Young Travelers

At the church I attend, we are having six weeks of Wednesday night vacation Bible school this summer. It is called Young Travelers.

This isn't a purchased curriculum, although we have used those with much success in the past. But, this one was designed by the incredibly creative people at my church.

Each week we get our passport stamped, board an airplane (yes, it really does look like we are boarding an airplane) and get off at a different destination. The first week it was the Rain Forest. The second week, Hawaii.

I'm the craft lady. My daughter and a friend are also helping me.

Our first week, Rain Forest week, we made rain sticks. We cut 36" heavy cardboard tubes in half, filled them with twisted strands of tin foil and some raffia and added rice and split peas. They were closed at both ends with brown duct tape, and then drawn on with marker to look like a stick.

Our second week, we made our version of petroglyphs. This was even more fun than I had thought it would be. Daughter and I made a frame around watercolor paper with black duct tape. Then, the kids drew a stick figure of themselves with white crayon, and added around them things that represented them. No one else could see what they were drawing (the youngest kids used a pale apricot or yellow crayon) until we painted over them with watercolor - then the wax resist became visible. It was so insightful, as these kids came to us from so many different places, and we really got to know them through their drawings.

I cannot tell you any of the other week's destinations, or I would have to be killed. Or so I've been told. It's all a big secret.

I love doing this, but I am SO tired...ZZZzzz...