We’re Growing! Our Church School student body is growing.  During November we welcomed Peter, Paul and Joseph, the children of Rostyslav and Julia Shiller, and Olena, the daughter of Sergiy and Lyuda Volshyn. Late last Spring we welcomed Konstantin and Daniel, the children of Inga Hamilton.  We now have 19 students regularly attending Church School and we are often blessed with a few visitors.  And we are looking forward to the toddlers in our midst who will be ready to join the Pre-K and Kindergarten class next year.

Church School Theme: The Church School Theme this year is “Follow Me” which is woven into the weekly lesson plans. How better to prepare our children to follow the Lord than to send them to Church School.

Current Curriculum:

Our pre-K and Kindergarten children are learning their ABCs. Each week the lesson focuses on a bible story and activities beginning with a different letter of the alphabet.

How can we learn to follow the Lord if we do not know Him?  Confession is learning to talk to God and to Jesus. The children attending the Confession Preparation Class will take their first confession next spring.  The content for this class is aimed for the early elementary school student but is open to any child who has not yet taken their first confession.

Would we follow Jesus as St. Andrew did? Or would we hesitate?  The Upper Elementary and Lower Middle School Class is currently studying Old Testament prophesy of the coming Messiah. We are using the “The Scribe” developed by the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Education Department.  What was it that Jesus said to the disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection that opened their eyes to his true identity as the awaited Messiah? In this series of news articles written during the time of Jesus, the Scribe, the scripture scholar, begins to see relationships with the past for Jesus words and actions.

If you were a teenager now, would you be able to follow Jesus?  What was considered socially unacceptable only a generation ago, be it behavior, television advertising, music lyrics and language usage, is now common place. The teenage class is presented weekly with short vignettes addressing real life questions that confront our youth with real life answers.

Arts and Crafts: In addition to the weekly lesson, numerous arts and crafts projects are planned throughout the year to coincide with special Feast Days and Holidays.

Teaching Staff: With the growth of the church school, we have had to increase our teaching staff.  Barbara Kosogof volunteered to teach the First Confession Class and Madelen Melnychenko volunteered to teach the Pre-K and Kindergarten class. Desirée Melnychenko teaches the Upper Elementary and Lower Middle School class and a special thank you is extended to David Zaika who teaches the Teenagers. David has been teaching Church School at St. Andrew for 10 years.

Please send to Desiree at demelnychenko@verizon.net.

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