I miss Miss Joy, but Miss Joyska is funnier!

What? Hail in Kansas City? Sadly it is true. This morning it felt a little chilly outside, then coming back from a meeting there was hail pelting my head, now as i look out my window it is a nasty mixture of hail, rain, and dare I say it? snow. And on a day that I am missing my Winnipeg friends. I think God may have misunderstood, I said I was missing my friends... not the weather!! Ah, God always has a sense of humour.

This past Sunday was my first official take over of the 1-5 year olds (without any of the former leadership in the room) I have one little girl who is not pleased that Miss Joy is no longer teaching. She happens to be one of Dwayne and Jennifer Roberts children. She is 5 and very sweet on most days, but she certainly is not pleased by my presence. Here in lies my challenge! It's not very often that I come in to contact with children that don't really like me. It's not about being liked, cuz, ya know, that's not my goal; but when it does happen, there is something that rises up that says, "we'll see how long this lasts." She's a pretty tough cookie though. I took consulation from her aunt and uncle (Cheryl and Dale Anderson -- the leaders of INTRO to IHOP) when they said that she doesn't particularly like Dale either! I have a plan though, and began putting it into practice this past week.

It went something like this:

Joyska "so Chloe, what do you want to play with?"
Chloe -- silence
Joyska "are you busy or can you help me?"
Chloe -- slight turn of the head, but still silence
Joyska -- "i need someone to colour in these faces for me and make them
silly, but I guess I can do it."
Chloe -- still silent and walks away.

Okay, so it didn't turn her heart, but she looked at me, which was a start.

Then later it went like this
Joyska" Hey Chloe, do you know where the snack is?"
(I knew where it was, but I wanted her to help me)
Chloe "Yeah, why?"
(She spoke to me!!!)
Joyska " Well, I was hoping you could help me, because I am busy colouring these faces, and I need someone to get the snack -- ya wanna help?"
Chloe (after a long silence)"I used to help Miss Joy with the snack"
Joyska "Yeah, well then you are the most qualified to do it, you know how to do it best.. do you want to help me?"
Chloe (again silent for a bit) "Okay, but can I do it myself?"
Joyska "Sure, I'll just get it down for you, but it's a big job are you sure you can do it?"
Chloe "Yep, I KNOW I can"

I spent the next ten minutes watching Chloe, very carefully putting the snack into the cups and handing it out, then going back and filling all the other cups with water and handing those out. At the end I thanked her, and had all the kids thank her as well. When her dad came to pick her up, I heard her say as they were walking out... "I miss Miss Joy, but I think Miss Joyska is funnier"

I wasn't all that funny on Sunday, but somehow I broke through! Way too fun