MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

I took a week's vacation from work this week to assist with our church's Vacation Bible School program. We actually combine with several other churches in the area, and have about 135 kids there everyday. I was unable to attend the organizational meeting they had a few weeks ago, but I wasn't all that picky about where I was put. My only request was that I not have to be with the pre-school kids for all three hours each day. (God bless people like my friend, Barb, who teach in a pre-k program everyday. There is special place in heaven for her.) When I was teaching in the public schools, I found that I was much better off with students old enough to understand sarcasm. Go figure.

Anyway, I was asked to assist with the music portion of Bible School. The music portion consists of me and another VBS helper, Carl, who teach the kids the VBS songs. All of the songs are pretty simple and repetitive, but catchy enough that the kids like singing them over and over again. I wish the same were true for Carl and me. Of course, we are getting to sing them six times over every day because we work with the kids in groups by age level. Carl and I are gettin' a little tired of singing about God's Big Backyard (our VBS theme this year.) Only one more day....I think I can make it.

I discovered something very comical today as we were teaching one of the songs. I didn't realize just how strongly the kids relied on us to do the motions to the songs (oh yes, a VBS song would be complete if there weren't a bunch of motions to remember.) Carl and I stand up in front of the group and do the motions so that the kids can mimic us. Today as we were working on a song, my nose itched and so I scratched it. Three of the kids stopped what they were doing and scratched their nose too. They went right back to the correct motions once I did, never missing a beat. I almost thought I imagined it, until a few seconds later when I itched it again, and two of them again did the same thing. I started laughing and they just looked at me like, "what?" Of course, they were five year olds, but still.... None of the nose itching kids got the humor in why I was laughing, so I just went on.

I always wanted to be a trendsetter, but this isn't quite what I had in mind.