Vacation Bible School

Jillian just finished up a week of Vacation Bible School at church. She loved it....I think. For about five days before it started, I told her she'd be going to "church school" in a few days. She couldn't wait! She asked if Jake was going too, and I told her that only 3 year olds could go, that Jake would have to wait until next year. She enjoyed hanging that over his head nearly every day for the duration of bible school. She'd say, "Jake, I'm going to vacation bible school today, but you can't go because you aren't three. Its only for grown up kids."

Bible school was held at night, from 6:30 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. Not ideal, but we made it work. Earlier dinners, and later bedtimes, but it was only for a week. On the first night, Grandpa Rodney and Grandma Lynne stayed home with Jake while I took Jillian. When we got there, I got her signed in and her nametag on, and took her into the sanctuary to sit with her class. There wasn't a lot of organization that first night, and not one person greeted us or welcomed us to the class. When her class left to go to their room, I went and sat in my car for a bit. I was worried, because I didn't know a soul there, and neither did Jillian. But I ran a few errands, and came back to pick her up at about 8:45. I sat in the sanctuary, in the back, and watched while they did their closing program. They had a bucket at the front of the room for each grade level, and one for the preschoolers, and during the night, the teachers would put candy in the buckets for good behavior. At the end of the night, they weighed the buckets, and the grade with the heaviest bucket got to split the candy in it that night. Well, on night one, they weighed all the buckets, but didn't weigh the preschoolers. Jillian noticed. She was upset not to have gotten any candy (because, really? Dangle candy in a preschooler's face and then not let them have any?), but she was kind of mad that they didn't even weigh her class bucket. She cried big alligator tears about that. I asked her if she had fun, and she wouldn't even talk to me about it. She said no one played with her. So I wasn't sure if she liked it or hated it.

The next morning, though, she asked if we were going back, so I took that as a good sign. Every day, I'd sit in on the opening program, until her class went into their room, and then I'd come back in time for the closing program. They never did weigh the preschool class bucket, but they did get their candy on the last night. Jillian never did tell me much about what she learned or what they were doing, but I think she had fun. They made some neat crafts, which she brought home on the last day, and she is very proud of them. And every once in a while, she'll do a hand motion and tell me what it means. They learned sign language for the theme of each night. She's shown me, "care for others," and "prayer is powerful," and "Jesus loves." But its always randomly, never when I ask her about it.

Jililan LOVED her teacher though. Every day when we got there, Jillian would run up to her class and make a bee-line for her teacher. During the opening program, she'd sit on her teacher's lap, and during the closing program, she was always sitting right next to her. Each night, Ms. Mardie would tell me how sweet Jillian was, and she'd tell me what they worked on that day. On Sunday, after bible school was over, Ms. Mardie came and sat with me in church (I was by myself since Rick still isn't here), and afterwards, she told me that Jillian was "so sweet" and the best behaved kid in her class during bible school. She went on and on about what a sweet girl Jillian is, and how smart and attentive she is. I never get tired of hearing that!