My Awana Girls!

I finally have some pictures! Every now and then, I make references to Awana or something. For those who don't know, Awana is a church ministry to kids from 3-12 year olds. There are three divisions, Cubbies (3-4 year olds), Sparkies (5-8 year olds), and TNT (9-12 year olds). I'm a Sparkie leader. The Sparkies and TNT's mainly memorize verses. All of the Sparkie kids are divided up into groups of four or five kids, as are the TNTs. Oh, and the boys and girls in both Sparkies and TNT's are split up. =) I have a group of four wonderful girls! I absolutely LOVE to teach, so I LOVE Awana! It's the highlight of my week! Anyway, last week, I took some pictures of my girls. =D

From left to right: Rhema,(pronounced 'Raim-uh) Donna, Mcayla, and Vianca (Vee-on-kuh) I know, my spelling of the pronunciations are a little weird, but you get the idea. Aren't they cute? Yes, Rhema is a bit of a handful, she's the one with the big mouth!

This is Donna. She's very proud of the progress that she's made in her book, as you can see. She is very sweet and funny! Our church has a bus ministry for Awana, and that's how she comes. =D

*sigh* This is Rhema. When she first came to Awana and was put in my group, she was extremely shy! Well, that has changed. She's very hyper, but also very quick at memorizing. She has finished all of her books twice! Yep, she's quite impressive. But she's always trying to goof off, which is why she sits slightly apart from the other girls. =) She's the only one that isn't in second grade, so she's the only one of mine that won't be moving to TNT in a couple of months. =( =( =( I will miss the others soooo much!

This is Vianca. She is such a sweetheart! She's fun, yet sweet. She is also a good memorizer, but she is a bit demoralized by Rhema's progress, as are the rest of the girls. But I am still so happy to have her in my group!

This is Mckayla. She can be a bit of a handful, but most of the time, she behaves. She wants to help everyone else memorize, which is nice, but she needs to memorize her own verses! lol

Vianca and McKayla. They are in the same class in my church's Christian school. In fact, we use their 2nd grade classroom for my group. =) They really want a picture together.

And then Donna wanted a pic with the popular Vianca. =D

My girls and I have a lot of fun together every Wednesday night. I am most definitely not a strict teacher! Haha, no way! As long as the girls aren't too loud and they learn their verses, I let 'em talk and walk around. Yes, I have gotten many frowns of disapproval, but my girls have the most memorization points in the Sparkie division. Not that I can take any credit for that. =D But I am a natural weirdo, and they have never seen an "adult" act like I do. When Donna finally learns a hard verse that she has been struggling with, I do a victory dance on the floor. When Rhema is being particularly trying, then I put her in an arm lock or put my hand on top of her head and smack my hand. It makes me feel better. When Vianca's birthday arrived, I took the girls on a pilgrimage to the Coke machine and I bought them all drinks. And when McKayla learns five passages at a time and says them all together, then I add a couple of points to her score. And one time, we all had a sing-a-long. We sang "Fireflies", by Owl City. LOL We all have a lot of fun, and it warms my heart when I hear them say that they don't want to move up to TNT and have another leader.