have added so many decorations (read: stains) that nobody will be able to tell anyway! Back to the packing – here is where you need to remember to take plastic crockery & cutlery, sippy cups, bath toys, other toys (neither of which will entertain you toddler for long but here’s hoping) and of course a variety of stuffed animals, ALL of which your toddler simply cannot stand to be separated from.

Packing food: This applies even if your holiday is catered. We all know that toddlers eat only two types of food at any given time, one of which is usually ice-cream. They don’t care whether the meal was prepared by a world renowned chef; if it isn’t mac and cheese it ain’t getting eaten. You also need to pack snacks, or, as I like to call them, “sanity savers”.  Car rides, visits to places of interest, eating out, chilling by the pool – all much better if your toddler has a snack to distract them from distracting you.

Packing all of the above into your two-door hatchback: Here's hoping you really enjoyed playing Tetris when it was all the rage. 

The travelling: Toddlers and confined spaces are not a great mix to begin with, so being in a confined space with a toddler for several hours is bound to be the type of experience that would drive (excuse the pun!) any normal human to the absolute brink of their sanity. Oh, you say, but we are planning our trip so that the majority of drive time falls over toddlers nap time. We tried that once – toddler stayed awake, whining, crying, ignoring all the busy bags mom had laboured over all those late nights, until we were exactly 15 minutes away from our destination. The next time we thought we would go to extremes to ensure a sleeping toddler – we left at 3am. 3am! Toddler was awake all the way. ALL. THE. WAY… Also, your vehicle will reach your destination sporting several new interior decorations (read: stains) and a smell you can’t quite place. (It’s probably the dirty diaper you had to change in transit – how much fun was that!? – which has now rolled into and secured itself in some obscure crevice)

Having a toddler on holiday with you: Oh, you thought you would get to relax? Maybe spend your evenings in front of the fire with a nice glass of wine, read that book you’ve been intending to for ages, spend quality time with your husband, sight-see… Ha! Being on holiday with a toddler is not much different to being at home with a toddler – except that you now get to try put toddler to sleep in a new environment, without that one stuffed animal that you forgot and toddler now insists on cuddling. Fire = too dangerous. Wine, well, just watch your glass – my toddler has a knack for stealing sips of unwatched drinks! Sight-seeing – see previous point re toddlers and confined spaces.

Clean-up: And by this I mean the week after you return from said holiday with several suitcases full of dirty laundry, an empty fridge, and a toddler whose routine is now non-existent. How are they supposed to understand that we don’t have ice-cream for breakfast now that we’re home?!

Yes! And here’s why!

Having a toddler on holiday with you: Be honest – if it weren't for your toddler waking you at dawn you would never have seen the mountain change from grey, to pink, to red, and then to that incredible explosion of nature as the sun rose upon it. You would not have noticed just how many different flowers were in bloom if your toddler hadn't insisted on smelling each and every one. Twice. You get a glimpse of, and vaguely remember again, what it is like to experience everything for the very first time – the sand, the waves, and the delight of an ice - cream cone.

Experiences: As an early childhood educator, I cannot stress enough the importance of providing a life rich with experiences, and especially experiences involving culture and nature, to children under the age of 6. Yes, they may not be able to recall the details when they are older, but you are laying the foundation for a lifelong love of, and respect for, nature, adventure, exploring, and other cultures – while at the same time allowing for a wealth of “accidental” learning to take place through the various experiences your toddler enjoys!

Memories: These shared experiences are what keep families together when life is not all sunshine and butterflies. So take pictures – lots of pictures! In a month, a year, 10 years’ time, when you’re wondering whether it is all even worth it, these photographs will help you remember why your family is precious, and that there are in fact good times to be had. Through these shared experiences the family grows and becomes richer.

So, even though the prospect of a holiday with a toddler (or two – in our case) can be daunting, I absolutely believe it is still worth it. Remember, they aren't going to be so little forever – in just a few short years they will be your tennis partner, and hey, they may even be bribed into pouring your drinks for you! So hang in there, and share a sympathetic smile with the other poor saps being dragged around the holiday resort by their toddler!

The First Time Ever

Do you remember what it feels like to do something for the first time? As we get older I guess it happens less and less, especially if you are not the adventurous type. One of the reasons I enjoy teaching is that I get to be with children as they experience things for the first time ever, and I get to share in their excitement while they do!

With Zanté and Lexi being quite young there are many "first times" happening daily. Of course there are the usual milestones such as first time sitting unaided, first steps, first word and so on, but there are also more fun first times, such as the first time they go down the slide head-first! One of the firsts I got most excited about was the first time Zanté drew a human-ish figure, and right now I'm really looking forward to the first time Lexi decides to use the toilet by herself.

At the STACK (Skills Training for Community Kids) Class I was fortunate enough to share another first with one of our young attendees. It was her first time attempting a crossword  puzzle. When I presented her with the activity she had no idea how to start, so together we went through the basics of how some of the clues' answers are to be written "across" and some "down" and how the numbers tell you which answer to write where. This sweet seven-year old showed a wonderful "can-do"attitude and after working through about three answers with me she told me that she was ready to do it by herself, which she did - and perfectly too!

Art with Toddler

I don't know why I choose to punish myself this way. I know that I am only creating work for myself. I know that the activity is only going to last 10 minutes (if I'm lucky). I know that by the end of the activity my toddler, the table, and probably the dog will be covered in paint. I know all these things, and yet I still persist in providing art activities that use paint for said toddler/s. I must really love toddler art. Today we did some "cookie cutter stamping". 

