The Leiningers: Joy School in December

I have to say--I have loved Joy School this year for Dane. I think it was the perfect thing for him for this year, two years before he goes to kindergarten. He has a regularly scheduled activity with his friends, and these are three kids we see each week at church and at playgroup too, so they are three of his best little friends. I am going to be sad to have it end, because he gets so much fun out of it. However, it is definitely not academic at all--which I have loved for this year, but I think he will REALLY love learning some new things at a real preschool next year. So we've decided to put him in a regular preschool somewhere around here, although we haven't decided where since they are all ridiculously expensive and have weird schedules that don't work for me. But for this year, Joy School has been perfect. And December has been a great month for Joy School.

I organized a couple of Christmas-oriented service activities for this Joy School kids this month. I was inspired by the "Light the World" video that came out that weekend and thought doing some meaningful small projects would be more manageable for me than feeling pressure to do something every single day. I found out that Frisco Family Services does service projects for small kids, ages 4 and up, and I emailed the lady in charge and asked her if we could participate from home somehow. We filled stockings with toys and things for kids in the community that wouldn't get any. I tried really hard to talk to them about helping these other kids and they were so cute and happy to do it.

Dane helped me deliver the stockings to Frisco Family Services.

I also got the idea to decorate Christmas cards for the residents of the senior center right outside our neighborhood. A friend in our ward said she did that with her kids a few years ago, and I thought it would be perfect to do with Joy School. We needed 50 cards though, and I thought that might be a little much for our four little kids. So I organized a party for our ward playgroup, asked all the kids to decorate a card or two, and then we decorated cookies. It was a fun, cute activity for the kids, and we ended up with all the cards we needed to deliver!

Then, at Joy School, we walked down the street to the senior center, brought the cards, and handed them out to the residents as they ate lunch. It was so very sweet. The residents were so nice and happy to get the cards, and they thought the four kids were so cute. And each of the four kids were so sweet handing out the cards. We practiced having them each smile and say, "Merry Christmas!" when they handed out the cards. It was a VERY sweet activity for them. I loved it. I would love to do this each year.

And then! The true highlight of the Christmas season this year for me was the Joy School program. They acted out the Nativity scene, and did an amazing job. I was so amazed. They each had parts, and lines, and did a great job walking to their spots and saying what they were supposed to. It was absolutely adorable. My friend Amanda had these life-sized hand-painted animals that her aunt painted for a live Nativity back in California, and a lighted star, and it was a beautiful warm night in their backyard--it was so perfect. After the Nativity they sang a few Christmas songs and did a great job on that too.