The Final Breeeeze of Confirmation..ahhhh

Dear Friends, I am happy to share that we have completed 'Breezes of Confirmation' with the Juniour youth! it has been a wonderful experience with lots of challenges too. I apologize for not updating the blog entries through out all the sessions but none the less, I hope you were able to get a rough idea of how the classes were being run and how we used games and other activities with the particular topics. Special thanks to May,Reema,Fareba,Richard,Mummy,Daddy and all the friends that helped make this whole experience worthwhile! :-)

Jyouth is the word
have u all heard?
and if you'd like mo information
check out breezes of confirmation

Jouth is the wordd....

Elly,Reeema n Moi (taking on the Jyouth)
Hello good readers... we r back n rolling with our jr youth classes, we have not had a class for the past three weeks due to situations beyond control, but as promised we have new stories and activities to share.
Today we had 4 jr youth come round (Sahba, Khama,Dalitso & Nas), Muhammed could not attend as he has a similar muslim class to attend to and so he alternates with our jr youth class, a few others were not able to make it either for personal reasons. We kicked in with a game of 'wink murder' (well Reema changed the name to wink wink ur down ha ha ha)... we did not manage to play the game succesfully as many people were winking and others went down without being winked at and it was just hilarious but it was a good icebreaker after having had a few weeks off. My assitant Reema introduced our new chapter in our favourite book Breezes of Confirmation 'Whispering at Night' and it was from the theme of dreams and talents in the chapter that we chose the virtue of the day.. and the virtue is....Drumrolll.... CREATIVITY :-)
Its an angel!!! he he


Nas is just too cool.

we had a very fruitful discussion and coloured in our virtues. The jr youth then later got creative with paper and came up with interesting works of art.

And just like May (bless her, we miss her dearly) Reema, who belive it or not is May's sister was getting into the creative theme with her very own jet line. :-)



Aint too cool for some green flowers!


A Breakdance from Khama :-)

We were joined by a lovely lady called Elly today and is a friend from a nearby town, she wanted to come round and be a part of our class which she was very welcome to. FAb Day!!

Annnnd Finallly! he he yeah we did get cxarried away with the theme of Creativity...:-)
CHARLIE'S ANGELS

COMFIRMATION :-)

Weeek FIVE :-)
AAAAhhhh at last we hit the nail on the head with our theme of COMFIRMATION. Before i get into what we did in today's session, i want to say we did not have a session last week as i had to attend the cluster meeting in oxford which was very inspiring!!! Well Back to the jr youth class...
we had very good attenndance today, 7 jr youth Dalitso, Khama, Nas, Muhammed, Sahba, Harry & Jessy. We started the lesson at about half 2pm and we got the ball rolling with a game that we have not yet found a name for even though many of us have already played it before! I gave out some paper and asked the jouth (jr youth) to draw 8 columns and fill each one with a heading such as 'Country', 'Food', 'Virtue', 'Famous person' and then i wrote down numbers 1 to 26 and put each number with a letter of the alphabet. The letters were put in random positions of the numbers on purpose so as to not have the numbers correspond to the actual letter in the alphabet. Then i asked one of the jr youths to pick a number and then we would use the letter that the number represented for our game... sooo the actual game was to pick a letter and for each letter, we would all fill in our collumns with the words that begun with that particular letter. For example if the letter was F then for a counrty you could put down Finland; Virtue would be Friendliness and a Food could be French Fries and soo on. This game was soo much fun and everyone loved it except it was very difficult in some cases because a few people had interesting answers, For example Zebra was put down as food for the letter Z and also a food that begins with a Z and is apparently from a video game. also some would put names in african languages which was just hilarious... so yeah we got a little carried away and we only managed to do three letters because otherwise we could have played the game the whooooole day. Its a very good game though, and we could do the next few letters next lesson, also it was a good idea to put in a virtue column because it made them think about virtues :-)
We then went straight into the continuation of our favourite book 'Breezes of Confirmation' and ahhhhhh we finalllly came face to face with the word CONFIRMATION, we read the chapter where Rose and Musonda are talking about what they would like to do in the future and we find out that Rose has 'set her heart' on becoming a nurse! we had a discussion on the word comfirmation which led into sharing some ideas about what each one of them would like to become in future (occupation). We asked the jouth to express, artistically what they would like to become in future and as usual, very creative ideas were put down on paper and thats one more thing to go and hang somewhere in their rooom :-). Reema then introduced the virtue of the week which is HELPFULNESS... lottts of ideas from the jouth once again and its really nice to see them begin to link virtues together, for example... many of them instanlty thought of servcie and generosity when we were talking about helpfulness! Twoo weeks ago, we asked the jr youth to pick a person's name from a bowl and they would secretly do something good for that person, so today we got to share about that too and it was really nice to see them working hard to try and do some thing good for each other. refrsheshments and a traditional game of football (they just can't stop talking about the F word!!!! FOOOTBALLL) Overalllll... it was a FANTABULOUS SESSION.. even though handling seven Boys ofcourse comes with a price of £ ENTHUSIASIM AND ENERGY which is not a bad price to pay to have these lovely jouth around hehehehe.

