Week 2 - Humanities

This lesson went WAY better than last week. We covered quite a lot of ground as we did most of what I'd left out last week AND this weeks two lessons.

We talked about belonging, belonging to a family, to a group, to a religion. Jonty has plenty of life experience to draw on in terms of groups he belongs to: OMF, taekwondo, JMC and Benjamaat Kindergarten.

In terms of family we caught up a bit with what we'd missed last week. Had a great time looking at photos. Comparing photos of Nick as a little boy with Jonty - pointing out differences and similarities. Also for "Dad". We put the photos into family groups - the Norvals, the Volkers, the Moggees, the Baxters, etc. He was very sure of who was who and who belonged where.

I also got a whole lot of photos of him from birth till recent (last photo was taken 2 weeks ago) and he had to put them in order. He loved that. He then also talked about development and how he's changed over the six years. He says the major changes are that he can talk and do maths and doesn't have to be carried around or wear a nappy anymore.

Then he made a kind of scrapbook, sticking in photos and writing a line or two about the family members in the photos. He did about 5 or 6 pages, but plans to do more over the next weeks. He's going to do this when he has the time and inclination. Its his project.

The discussions about religion were interesting. Obviously he has a good knowledge of Buddhism, but we looked at pictures of other religious groups - a Jewish synagogue, a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple... he was very interested in it all. I think he thought there was just Buddhism and Christianity.

He totally disagreed with the story we read as part of the lesson which said that you join the church when you get baptised. He informed me that he'll be baptised when he fully understands what that means, and he is still not sure, however, he loves Jesus and has "chosen" Jesus so he IS part of the church.

I asked him what "church" means - what do people do for church? - he says its when we get together, chat, sing some songs, and have a braai. I liked that!!!

The idea of infant baptism struck him as nothing short of ridiculous. A baby cannot possibly know what they are doing! "What's the point?" he asked.

He thinks he might get baptised when we are on Home Assignment.

We had made a flag from the previous lesson so we did not make badges, but he is keen to make a family badge so we might still do that as a craft.