Tuesday SOL 9/18/18 - Getting Exciting with some apprehension

Thursday will be the beginning of the 4th year of our church's After School Mentoring Program.  The first year we tested our feet (minds) with working with 8th & 9th graders.  It was a successful first year, but we had to rethink what we felt comfortable in assisting the kids.  So the 2nd year we opened the program to 8th and 3rd graders.  We felt it too was successful, although we worked mainly with 3rd graders.  We found our knitch.  The 3rd year started off with no one signing up in the fall, but we persevered and tried again in January.  We had 12 sign up, but only 8-10 showed every week.

When the kids arrive, we have an "active" activity to play followed by a snack and then off to our mentoring.

We revamped our format last year.  In the first two years we worked one-on-one with the students helping with reading, writing, math or whatever they needed help with for a full hour.  Last year we decided to break it up into three 20-25 minutes sessions - mentoring, working on tablets and learning a craft or game.  This was widely accepted by the students and the volunteers.

So this, our fourth year, we are keeping the same format, but are opening the program up to 3rd & 4th graders.  We sent a letter to the teachers and counselors, talked with the new principal and sent the application home with the students.  That was two weeks ago.

The applications came back slowly at first, but as of yesterday we have our maximum capacity of 18 - nine 4th graders and nine 3rd graders.  So this Thursday after school, we open our doors and welcome these 18 kids.  Our volunteers are excited, ready and willing.  Our cooks are prepared to make some delicious snacks and dinner for the students and their families.

We initially prayed that God would bless us with "enough" students and volunteers.  Now we pray that He will be with us as we work with these students and their parents to make this a fun learning time.