WE HAVE TWO WEEKENDS OFF BECAUSE OF HALF TERM BUT DO JOIN US AGAIN SOOON!!!!:-)
MOi with my lovely aassistant Reeeeeema! :-)

WeEk 4, LeSsOn 2 (:-)

Today's class started right on time except we only had three jr youth to begin with, however our energy was not put down by this, we quickly got into a game of pictionary. Reema and I prepared some words on pieces of paper that we had cut out and folded so that each person could pick one and draw something that may give the others a clue about what the word could be. I must say, the outcome was fantastic.. hilarious illustrations kept us all wanting to play more n guess what the word was n wondered what the next one could be.

Just before we could start reading lesson two of 'Breezes Of Confirmation'. Muhamed joined us, so we had Dalitso, Khama, Sahba and Muhamed. We read lesson two of the Book and the part of the story which says 'A little boy and his mother were sitting next to me. After a while, the boy started asking for something to eat. I had some bread, and gave it to his mother when i saw that she did not have any food with her...' led us to our virtue o the week which is GENEROSITY. After reading lesson two, we decided to memorise the quotation 'Let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path' (personal favourite). We asked everyone to sit in a circle and say one word from the quotation and an action that descibes the word, the next person would then say the previous word and action as well as the next word and an action, this was soooo much fun and the jouth really liked it but most importantly everyone managed to say the whole quotation even without the action as well as BACKWARDS!!! :-) yep, Richard suggested that as a joke but the jouth did it before he could take it back! very impressive i must say and the discussions were very fruitfull too!

We took some time to discuss the virtue as well as colour the word Generosity, we did have a mini break in the middle for some juice n then at the very end we had some light refreshments.. overalllll.... Very exciting class! ( We miss May dearly though) as u may have noticed, we did not get many nice pics coz our camera girl has left heheh but we will definately get one up n rolling for next class

Introducing Breezes...

2day was my third and final week of Jouth classes, for now at least. I must say, at the beginning of the class, at about 2:30, i was a bit worried we would be doing the class with 3 junior youth participants, meaning there would be more adults than anything else. Both my parents came, since we need 2 CRB checked people and ruth's parents were there. So by 2:30 (class is supposed 2 start at 2) we had 4 adults, 3 youth and 3 jouth, 2 of which were Ruth's brothers and 1 was a new boy, Muhamad...bit of a disaster really. But all was not lost, 2 arrived a few mins later...extremely late but they got there, Sahba and Nassir.

2 be very honest...the three of us, while preparing the class at 1, had no energy. All of us were completely dead, but we forced ourselves 2 get sth 2gether. I tried 2 stay out of it as much as possible, seeing as Reema and Ruth would be continuing without me from next week. We decided on a format and hoped for the best...

So we began our class, more than half an hour late, with a game...fruit salad. They absolutely loved it...so much fun. Everyone sits in a circle, with one in the middle who says...'everyone with...(then they gotta choose sth like white socks)'...then everyone with white socks has 2 get up and find a seat while the person who was standing in the middle also tries to find a seat, obviously leaving 1 person left in the middle.

We had some very funny happenings. Muhamad...looking around at peoples feet and saying...'everyone with shoes on'...he knew obviously that there was only my mum, who grudingly got up and Muhamad took her seat. She then got her own back by saying...'everyone called Muhamad'...this game worked really well and brought a lot of laughter...but we've found that the popularity of the game completely depends on the group...they didnt want 2 stop playing this one...but eventually we had to stop them...

We moved on to a recap of last week's virtue...service. We had been discussing a service project of some sort. They had decided on washing cars as a local service. Now, even in my mind i thought...impractical to begin with...but hey, its beginning to seem pretty realistic. We made some plans, and everyone had a job to do at home.

