waiting, watching

I scoured all of Chermside to search for Advent calendars.  It was the last week of November and I wanted to get my gift-hunting underway to avoid the mêlée of the holiday shopping season.

We used to get Advent calendars from friends in Germany.    It was good fun opening those windows one day at a time, uncovering an image from the Nativity scene, or better yet, a surprise chocolate treat for waiting tiny tummies like mine.  Wanting to recreate that wonder of anticipation and preparation for Christmas, I set off in search of advent calendars.

Sitting on the shelf, spruced up to match the glitzy Christmas merchandise around it, were one or two boxes of advent calendars.  How hard would it be to find these fun countdown calendars in the mall, right?  But as I rummage through the displays to find a suitable one, I sigh, turn and leave another store in disgust.  What does Dora the Explorer, Toy Story, Freddo, Barbie, and the High School Musical cast have anything to do with the Advent?  My legs are weary after having searched the length and breadth of the mall, in all the fancy department stores, bargain stores, craft stores, and newsagents. I finally whimper back to the car, hugely disappointed.

But as I was still hugely determined to have Advent calendars for the season, I decided I would make my own!

Everybody gets preoccupied with the holiday festivities.  Busy with doors, windows and halls to festoon… Trees and tables to drape and decorate with ornaments and tinsel… All to spread Christmas cheer.  There are friends and families to visit, catch up and (maybe) to be civil to.  Menus to be planned and cooked and served.  Presents to be listed, purchased, wrapped up and given.  Cards to be written, sealed and sent off.  Countless school and church events, parties at every possible opening in the social diary. Holidays to be planned, packed up for and enjoy.  How easily we get entangled in all of the trappings of Christmas!

Advent is a time to remind us of the long wait for the Messiah.  And He has come.  Advent is also the time to remind us to wait patiently and prepare for the return of our Lord.  It is our hope to be reunited with him.   Likewise, Advent is the time to pause and pull us to the present when rush and stress of Christmas Day threatens to overtake the joy of the season.

Take it one day at a time, and take some time in the day to reflect on God’s love and grace.

[Getting all crafty at Redcliffe, December 2010]

yarn paintings

a mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions. ~anon

On our recent trip to Washington DC, we stopped by the Native American Museum and as we were wandering about, we noticed these beautiful and intricate Huichol yarn paintings.  We took photos of them and I looked them up on the net and thought… What  a cool project for my kids!

So I talked to our Art teacher and we set to work right away.  The kids chose one scene from a porquoi folk tale they have written, sketched it on a recyclable paper shopping bag, and then came the laborious work of filling the shapes and figures with yarn.

As you can see though, the end results were sensational!  The kids received rave reviews on their paintings, and rightly so.  The detail and colours and their creativity absolutely floored us!

It is amazing what students can do when you challenge them because the project doesn’t stop at their pretty art.  Or perhaps this is the language teacher in me trying to justify integrating Art into my lessons.  Because even more impressive were the kids’ storytelling presentation.  We invited other students and teachers to see their paintings, and hear the folk tale they have written.  It was exciting to see the kids relaying their story from their heart (even the non-speakers managed to narrate their short story from memory), and so wonderful see the interaction between the storyteller and their audience.

The paintings still hang outside the wall of our room.

Right up there as one of my favourite student projects! Greensboro, North Carolina, January 2010]