Jingle All the Way

Last week, on February 25, class had a lot of harmony and unity. Things really clicked along and I actually enjoyed the class - pretty much from beginning to end.

We introduced a new rule: If you come to class on your own, you get two stickers for the attendance chart. If we have to come to your door and remind you, you still get one sticker. But please come here on your own!

The other teacher and I consulted about when we would have an Ayyam-i-Ha party, and had agreed to have it just after, rather than just before (since there were no Wednesdays for the holiday this year.)

The kids focused on the lesson so well. One indicator of this was that when I slipped to the back to prepare the snack, 1 or 2 did not follow me to see if I needed any help.

Thinking of the favorite thing today, a surprise and the least favorite is something I came up with on the fly years ago for wrapping up group activities. At times I'll utilize it here.

My least favorite thing was the feeling of dread when it was clear that we did not have enough cups, and so I was just going to have to improvise. (Of course, it all worked out and was no big deal.)

My favorite thing was also a surprise was when we started off class with our usual songs. I said something like, "Let's sing our song." And Lucy said, "Let's sing Jingle Bells!" I said, "Maybe we'll sing that later (knowing that would not be my intention, not if we had class for 5, 000 more years)." The other teacher and I proceeded to sing, and so did Lucy - much louder and Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way. As I write this it was 2 weeks ago and I'm still cracking up about it. We literally had 2 songs going, on top of each other, for about a minute.

Anyway, towards the end of class we mentioned the stickers again and announced that we were having a party next week. It would be really fun - everyone try to make it!



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What was the lesson today? The virtue of sacrifice.

"The mystery of sacrifice is that man should sacrifice all his conditions for the divine station of God." ~ from the Baha'i Writings