We then gave out the books which had been ordered during the week. We just mentioned the price to them, but if they don't pay, its not a big deal...maybe the LSA can help with it. So we began the first lesson...it worked AMAZINGLY well...they took to it so quickly. In all honestly, i thought it was too basic, but they really really liked it. I read the story to them first...then they read it to each other in pairs...the quiet murmuring of the story was so cute 2 hear!!!!

They then did the activities individually, and went thru them together afterwards...they really enjoyed ticking the ones they got right...adorable!!! The next exercise involved making sentences out of words given to them. We wrote each one on a piece of paper and they picked it without looking. They then made a sentence each with the word they picked and read it out. The others guessing which word it was. The guessing part they actually decided to do themselves, but it worked really well, they all enjoyed it and it made the simple exercise more fun. To add to it we got them to make one sentence with as many of the words as possible. We had one participant who was our essay writer...he spent so long on writing his sentence making it a work of art...we all loved him for it. They finished the last two exercises off individually, sharing it at the end if they wished.

We had a quick fruit break which was well received and continued with the program. A drama activity. They had to prepare a skit on the theme of joy or joyfulness...since the story had a minor theme of joy. This led on to our virtue discussion we decided to have weekly. They seemed excited about the prospect of drama, and although 1 group did mess about for a lot of the preparation time, it was a good first time.

We then briefly discussed the virtue of joyfulness and they wrote it down in their little notebooks. They were then given a mission...like secret santa they were all given a name of someone else in the group...with a mission to do sth or give them sth that will make them joyful. We gave them two weeks to do this...with the strict rule that they could not share who they have with anyone but me reema and ruth. If they were absolutely stuck for ideas we could help them. We finished off with the usual art activity of colouring the virtue we discussed...they loved the glitter pens we gave them, although it could have created a mess...we were lucky.

Refreshments served at the end, and they all went to play outside. I did have to say bye 2 them all...and i will really miss them. It was a pleasure 2 help run the class even for the short time i did. I will definately come back and see how its all doing when i come back in Jan.

One thing we decided to do, for now at least, was to call up on Saturday and just check everyones remembered and they are coming and theres no problem with transport or anything. Until it gets into their and their parents heads that this time is regular, ppl r gonna have 2 be reminded.

Here's the group from today...cept Nura (Sahba's little sister) who joined us at the end...

So there you have it...our 3rd week...

WeEk TwO

Ahhhhhhhhh! welll today was an interesting session, we had six jr youth; Dalitso, Khama, Sahba, Naz, Mwanga and John. Mwanga and John did not attend the full lesson last week but atleast they were part of our second ' semi intro' lesson this week. Derryn & Brooke could not make it because they were away in scarborough but we should have them back n rolling next week; Chimuka could not attend either because of a personal reason :-) which hopefully should be sorted before next class. We ordered some copies of 'Breezes of confirmation' and are hoping to start the book as soon as we can, at the moment we still feel like we need to get a bit more settled with the jr youth and make sure we have recieved all the consent forms from their parents. Overall it was a fantastic session, we started off with some games which the lovely MAY ( who i personally think is loving taking part in the games and activities a little too much hehehehehe) joyously and energetically facilitated; we played 'Zombie' which is a game where one person walks across to another person and with the most scary look on their face, arms stretched forward ,n some strange voice,call out the name of the person they are walking towards. The other person then has to wallk across to someone else and do the above actions before the zombie catches them (ok i know, round about now you are thinking, 'what game is this?' but the idea of the game was to get familiar with names. We also realised that the game 'Concentration' is a group favourite, probably because we only get it right a few times hehehe.
After the games, we returned to my house and had an activity where we paired the jouth up and asked them to get to know the other person and instead of presenting orally, they would have to do a creative drawing or painting or anything that they felt portrayed the other person or their personality and hobbies. The results were more than just creative!!
it was also very interesting to see how inlfuential FOOTBALL is and just how many people it describes hehehe, i must say... this particular activity did get people sharing things and views that may have not been necessary for the lesson however We ( the faciliatators) chipped in and tried to remind them about our class 'rules' and also the virtue of Respect ( i really wont go into depth about what was said about people that support certain football teams hehehe). After the presentation of the creative, arty stuff, we had a mini break during which we had a few more games outside

and later some drinks to cool down. It was then back to business, and May introduced the virtue of the week which is 'SERVICE', the virtue led to a good discussion with a few ideas from the jouth about what they want to do as a form of service for the local community

at about 4pm ( we atarted at 2pm) we were left with just enough time to colour in our virtue of the weeeeeek and refreshments!!! Here goes a pic of our FAB work! hehehe ( again, May enjoyed this activity a little too much! :-)

I must say, besides our little moments where We ( Reema, May n I) had to remind the jyouth about being more considerate & respectful and a few absent people, we did manage to have an enjoyable and succesful session!!! :-) THATS ALL FROM THE JOUTH ZONE THIS WEEK!!!

