Teaching Again

Posing with our fish puppets

Yesterday felt like Friday. It was the last day of Bible School, aka VBS. I was in charge of teaching crafts. It was a lot of fun being with kids and sharing new projects with them. Before leaving a little boy asked me how I knew so much about paper. I told him that I was an artist and that I loved paper. Plus I looked up ideas on the internet. I wasn’t going to lie.

I was really surprised by the current world of VBS crafts, which I saw in several catalogs I was given a month earlier. They don’t look very creative. Many are color-your-own-fill-in-the-blank project, which means they have added a black and white drawing to a plastic object. Like a snow globe. Or a paddle ball. Or whatever else you could possibly dream of. Oriental Trading is making a killing. You can find any kind of foam sticker you would want and glue it down to something.

Considering I didn’t know the Bible lessons we’d be teaching until the week of VBS, I didn’t have time to order anything. But that isn’t really my style anyway. I love office supplies, mainly paper. Plus I am on a mission to promote less plastic. So we stuck to those materials. I think they had a great time. Two days of puppets and two days of origami. Perfect.

first time using crayons

Lucy also had a great time. Friday was amazing. She danced and laughed and crawled around. She was conked out before I rolled through our apartment door. I thought I wish I had something like this everyday. Monday was a little trickier since she was sick. She didn’t have a lot of energy, but she was hanging in there. And refusing to nap with so many kids around. Tuesday, I was ready for it to end. But after one night of drugs, we ended VBS with a bang.

fast friends

Last night I came home and cleaned the apartment, addressing many forgotten piles. It felt like the end of a semester of little baby projects. I am ready to straighten up and start the next thing. Aside from the photography Blurb book and Brenner’s book, I am not totally sure what that will be. I am feeling another nesting urge. (No, I am not pregnant.) I need to do some major baby proofing at the studio. Plus I need to do a mini-overhaul to my web site. Until then, I will be posting how to do each VBS project – Jonah and the Whale, Noah’s Ark, the woman at the well, and Jesus’s fishing trip with the Disciples – along with pictures of the kids at work. Stay tuned!