Session 16

Today was Valentines Day and the kids seemed very aware of this fact so I chose to tie a bit of that into the lesson; we each shared one thing we LOVE about our lives to start off the day. S1 loves that she has a good mom and dad, T loves her family, H3 loves his awesome time in Manadoob, L2 still loves the courage he showed to express his feelings to dad, and M listed the Club, Manadoob, and her family. I shared my love for my job and K chose to forgo sharing at this time.

We worked through chapter 22: Thankfulness, which many of the group thought would be more appropriate at Thanksgiving. Interesting that so much of a person’s feelings and habits can be tied to a holiday or any specific day for that matter. So we broke this habit and on Valentines Day, instead of Thanksgiving, chose to share about what we are thankful for in our lives. Everyone was very excited to finish their windsocks by adding several statements about these things and be able to take them home. It didn’t really surprise me when several group members chose to wear them instead as hats. All that candy was setting in and the group was feeling silly! I look forward to asking next week what became of the windsocks/hats after group.

It seemed very fitting to move on to chapter 23: Humor after the windsocks became hats. We brought out the Moobia stone Rahwa and H3 instructed us to “let it flow.” We thought about things that make us laugh and cheer us up when we are feeling down. Some of our experiences included a friend singing a funny song, tickling, helping animals, jokes, and taking time alone. We took in the moobiki hint and moved on to talk about judgment. As we read through the chapter there were gasps and sounds of surprise when Ga-loom shared his fear of being alone rather than intent to be scary. I loved this moment, and as we finished reading the group seemed content with this realization. After doing some reflecting we were all able to think of a time when we were maybe too quick to judge someone or something else. However, we instead shared how we had felt in the past when we had been judged by others. In short, it doesn’t feel good; we don’t like it, and agreed to give people and animals more of a chance before creating opinions and judgments such as those created about lonely Ga-loom.

We did a quick time check and chose to use the reaming few minutes to continue on reading with the hope of finishing chapter 25: Confidence and reading through chapter 26: Patience. We created a list together of the things our group felt helped Wella become more confident. Our list consisted of things like helping Zack, learning to express her feelings in a healthy way, the Moobia stones, facing her fear of Ga-loom and in return getting better rest, that Zack was nice to Wella, and doing better in school. Next week it will be one to chapter 26 and then one last session afterwards.

The group really enjoyed being able to explore their Moobia stones and seemed excited to read through several chapters throughout the day. We were able to make some great progress and all of the credit goes to the hard work and focus of our group. I notice I no longer need to ask for volunteers to read because before I get a chance members are asking me if they can first. I see the change in our group each time we meet, they have taken ownership of this group and often when they raise their hands and I call on no one, someone will whisper a reminder, “This is our group we don’t have to do that.” I started this earlier on because I don’t want to be seen only as the adult in the room, I felt it would be more effective if I was also a learner, working alongside them. This is not to say that I don’t step in and help facilitate at times and share the plan for the day but this small group is a great opportunity for each member to practice respecting one another and to be self monitoring in their sharing. Another aspect of this that I find helpful is that they stay engaged in the conversation, they cannot just raise their hand and check out, to know when to share they must be listening.