Everyone Needs a PAL!

I work at Crossroads Church of Walton County as their part-time student ministry assistant. I basically run the children’s ministry and help Jonathan with a few things to get ready for Wednesday night youth service. I also lead the 8th grade girls small group, but I view that as my volunteer job more than as part of my job description 🙂

Anyways, my full-time job is as the special education parapro at J H House Elementary in Rockdale County. It is a GREAT school! I cannot even believe that public schools like that even exist anymore. For instance, on Friday they hosted a picnic in the park to boost parent involvement, connection, and moral. Our school serves one of the largest trailer parks in the South East. This trailer park has 8 elementary bus routes that transport kids to and from our school every day. Most of the kids that go to our school live in this neighborhood, so that’s where they had the picnic, right there in an open field in the trailer park. There was a huge playground where the kids played. Almost all of the tearchers came. Everyone brought their own blankets and chairs to sit on and it was stress-free and fun! There were easily 300 people there and it made me so proud to work at a school that would do an outreach to families like that!

I wanted to share that to brag about J H House Elementary, but I also wanted to mention the mentor program they have there. It would be a cool thing for some of our adults at Crossroads to participate in! The program is mentor program but the kids and mentors refer to each other as “pals.” It’s open to teachers that work at J H House but also to the community. Anyone who loves kids, and passes a background check :), can be a PAL! I signed up for the program and met my PAL about 3 weeks ago and I already adore this girl! She is in the 4th grade and so sweet! She struggles in reading, math, and self-esteem. Every Friday I bring her ice cream money and eat lunch with her. Every two weeks 4th grade has what they call “Fun Friday.” If they have enough tickets, which they get for good behavior and lose for bad behavior, they get to participate in Fun Friday. My PAL, Sugey, always earns Fun Friday so we hang out during that time too. Right now we’re reading through a girly chapter book together. It gives her the chance to work on her reading and we have fun because the book isn’t one of the required reading books, but one that she and I pick out.

Sugey told me that she doesn’t get to have birthday parties anymore because she’s too old, at the age of 9. I disagreed, so for her birthday I’m planning a little party for her and a few of her friends in my classroom during lunch 🙂 I can’t wait!

Obviously being a PAL and hanging out with Sugey every week is a little bit easier since I work at the same school she goes to, but it’s also a little bit trickier because I had to work around both her and my schedule. The counselor, who runs the PAL program, asks that you spend at least 30 minutes with your PAL each week. Most of the mentors that aren’t teachers come to eat lunch with their PAL once a week. The students’ teacher fills out a information sheet on the child letting the mentor know in what areas the child struggles, everywhere from getting along with others, to home life, to math and reading skills. Most of all it’s really all about being a friend to the child though. Chances are that with a positive adult in their life who they can build a relationship with, some of those issues begin to solve themselves. As a mentor you’re not called to be a parent or spoil your PAL with gifts every time you see them, but just to be their friend! However, I am definitely adding a Christmas present for my PAL into our Christmas budget 🙂

Anyways, I just wanted to throw this information out there to all of the Moms at Crossroads who stay at home during the days and have the flexibility to come eat lunch with a kid once a week. Men are welcome too! There are several guys who come up to the school every week dressed in work clothes. I can only assume that they’re coming to eat lunch with their PAL during their lunch break.

There are several children on the waiting list for a PAL. Having a PAL is something that all the kids want, so the ones who get to have a PAL are always so proud and excited to show you off. You will feel so rewarded! If you’re interested or would like some more information, let me know and I will hook you up 🙂

Preschool Small Talk

Hey Preschool Parents,

First of all, I have to admit that I am a total slacker for not posting these at the beginning of the month.  Back in July, our preschool ministry began using a new curriculum.  Along with the new curriculum came new resources for you, the parents.  I hesitated in putting the resources out there because I knew there would be tweaks to what we were using, both on our end and the curriculum’s end.  Well, I think all of those things have been worked out, so at the beginning of each month, check out the blog to see the Small Talk cards for your preschoolers.  There are two different cards based on age, so make sure you pick the one for your child.  For the parent’s of children under 2, the Parent Talk card is really a parenting tought for you.  For parents of 2 to 5 year olds, there are 4 different activities you can use throughout the month to reinforce what we are teaching your children on Sundays along with the memory verse for your child.  You can use these activities individually or all together and as frequent or infrequent as you want throughout the month (although I would highly recommend frequently!).  As a parent, you are the primary person responsible for your child’s spiritual growth.  Yes, the church is there to help you out, but you get to spend so much more time with your child than we do, so make sure you are making the most of your time!  🙂

~Nicole Huff

Small Talk: 2s-5s

Parent Talk: under 2

::Our Awesome Small Group Leaders::

We have an awesome group of people who serve in CLUB 252! Everyone of them play an important part in making Sunday morning happen and are all appreciated. In an attempt to introduce you, in case you’ve not met before, to all the small group leaders who are leading your children on Sunday mornings, I’m going to dedicate a post to each and every one of them. If you as parents ever have spare time, and stationary, it would be super cool if you could drop your child’s sg leaders a note of encouragement. These are the people to partner with when discipling your child! How awesome if you decided you were going to nurture your child’s relationship with his or her small group leader knowing that there will be times when they won’t be willing to listen to you and will need another adult who can pour into them. The relationship between your child and their sg leader is definitely one you want your child having!!

Today I want to introduce you to Shawn Richards. She is such a great addition to our Children’s Ministry Volunteer Team!! She is a teacher at Sharon Elementary school and it shows. She is always so prepared and goes out of her way to make sure she has activities that the kids in her small group will love! She has always lead the Kindergarten/1st grade group and recently moved up to the 1st/2nd grade small group so that she could follow her group of kids through elementary school. She has such a cool connection with each of them! If your child is in her small group you probably get post cards from her sent to your house often 🙂

We love Shawn! And her two daughters, Karlee & Ashlyn, who are learning to serve just like their Momma. And her husband, Scott, for sharing her with us!

A lazy blogger and the neglected blog…

Okay, so sometimes I’m lazy about updating the blog and sometimes I’m just too busy. For the past two to three weeks it’s been a mixture of the two that kept me from updating. I would be sitting on the couch thinking, “I really need to update the Home Depot blog,” and then I would just continue sitting there playing with my new puppy. Then there have been the times when I go days without checking my Facebook or our bank activity on Wachovia online because I’m so busy. That should tell you a lot because those are my two most-visited websites!

I have a few things to post about, but of course, no time to do it right now. It’s 5am and time for me to go get ready for work. I just wanted to let the Home Depot blog and it’s readers know that I am still alive and kicking and so is the blog! Don’t give up on us!!