Soccer World Cup fever has started to take over all aspects of our lives here in South Africa. Everywhere you look there is something to remind you that very soon we will be hosting our very first Soccer World Cup. Some see the world cup as a good opportunity to show the world what a beautiful country we have and how we've started to overcome our differences of the past. Others have seen it as an intrusion and bad use of the tax payers money. Our co-op was hosted by a mommy who had previously thought that it would have been best if we weren't hosting, until her heart was changed by a presentation she attended. At this presentation she learnt about how others are using the World Cup as a positive way of encouraging and building others up. She shared this with us after her lesson for the children-a lovely testimony of how our hearts can be changed to see that God has a hand in everything that happens around us and can use it all for His good purpose!
After a little intro about soccer and a few rules about which body parts are allowed to be used in the game she discussed how different countries would be visiting our country to play soccer. The children learnt why we have flags and how they are used to represent each country. She pointed out how many of the flags are made up of different shapes and asked the children to identify the shapes.
We then went outside to get rid of some energy playing games.
In the final activity the children had to use different shapes to construct flags from the different countries playing in the World Cup.
It was like building a tangram puzzle! Our flag proved to be quite challenging but Jenna and Rachel took on the challenge and successfully completed the task! :-) Well done girls!
When I watch my children play I often see what has impacted them the most in their daily lives. Sometimes we read a story or watch a dvd and a few days afterwards I'll hear them acting out the story line as they play together. Anyone who peeked over the wall that afternoon would have caught a glimpse of this....
and this....
they had dragged some old fencing from the veggie garden (which is in need of much care!) and made their own soccer game!
And when the game was over they had loads of fun playing good old chase!
All in all-I'd say the World Cup Soccer scored a goal in all our homes that day, thanks to a very willing mommy who opened her heart change!
