Adventures in Sunday School- Bieber to Bingo

Last Sunday (yesterday) was my last Sunday teaching my Second Grade class. I've had a really good year with these kids. Yes, some of them are boys. And they get a little rowdy at times (usually after we partake in a snack containing high fructose corn syrup or sugar!). But, they are a great group of kids. Whoever gets the opportunity to teach them Sunday School this year when they move up to the third grade class is in for a real treat.

We have had a TON of adventures over this past year. We have had all sorts of fun relay races and made some neat crafts. We've had some conversations about Jesus. And other strange, random topics that we won't discuss here. Like our conversations about Justin Bieber (who is apparently going through puberty according to at least one boy child. Try answering the "What's puberty?" question to a bunch of second graders at church. That's a fun one!). But yesterday, we had a pretty funny story, too.

As any proper Alabama citizen would know, the state of Alabama is currently arguing about gambling- and more specifically, electronic bingo. It's all a little ridiculous if you ask me, and I'm not going to get into the politics, but it's important that you non-Alabama people know that pretty much every time you turn the television to a local channel, you're going to see an ad that's either for or against electronic bingo. All of the kids in my class have seen these or heard their parents talk about the topic. And apparently, some of them have never played a game of Bingo at school (the good, old fashioned, you-win-candy kind. Not the illegal kind).

You see, as part of the lesson this week, we were to play a game of Bingo with words from this month's memory verse. So, I pass out the cards and the counters (which were sequins because that was all I could find in the cabinets. It's not like I keep peas and beans in there!) and I begin to explain the game. How I'm going to call out the word, they're going to cover it up, and when they get 5 in a row (across, up/down, or diagonal!) they should yell "Bingo!". And then it happened. A child (that shall remain unnamed here because I don't remember which one it was) asks me "Miss Lauren, but I thought bingo was ILLEGAL!" And I mean, we were at church and all so I could see his concern about doing illegal activities at church. And as I looked around my (tiny) classroom, I saw that the others were listening for my answer. So, I just told them that they weren't paying me (so they weren't gambling) and I was giving them free candy, so it was all okay. And they seemed to accept my answer and went along playing the game. After all, it was free candy. And they like candy.

And that's the end of this edition of Adventures in Sunday School.

Really, I'm thinking should write a book on this. It could be a bestseller.