No longer animator virgins

We have broken the barrier!!!!! We officially have a Junior Youth Group!!! How EXCITING!!!! It's every Sunday from 2-4:30...but we had a shortened session 2day, cuz our odd little community decided sometime ago to have their feast at 4 2day...but anyway, it was a nice intro session.

Before getting down to business, we had 2 plan what we were going 2 do...me and reema (shes gonna help ruth after i go) and my dad (cuz hes CRB checked) arrived late cuz of a pond disaster we had...details on my blog. Anyway, we got there, shared the supplies we bought and planned what we were gonna do. We bought loadsa stuff - pencils, pens, colouring pencils, felt tips, gel pens, glue sticks, folders, little note books, paper, card, glitter pens and loadsa other bits and bobs. We decided who was gonna do what...and what we wanted to achieve that session. And of course we shared our worries and excitement...

So we started with about 5 j-youth, Ruth's 2 younger brothers, Karma and Dalitso, their friends from school Derryn, Brooke and Nassir. Sahba, who used to live in Milton Keynes, arrived a little late. We began outside, with concentration (names instead of numbers). Was really funny, cuz 2 begin with they couldnt do it...and neither could my dad, which was the funniest part really. But we got better at it...and it was a really good game 2 get 2 know names. We then played another name game, where we stand in a circle and one person throws a ball 2 someone. They catch it and duck...the 2 ppl either side of the person who ducked have 2 race to say each others names...u could have it that the slower one sits in the middle, but it was cool just 2 play. The last ice breaker we did was the pairing one...having some questions 2 ask and remember bout ur partner. Overall it was a pretty successful intro cuz i personally felt the group was quite close.

Reema, my dad, Ruth and Nassir

Nassir again, Dalitso and Derryn

Sahba, Karma and Brooke

We went back inside, and two late comers arrived, Mwanga and Chimuka and their little brother George who was adorable!!! It would have been really cool to do some ice breakers with them too, but we just didnt have time just then, plus there was a possibility that more late comers would arrive. We sorted out the necessary stuff...the consent forms they had 2 give to their parents, the registration form we have 2 fill out and their folders we got 4 them.

As planned, we then discussed the virtue of respect, getting them to give us ideas about what it is and why and when we should practice it. They were great at coming up with things, and came to the conclusion that we should respect everyone and that the world would be a better place if everyone respected everyone. Here we are, discusssing respect...

The purpose of talking about respect was mainly to lead into discussion of the rules of the class...which they came up with themselves. We felt talking bout respect first was good cuz they had that idea in their head when thinking bout what the rules of the class should be, which ultimately centres around respect. They came up with a perfect list and we followed this we a fun exercise where we had printed the word respect on a piece of paper and they could decorate it any way they wanted. The idea was they would have a virtue a week where we discuss it for a while, preferably related to the particular lesson in the book (which we chose not to begin that day) or one we felt was necessary to discuss at that time. They'll decorate the virtue every week and we'll give them a ribbon of some sort where they can pin each weeks up...so they'll have sth in their room that'll remind them and their parents can see what they're getting up 2.

We didnt have time for much else, but we gave them the virtue of service to think about for next week and told them a bit about the book, Breezes of Confirmation. We then had refreshment, in the living room which we decided was a very bad idea, but luckily we had no accidents. Right at the end, another boy arrived, John...had transport problems, hopefully fixed now tho...so we had 5 at the beginning and 9 at the end...we have another 3 confirmed next week and another maybe...so we may end up with 13 next week...will be interesting.

All in all...it was a bit rushed and disorientating when they all arrived at different times, but it was a great first session and hopefully they all enjoyed it are looking forward to coming back next week...they all seemed keen...which is the important thing. Hopefully i wont have to leave Ruth alone next week...cept we've had this family thing planned for ages, and i cant really pull out of it...but we'll see.

Everyone, please start up a jouth group...its the best thing u could do with ur time. Plus its really fun :) Ruthy and I will keep this updated and when i go, im hoping my sis will aswell. Here are some pics 2 finish off...

Excitement/nervousness b4 the J-youth arrived

Brooke :)

Dalitso - intense concentration

Arty Farty bit...

AHHHHH!!!!