Fannish Fifty: St George's Holiday Club

[smallhobbit]

Not within the usual criteria, but I am very enthusiastic about it, so as far as I'm concerned (my blog, my rules) it counts.

For the last three days my church has run a holiday club for some of the local children.  Now, I realise that there may be objections because we were talking about our faith.  However, we were sharing what we believe and telling the children about that - no obligation to agree or accept what we said.

The enthusiasm shown by our congregation - most of whom are retired and older than me - to take part and do the training beforehand was amazing.  We had done nothing like it for some years, so it really was new, and yet probably about two-thirds of the congregation came for at least one of the three days, and many did all three.

We had about 24 children in total from age 5 to 11, not all coming for all three days due to going on holiday, split into three groups by age.  They were enthusiastic, and even if they weren't sure at the beginning, by the end of the first day they were happily taking part.  Some come to our Tuesday after school family drop-in, some have siblings who come to Tuesday toddler group, some come to our occasional Saturday session, some brought cousins, some came because families recommended us, so it was a wide mix.

There was singing and dancing, stories and crafts, snack time and on the final day families joined us for a hot dog lunch plus ice creams.  And it was all free and gave the parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles something for the children to do at the end of the school summer holidays.

There are some photos on the church Facebook page if anyone is interested - we do have permission for those who are shown.

Comments

[annofowlshire]

While I'm American (and non-Christian) enough to still feel slightly uneasy about how Anglican practices still get into the (non-CofE) state schools on this side of the pond, honestly if I was sending my kid to a holiday club at a church (or a CofE state school), I kind of expect that there might be a bit of Jesus involved :)

I'm glad you ran the club and people had a great time! And I bet it was a relief for the parents, too!

[smallhobbit]

I can't say I'm happy with the way Anglican practices are incorporated into state schools, and I'd be very happy to have a split between the two. And yes, if your child comes to a church holiday club, Jesus is likely to be mentioned :)

Thank you. Parents and grandparents were pleased - where we are a number of grandparents have their grandchildren during the holidays, so having an activity for the children is much appreciated.

[adafrog]

Fun!

[smallhobbit]

It really was!

[debriswoman]

It’s great that so many people got involved from the church, and that it was such a success:-)

[smallhobbit]

Yes, the level of commitment was amazing. As was the sense of community.

[rusty_armour]

Playing catch-up once again. I was away last weekend, so I'm even further behind than usual. ;-)

Based on the Facebook photos, the holiday club seems to have been a big success. The children look happy and engaged, and the adults seem to be having fun too. It's great that the congregation was so enthusiastic about the idea and wanted to help. I would also say that you had a good number of children attending over those three days.

[smallhobbit]

Nice to see you - hope you had a good time away!

It felt like it went very well. We had 25/26 children in total - some couldn't come every day, although the majority did, and everyone enjoyed themselves.