On a very Fine VBS, OR, How to entertain 4 year olds thru 6th graders for a week and have them come back every day.

My grandson, God love him, can be a pill. Not malicious, and not the loudest or shortest attention span by any means. But mix some of that with him and he's a whirlwind! James is 7 and always quick to calm down when you call him on it. Not so with some others.
There are the quiet ones too. Two little boys, twins, looked about 7 or 8, never said a word all week. I saw them staring at the videos with little kids singing and do hand motions and saw them barely moving their hands but not singing. I have to wonder about them. Their mom seems very nice and personable.
Some of the little girls and boys were just sweetness personified.
Some of them need a swift kick.

One boy who obviously is ADHD and generally a happy kid taught me a little though.

I can understand when he occasionally hollers in frustration, or suddenly takes off running around the room. I often feel that way myself.

But I learned that they can also be willfully disobedient in a calm, thoughtful kind of way. That's when I get a little ticked. I know he is genuinely ADHD and that probably has some effect on his disobedience, but I've seen him obey and then later disobey and I think he can control that. And I'm not above getting in one's face at times like that.

I also have a tendency to sarcasm which I know is lost on the little ones. When a boy who always likes to show us how smart he is and talk louder than everyone else suddenly doesn't know something, I act aghast. "WHAT you don't know this?" I know, I know, doesn't help.

A couple of the "little" girls are nearing middle school age and truly becoming young ladies. They don't tend to be the ones wearing Hannah Montana everyday. But sweet, demure, thinking, and processing, and closer to adulthood. Quite delightful.

Then there's the spiritual side of things. Many kids SO want to please their teachers. They can be very spiritual. Is it possible that in trying to please teachers they can be more open to the urgings of the Spirit? I think maybe so. I don't doubt that the Spirit can do as He pleases even with the less compliant but compliance isn't a bad thing right?
And then you see a couple of kids who seem to be moving beyond that level. I can;t know but when a little girl says, "I believe in God and all that but I haven't ever really given my life to Him and I want to be sure I'm a Christian." You have to think just maybe that's God at work on her heart and mind. Its rewarding! Cause this VBS stuff is a lot of WORK!