Dear Metropolitan Families,
I want to wish a happy Holiday season to all of our families. This week is indeed a Holy Week with Passover and Easter. I know it is an unusual time, with many of us hosting virtual family gatherings and not being able to physically be near all of our loved ones or our places of worship. I wish you all warmth, joy and grace as we experience these important and meaningful holidays in a new way. I have included information from Rev. Janet below to let you know about the virtual options for celebrating Easter with National United Methodist Church.
Your teachers have sent out information about the week ahead. Please know we are working hard to figure out the best way to stay connected with our young students: no easy feat, given that almost all the materials we have to work with are generally considered developmentally inappropriate for our ages, but we are teaching in the time of Covid-19, and that requires some flexibility. We are trying to balance pre-recorded content that can be viewed at any time on the parent portal (PW:1920MNS), with scheduled activities, but please know that all of it is optional. Our goal is to support and stay connected, but not to over-burden you with meetings for your preschooler.
Next week, Catherine Tracy and I will host a parent coffee check in on Friday at 9:30 over Zoom (the invite for the meeting is below, PW:MNS). Our goal with this meeting is to give parents a chance to check in, let us know how it's going and if you need any specific suggestions or support at this time. We can also discuss any general parenting questions you may have. We understand if you have a child in your lap during the coffee, we'll aim to keep the topic light, supportive and safe for a child's ears.
The calendar for next week:
Please scroll down to see the invite for the Parent Coffee Zoom below and to see the note from Rev. Janet.
Wishing everyone health, safety, and happiness during this holiday season.
Warmly,
Kristen Maxson, Director
Calendar Invite to Parent Coffee Check In
Note from Rev. Janet:
Our worship services are all streaming at https://nationalchurch.org/live-stream . They are actually all pre-recorded, so they can be viewed at any time. In addition to the Sunday services, there are services for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter vigil, plus devotional Fridays with Pastor Ali, and Sunday school classes with me.
The Sunday worship services all include a children's message from me, usually within the first 10 minutes of the beginning. There's also a lot of wonderful music, and some of the music was filmed in the sanctuary so the children would be able to see their chapel space.
I am recording Godly Play Sunday school lessons. Godly Play is a Montesorri-derived Christian education program in which we simply tell the Bible stories and then invite the children to "wonder" about their deeper meaning. "I wonder how it felt to wave palm branches when Jesus rode by?" etc. The nursery school children will recognize elements of chapel in the Godly Play lessons, especially the candle lighting and extinguishing ritual. The Sunday school lessons are also posted on the https://nationalchurch.org/live-stream page (look for the purple thumbnail photo of my cat nestled into the Godly Play supplies!)
https://www.facebook.com/nationalmethodistchurch/videos/220371692381168/ Preparing for Easter with Rev. JanetA message from Rev. Janet for our preschool friends about preparing for Easter.www.facebook.comI hope that helps. Let me know if you need more info. Stay healthy!Janet