I still like what Einstein is often credited with saying:
“Don’t fill up your brain with information you can easily look up.”
I wonder if services like Google and its intended and unintended effects on our memory might just help our society (even humanity) better synthesize the vast amounts of information out there, rather than just being able to memorize it.
Learning is about making connections, not just memorization.
HT Orange Leaders
source Online Colleges Site
I was making Mac & Cheese for lunch. Sari was sitting at the table ready to eat and she said: “Mom said I could sit on my blanket in front of the fireplace.”
Okay. Here we go. This wasn’t an unrealistic claim. Amanda could have told Sari this, but I wasn’t sure. Amanda was not in the room with us, as she was getting ready to run some errands. So I did a little detective work. My goal was to find out if this was really true or if she was just saying this to me in order to sit on her blanket and eat her Mac & Cheese.
Me: “Sari, if I were to ask Mom if she said this, what would she say?”
Sari was quiet. “Hmmm,” I wondered.
I asked again: “Sari, would Mom say that she said that if I asked?”
“Yep,” she nodded, “she would.”
I wanted to push her a little bit more to make sure: “Sari, do you remember what we’ve talked about before about lying?” She nods. “I want to give you another chance to tell me the truth, just in case you are just trying to sit in front of the fireplace by lying.”
Sari assured me that she wasn’t lying and told me the truth. “Okay. I’ll believe you, but I’m going to ask Mom, okay?”
A few minutes later Amanda comes into the kitchen and says: “Jeremy, Sari’s worried that you think she is lying. She isn’t just so you know. I told her she could sit in front of the fireplace and eat her Mac & Cheese on the blanket.”
I was thankful that Sari told me the truth. I asked her to come over to me and I gave her a big hug and thanked her for being the kind of person who tells the truth and one I can trust. She beamed.
Now I wasn’t super-worried about Sari eating food in the living room, I just wanted to make sure that she wasn’t scheming to accomplish this by using Mom to tell a lie. She wasn’t and for that I was very grateful and proud of her.
Macie had taken a bite of her string cheese, then set it down on the counter and was chewing next to me sitting in front of the fireplace in the living room.
Sari walked by and noticed Macie chewing on something and asked me if she could have a piece of gum because Macie had one.
For reasons only parents understand, I didn’t answer her right away, so Sari moved on to Mom.
“Can I have some gum, Mom?” I heard her the second time and so I responded: “Sari, Macie is chewing on some string cheese.” Sari didn’t hear me say “string cheese”, she heard me say “gum” when I said the word “some”. She still thought Macie had gum, and asked again. I told her I said “some” string cheese. Sari said, “Oh” and finally heard that Macie was eating string cheese instead of gum.
We hear what we want to hear sometimes, don’t we? Sari was fixated on gum for some reason. So what she wanted to hear was a confirmation that she could have some gum because she thought Macie had some. She clued in on any words we said that sounded like gum, but really weren’t. She wasn’t listening to anything else.
Now this was harmless. It didn’t even end up in a fit at all. Sari just misunderstood and went about her day. There are, however, “misunderstandings” that aren’t harmless. In fact, they are quite harmful.
I was thinking about my own life after this interaction and wondered: “When do I hear what I want to hear… instead of really listening?” And: “When are these misunderstanding more harmful than harmless?”
This past weekend in Main Street, we did the story where Jesus meets this wild and crazy demon-possessed guy and delivers him from “Legion.”
We showed a clip from The Story Keepers, which did a great job telling the story in under 2 minutes.
Additionally, we showed a video from about 4 years ago. At Kids Camp 2008, our speaker had asked me to “live act” this story in preparation for his message to the students. The demonically possessed individual was played by none other than local, Hayward hero, Mr. Dixon (our elementary P.E. teacher)! It brought a lot of laughs all the while teaching them the story.
Story Lesson (211.26kb, pdf)
Audio File (8.58mb, mp3)
Video Link (10.16.11 @ vimeo.com)
I currently manage two Facebook “pages” through hwcYouth. They are for our Followers and Middle School Youth programs. I created them for a couple of reasons:
I have yet to leverage these pages beyond these two reasons. The other day I came across a blog post on 4 Unique Ways of Using Facebook In Youth Ministry. Here are the 4 ways:
- Setting Up and Following Up Youth Group With A Video
- Getting Game Contestants From Those Who Comment On Your Page’s Current Status
- Allow Them to Decide A Part Of Youth Group
- Online Scavenger Hunt
These are some ideas that would be really fun to try and implement. I’m wondering what other ideas there might be in using facebook to incorporate more involvement at Youth Group or @ Followers with students and parents.
Any thoughts?
source ChurchMag
Set up a number (you can decide how many) plastic cups in a row across a table. When the game starts, the players may grab the balloon and begin to blow it up. The participants may only knock cups off the table by using air from the balloon and must always stay on 1 side of the table. If the players make physical contact with the cup, the game is over.
To complete the game, the players must knock all cups off of the table using only the air from the balloon first!
This game is modified from Minute To Win It and we did it @ msy.
source YouTube
This past weekend in Main Street, we recounted some of the miracles of Jesus. He healed:
We learned that “miracles” are REAL unlike “magic” which is just a trick. Jesus (aka God) was compelled to fix what was broken.
Story Lesson (477.3kb, pdf)
Audio File (16.11mb, mp3)
Video Link (10.9.11 @ vimeo.com)
Video Link (10.12.08 @ vimeo.com)
Parents say some of the craziest things.
When I was a kid, I remember thinking my parents were crazy sometimes. I thought some of their responses to things were exaggerated and extreme. And now that I’m a parent, I understand!
When you are a parent you are “on” 24/7. Your children need to be parented 24/7. This kind of constant human interaction can be exhausting, mainly for the parents, but also for the children. A family environment is a breeding ground for craziness. Sometimes parents just run out of things to say and they go to the extreme. Sometimes they say off-the-wall things just to get their children’s attention. You don’t understand it as a child, but it makes complete sense to the adult.
Isn’t parenting fun?
