Jul 28, 2014 | Nurture
Last month a 10-year-old girl passed this note of gratitude to a childcare worker in her after-school program. The worker explains:
I was sitting around a table with four children, preparing to act out a little play, when Destiny asked me a question about God. They all heard me answer her very simply.
I don’t remember the question, but she was so attentive to my answer that I went home, wrote out what I had said, and gave it to her next time I saw her. We had two or three more short interactions about God and three weeks later she wrote this note to me:
Not far below the surface of a 10-year-old girl’s chatter about boys, who’s wearing ugly clothes, and who hurt my best friend’s feelings lies a human spirit… open and longing for someone to care.
Jun 16, 2014 | Nurture
“I felt so beautiful that night. I loved the red carpet so much I went down three times. Everyone wanted my autograph and to take pictures with me.”
“It was the best!”
This from Julia, one of 425 honored guests from 70 schools at a special-needs prom in a California county. She has Williams syndrome, which causes cardiovascular disease, developmental delays and learning disabilities.
“At this event, everybody who goes to the prom feels like they are in the in-crowd,” says the mother of a young man with Down Syndrome. “Every child is treated as if they are the most important person.”
Prom-goers get the full treatment
From hairdos and makeup to flowers, jewelry, dresses, tuxedos, pictures and limo rides, everything is free, paid for by donors. “It feels like you are watching a fairy godmother experience. It’s something you never thought would happen in your child’s life,” says another parent.
It’s not just the students with special needs who benefit from the prom.
“It is the greatest feeling and most incredible experience I have ever had,” says a high school senior who was paired with a student with special needs. “It’s like any other high school dance– if you minus the awkwardness and multiply the happiness.”
“We don’t have a special-needs child in our family at all,” says one of the volunteers. “We were just so inspired by how wonderful it is. It is a lot of hard work and fund-raising, but every moment makes the effort worth it.”
We all love to dance. It brings out something in us.
“No matter how severe someone’s disability is, the music just speaks to them,” says Marci Boucher, executive director of the Society for Disabilities.
[Excerpts are from this USA Today article.]
Tweetable:
This prom has lots of dancing and no judgment. Click to Tweet
Mar 10, 2014 | Nurture
Children can hear about God almost every day. On the playground, at the park, at the zoo, basically anywhere people are talking: Oh my God. Oh God, no! Goddammit! I swear to God….
They are curious about this. Children want to talk about and ask about God.
Who is God? Why can’t I see God? Where does God live and is his mom there? How old is God? Is he a person? Was God born from an Easter egg?
Children ask questions, and they expect and respond to a God who cares, nourishes and feeds. It’s their natural instinct:
“When my pet cat died I wanted to know where my cat went, why she couldn’t come back, etc. I was completely satisfied with my parents’ answers of ‘She went to heaven; God is watching over her now.’ That’s when I realized there was some other higher being out there. I felt peace. I remember it distinctly. It was peace knowing that there was someone watching and caring for us that we couldn’t see or touch, but they were out there.”
“Around age four I was hungry to read stories from a large Reader’s Digest Bible Story Book that my Mom had ordered. We didn’t go to church so these stories were completely new to me. I was amazed and was so drawn by the stories read to me by my Mom and sister.”
Caregivers nurture the human spirit when, in responding to questions and comments about God, they convey God’s love, affection, warmth and tenderness for the child, despite any reservations of their own that they may have.
Tweets:
- Children have a natural instinct to ask questions about God. Click to Tweet
- Parents must respond positively to questions about God despite reservations. Click to Tweet
