Fannish Fifty: St George's Holiday Club
Aug. 25th, 2023 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smallhobbitNot 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.
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.
