Better Than Billy Madison

Well I survived my first tutoring session this morning. "Survived" is of course a bad choice of words, except that for some reason I was quite nervous about doing it for the first time. Anyway, once it got going I had a lot of fun with it. All the kids are in grade 3, and although I didn't know any of them, I did know 5 of their classmates, 4 of which still come to God's Back Country. They were excited to see me, which was cool.

The kids actually in the reading program were great. I love how a lot of kids at that age will tell you all kinds of things about their lives prompted by just a few basic questions. And then there are the random blurtings too. I now know that one little girl's big brother is mean and likes to hunt, but I'm not sure why that was important to know at the time! I can already see that my biggest challenge is going to be to keep the socializing time shorter...

Kids are so hungry for attention and affirmation from adults (and teenagers!). They thrive on those things and that's what makes the "1 to 1" reading program as successful as it is. Let us never forget that a major strength of our ministry is also in giving that attention and affirmation. Look at how Jesus himself loved kids in the gospel stories...

marvin