In the event that you would like to recreate this experience with your own toddler, this is how said activity goes down: 

First, you need to prepare the activity. This means waiting until the toddler has gone down for their nap, as trying to set up any activity while your toddler is underfoot is a recipe for disaster. Once toddler is asleep and you have enjoyed your first warm cup of coffee of the day, gather the necessary resources and set up the activity. I have a "no paint indoors" policy so that I don't need to worry about the floor. It is important to have everything you will need ready so as not to leave your toddler unattended or frustrated during the creative process. Remember to have a camera ready - you will appreciate the cute pictures after the frustration of cleaning everything your toddler touched has subsided. For "cookie cutter stamping" you need paper, a small container with a very shallow amount of paint and cookie cutters. I stamped two little people as an example. 

If you are lucky enough to have a toddler like my second child, who is ready for action as soon as she wakes, your toddler should want to start stamping right away! If you have a toddler like my eldest, who enjoys a half-hour cry after every nap, well, hopefully this will seem exciting enough to distract them!

This is a simple enough activity to demonstrate - simply dip the cookie cutter into the paint and then press firmly onto the page and lift - voila, the print remains! 

 

This little minx surprised me by working quite diligently for quite a number of "stamps". Every time she printed a person she would "name" it - starting with our close family and then even her grandparents and cousins were created! Every time she printed a star she insisted that I sing "Twinkle twinkle" with her chiming in on the "ar" sound at the end of the lines! Once the novelty started to fade she could be coaxed into doing a few more prints by me and her taking "turns" to stamp. However once she decided she was done that was it. I write my toddler's name and the date on her artwork and try to keep most of it in a folder for her to look through when she is older. My parents did this for me and I really enjoy looking through my work and even find that it helps me to remember certain events and times better.

This is when she started her usual sensory-seeking trick of putting the paint everywhere except where it is supposed to go. However she didn't eat any today so I believe she is making good progress! When I suggested that she stop painting herself and continue printing instead I got the evil eye!

 Once your toddler has had enough comes the fun part - cleaning up! At this point I really regretted not having a bucket of soapy water prepared! You should learn from my mistake and always include cleaning aids in the list of "necessary resources"! It will save you the stress of wondering how many surfaces your toddler has touched while you are filling the bucket. Since I knew that she was really getting into the paint I brought a big enough bucket for her to be able to take a bath in it, which is another favorite sensory activity of most toddlers! 

Today was a great success as far as I'm concerned - minimal paint stains, a pretty picture, and a happy toddler. What more could any mom ask for! Except the obvious, like peeing without an audience, but you know what I meant!

IT'S JUST A GAME. OR IS IT..

At around 11 am this morning I mentioned to Michael, "Wow, I haven't looked at my iPad once today!". Now that might not seem like a big deal but it is. It's a big deal because for the last few months my iPad was the first thing I reached for in the morning and the last thing I put down at night. 

I confess, I was addicted. Not to social media, the usual culprit, but to a game. I'm not even going to mention which game, because the point of this post is not to shame the game. It was the type of game where you are in charge of a town, from the first line of production to filling townspeople's orders, etc. 

Seemingly innocent fun, no violence, no need to spend real money, hey, it could even be called educational - after all, Zanté now knows that you get milk from cows, which can then be made into cheese, which is a necessary ingredient of hamburgers, nachos and cheesecake! Also, you have to feed the cows in order for them to produce milk. But you first need to plant and harvest the wheat and grain in order to produce the cow's food. However, you can only have a certain number of fields per townspeople, so you need to keep building houses so that your population increases. You cannot build houses without community buildings, and cannot complete community buildings without filling the train cars with products in return for building materials. Oh and don't forget to send gifts to your friends and then check their towns and help them also fill orders and train cars and airplane crates... 

Quietly, insidiously, this game became a larger and larger part of my life. When the girls were playing nicely I would just check and see whether there were any orders I could fill. When they were taking their nap I would first get a production line of products going before starting on real tasks, and then wonder why I didn't have enough time to get things done! When we were driving I would consider it the ideal time to catch up on what was happening in my town, and would stay up late trying to fill every crate on the airplane. 

There were other consequences to this addiction. Zanté and Lexi would spot me playing on the iPad and then insist on doing the same. This upped their screentime from an hour a day to many more. Michael and I found less time to talk. My head hurt from looking at a screen so much. Worst of all, on my bedside table, my Bible lay untouched underneath my iPad. 

I had deleted the game several times before, only to re-install it less than 24 hours later. (Can't let that daily bonus slide, right?) I just couldn't resist that feeling of accomplishment when I got all those trains filled, or managed to fill enough orders to afford the next factory, or filled the airplane so quickly that I got a major "experience point" bonus, or, best of all, leveled up! This is why these games are so popular, and they are designed to keep you playing. www.video-game-addiction.org has some informative articles with regards to this. 

However, the grace of our Heavenly Father is such that He will not allow His child to remain naive to the dangers of her actions for long, and He provided me with a very clear message through Llewellyn's message on Sunday, titled "What is your daily bread?". Even though I was in the mother's room and did not hear the entire message I remember him saying, "what is the first thing you think of in the morning? The last thing you think of at night?" Well, I knew what that was, and I felt ashamed. I knew what needed to be done. I deleted the game. This time, I won't be going back. 

Today, my first day free of the game, was a very productive day! Today was the first day in weeks that I didn't have a headache. Not once was I busy reading to my daughter while wondering whether a train had returned with those oh so important building materials. Neither Zanté nor Lexi touched an iPad or even asked for one. We played, we painted, we visited with family. I literally felt free! 

The world has so many ways in which it seeks to capture our attention. Many of these things don't seem terrible, at first, and yet they have the potential to do so much damage. I hope that this experience will help me to more accurately assess the dangers of an activity in future, or at least help me to recognize that I have been "trapped" sooner, and I pray that by my sharing this experience I may help my fellow believers also free themselves of such things, so as to have that much more time for the really important things, which for me are my family, and my God.