Playing with Clay

On a lovely Thursday afternoon, I got the opportunity to sit in on the Children Programming hour at Catherine's House which is one of the many services provided for the children living there.

      I wasn't sure what to expect going in to the House yesterday.  It was my first time and my nerves we definitely active. I knew I would be attending the Children Programming, but I had no idea what that meant beforehand. Sister Carmelita, who I mentioned before is the volunteer coordinator, let me in and introduced me to their intern Laura.

      Laura does multiple tasks as an intern for Catherine's House, including program evaluations, initial screenings and interviews with potential residents, and leading the Children's Program. (Learn more about Catherine's House here.  Learn more about the Diocese of Charlotte here).

      The program hosted two girls, both residents of Catherine's House with their mothers.  At 4:30 their moms came and signed them in and returned at 5:30 to pick them up.  The girls were fifteen and eleven years old.  Within that hour, Laura had an artsy activity planned for the girls to help them use their hands for creative expression. 

      The activity: clay molding.  Laura had packages of different colored molding clay and wrote a sign with questions to prompt the girls with ideas for their art project. 

Some questions were:

• What is something you would like us to know about you?
• What do you like to do?  What do you care about?
• Where is your favorite place to go? Where do you feel safe?
• What makes you feel happy? What do you love?
• What is something you like about yourself/your family?

      Let me just say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching these girls try and think of something to create out of the clay.  The eleven year old girl made a smiley face, lady bug, a large J, herself and a snail.  Laura helped her think of two really special things to make and she thought of a shoe and a house.  The shoe stood for something she likes about her family.  Her brother used to pick her up from school and they would walk home together and talk about their days.  The shoe represents their walks.  She also made a small house representing her house in Arizona where they moved here from.  At the end of the hour, she was so happy about all her clay creations.

      The fifteen year old girl made less creations, but put more thought into them.  She made a basketball, a flower and a flipflop.  For her two special things, she choose an eye, which is her favorite thing about herself, and a house representing her grandmother's house.  While each girl made the objects of their choice, they talked about different things they like to do. Both girls really enjoy being outside and being active.  The fifteen year old is on the basketball team and is usually unable to make the Children Program because of practice. The eleven year old girl really likes swimming and insects; she laughed at my responsive squeal! 

      It was a an incredibly relaxing and fun hour of playing with clay.  Laura did an incredible job asking the girls questions to stimulate their creative juices and get them thinking about themselves in a different way.  The program is every thursday afternoon and hopefully I will get a chance to spend it with these charming and funny young ladies. 

      Stay tuned for my interview with the intern Laura and pictures of the girls' creations!

                                                                       God Bless,
                                                                                Megan