Happy Mother’s Day 2009

Children love creating surprises for their moms so on Sunday we warmly greeted the moms as they dropped off their children but quickly shooed them out of the Children’s Chapel. The children got busy assembling gifts for their mothers. No peeking, moms!

 

Their project made use of a collection of small wooden spoons I’d had for many years. I looked at them many times and wondered why I’d bought them in the first place and what I was ever going to do with them.

 

I’m grateful for the internet which I visit regularly to jumpstart my idea pool for creative activities for our Sunday morning lessons and projects. I came across an idea using these spoons and just had to set it up for our children.

 

Wooden spoons, Hershey’s Kisses, those tulle circles that you can purchase in the bridal section of Joann’s , narrow ribbon and silk flowers were all I needed to duplicate our own interpretation of this cute project idea. All I had to buy were Hershey’s Kisses. I had everything else.

                                                                                                                                

 

 Each child made one and we set them all aside to give to their moms after the service.

Our next surprise for the moms in our congregation was a short presentation by the children when they came to the front of the sanctuary for the “Peace Song”.

  

Over the years I have collected many cute readings, poems, quotations and stories for Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Halloween, and other holidays that I’ve used for short and easy presentations in the adult service.

 

But I needed something new this year. Rev. Karen was going to be facilitating a sweet and touching service that would most likely invoke tears and heart-opening.

 

This time the children needed to offer a little laughter. We could help end the special Mothers’ Day service on a light-hearted note. I looked through my collections of readings, poems and quotations but nothing felt right.

 

Again, the internet came to my rescue. I found a great website with all kinds of ideas and resources. On it I saw the perfect idea: “A Mother’s Dictionary”.

 

I copied it, enlarged it and cut the words with their humorous definitions into strips. I read a few to the children to see if they thought it would be fun to share with the grown-ups.

 

They loved the idea so they each picked a couple and we practiced. We used a marker for our microphone and passed it from child to child, getting them used to holding it close to their mouths and reading slowly and clearly.

 

We giggled a lot so we were pretty sure the grown-ups would get the humor in the definitions. Here is a couple:

 

“Bottle feeding: An opportunity for Daddy to get up at 2 AM too.

Full Name: What you call your child when you’re mad at him.”

 

Our final activity for the children was listening to Louis, our wonderful 3^rd-5^th grade teacher, read us a story: Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. This story never fails to bring tears to our eyes and we were all touched by it.

 

The children did a very fine job in their presentation and the grown-ups laughed appreciatively. And the moms loved receiving chocolate as their gift.