VBS

By cheer luck, I found out that a local church was having an online version of their annual VBS program, and it looked like a lot of fun, so I decided to enroll Mr. and Mrs. E. It was easy to do and we quickly got more information on the mail. We were to pick up materials for the kids one day before it started. It really did look like a fun little something to do, but I didn't realize when I signed them up that it would be so amazing. I was surprised to find, when Q came back that Sunday afternoon, that this church had really gone all out. There was a family box with tons of information, Bible verse learning games, stuff for a fun family game night, snacks for every day of VBS, and markers, crayons, glue and other "basics" to be used throughout the week. Then there was also a personal bag for each of the kids with daily crafts. I'm not sure what I was expecting- something that would take 30 min daily, maybe? -but it was a wonderful surprise. I felt like we had chanced into a really close second, even if in-person VBS could not happen this year. This was really going to feel a lot like VBS.

So we cleaned house that afternoon and moved things around and got ready for VBS. There were actually tons of videos to watch on their FB page and a kickoff of sorts at the church, but in the end we watched the videos from a safe distance and had Quijote pick up the stuff. On Monday morning we woke up early and got dressed, had breakfast, and we were ready for a different kind of "school day" from what they've been doing this summer. The VBS program is called Concrete and Cranes and has a builder theme, so the organizers had a stage set up at the church, and there was music about Jesus being a strong foundation, and a few contests to participate in, and we all tuned in from home. There were two or three people in the morning rallies, and then they also had pre recorded videos of music, puppet shows, and story telling. I think this was a clever way to include lots of people in the videos without having lots of people at church each day. At home, we quickly got into a little rhythm. Watching half of that, then having a snack, then watching the other half, then going over the story and Bible verse, and finally doing all the crafts (usually 2 or 3 per child per day!) took us half the day every day. And the kids really really enjoyed it. There was a lot of dancing, and joking, and praying, crafting, and learning...

So that's the gist of it... Here are some pics :)