Same Children: A New Mix

Many times, the children get into patterns - patterns of follow-up work, patterns of who they will work with - developing habits which can be good and perhaps some that limit their growth.

LOVE that smile!
He was TRYING to be goofy -
he turns out handsome!

In a recent atrium (our last for this group before Christmas break), one boy (who had been absent the week before) was taken aside to move ahead on his First Missal. Of the 3 children in this group preparing for the sacraments this year, one has flown through and just about finished (strong reader/writer plus a few other reasons ;) ), one likes to write/trace/copy but takes a bit longer (absent last week), and one would really prefer not to do so much paper-based work but did spend last week working on his.

So while the second from above was working on his First Missal, the first and third spent quite a while working on the pin-maps - the strong reader could read and the not-so-strong reader could match the pins/labels and find locations - they made a perfect team!

This freed up the usually joined-at-the-hip-little-sister to spend some work time with the other girl her own age (who usually quietly does her own thing or follows the 7yo girl).

They seem to be making their own missal -
but focusing on the moments with which they are familiar
from their previous gestures work.
They might just do all the pages for a Missal
but we'll assemble them at a later time ;) 

The older boys and girls were working individually and in pairs on the prophet studies. Having a grand time. Really.
Finding all the issues and errors in the material would be a more accurate statement ;) Guess what I'll be spending Christmas "break" doing - while it's all still fresh in my mind ;)

Interesting observation here: my Sunday morning children have issues with this material but no-one can articulate it; my Wednesday evening children are able to work through it with an adult on hand to help - they've not reported any issues to me; my Thursday children somehow have worked out any issues, so while I am aware they had some, they figured it out. My Friday children - are the ones who can say "here is the issue; here is how I am addressing it, but here is the actual issue in the material itself." So I can actually correct it for everyone else.

Continued Observation - Level 3

I was able to spend some more time observing this evening - I love when I get these moments! They are so revealing! 

This group (in the photo below) needs more direction than typical children of their age and atrium experience. But they are definitely moving in the right direction. This evening they re-created the second Mass chart, showing the Propers of the Mass face up (but not yet labeled). For the time being, it seems that if they can all be doing the same thing or something similar to one another, they are able to maintain self-control for longer periods of time. 

Definitely need to get out walking on the line next time. Normalization at its very foundation. 

In the following photo: I thought this would be a good-size group for this work, given the responsible, atrium-experienced, self-directed young ladies involved, with our CRE to assist them as needed. No. It didn't work. Keep it to 2-3 children at a time - more discussion participation from each person, easier to reach decisions about titles for the clues about the Parousia, and the work becomes more personal. It doesn't seem to take as long in smaller groups either.... Hm. SO the work is both quicker and goes deeper with small groups !? I should SO know that by now! ;)