In the Classroom

School is back in session and Brother Fox is back in the classroom...his very own classroom!

Official Name plate and everything! 

 

He spent hours and hours this summer coming up with his room design and creating all the walls you see here. 

Take a minute to admire them. 

Seriously though.

 Like a full minute please because what you don't see pictured here are things like a 25 year old man trying to figure out how to work a cricket scrapbooking machine and climbing on top of desks while on crutches.

Read a few quotes, notice some details.

Great, thanks.


If you can't tell they are studying the New Testament this year. After three long months of pouring over Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John alone in his office for 8 hours each day he is pretty excited to get to talk to someone else about it!


I wish I could fill you in on some hilariously juicy details from his first week of school, but unfortunately I am not there to witness any of it. I just get the dinner time report where he tells me his kids say things like
 "You're looking nutritious today, Brother Fox."
Excuse me? Nutritious? Is this some like "YOLO" word trend we missed out on because we are old fogies now, or can I feel comfortable laughing out loud at it?


Luckily I don't have to miss out on all the classroom fun because our latest adventure together is inside a classroom as well:

Teaching Primary

Primary is Sunday School for the kids at church. Our church is 3 hours long, first we have Sacrament meeting (which is kind of like mass, or "big church" ) where we are all together and then we split up for the second two hours into Sunday school classes. For the kids ages 3- 11 years old "Primary" means an hour of singing and an hour of lesson time.

For us "Primary" means church just got SO. FREAKING. FUNNY.

 I now spend my Sabbath mornings making home made playdough and writing clues for treasure hunts... hello? Would you sit in Relief Society over that? We are in junior primary which is the kids ages 3-7 so the lessons we teach are usually super simple concepts, things like "Remember to say Thank You" and "I Can be Kind." They are based on a couple of scriptures in the New Testament where Christ demonstrates that quality. Last week however they decided to throw in a doosey for us. The lesson topic was:

" I will Obey the Law" 

 It focused on obeying the laws of the land and was based on the story in the New Testament when the Pharisees ask Christ about paying taxes.  (Matthew 22: 21 "Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.")

I'm not sure when the last time was that you spoke to a 6 year old but let me tell you that taxes are not a popular topic in the first grade.

Our lesson went something like this:

Us: Raise your hand if you have ever heard the word "taxes".
Them: Blank stares.
One random kid: Ohhh me me me!
Us: Yes?
Him: Those are like the yellow cars and you drive them around and they take you anywhere you want to go!
Us: Uh...Actually that's a taxi, close though. Anyone else ever heard of taxes?
Them: More blank stares.
Us: Okay, raise your hand if you know what tithing is?
 (All hands go up)
Them: Its money we give to the church
Us: Good! So tithing is money we pay to Jesus to help with his church. A tax is money we pay to our government to help keep everyone safe. When Jesus was alive the leader of his government was named Caesar. Who is the President of our government?
Them: President Monson!
Us: Uh...Well actually he is the President of our church... but who is the President of our country?
Them: More blank stares...
The smart kid: Barack Obama
Us: Right!
Them: Oh we do not like him. 
           Yeah, He does bad things.
           Yeah we go for ROMNEY!

 Us: Dying laughing. 



Us: Uh.... okay, time to play red light green light!

Well maybe we need to work on our teaching skills a bit... but hey the "Love One Another" lesson this week went much smoother! Its a work in progress.


LOVE those darling kids.