We are officially into the Christmas Season! Ho ho ho! This is a season of hope, anticipation, love and joy! This is a season of decorating, lights, parties.
Christmas is both a secular and a religious celebration in the United States. Feel free to join in all celebrations! Attend concerts and programs, attend church services, shop holiday bazaars, walk and drive holiday light displays. CLC and other churches host events that celebrate the season. Attend worship services to see how American Christians celebrate this holy day.
Living Nativity at CLC Fishers: December 14, 5:30-8:00
Cookies, Crafts and More at CLC Carmel: December 14, 9:00-11:00
Secular: Not religious. Everyone can enjoy the 25 day countdown to Christmas. Find an advent calendar. Fill the space with small gifts or messages of hope, love, peace and joy. Our children gave us a wonderful "advent calendar" of a bottle of wine to be opened each day. The 25 Days of Christmas wouldn't be complete without the TV programs and movies that make Christmas holidays merry. Newsweek has this list with dates and times on the Freeform TV (I. The Hallmark Channel on cable TV is another great place to get ready for Christmas and learn about the season and American traditions and culture.
Religious: Christians began advent countdown on Sunday, December 1. Advent church services are held on Wednesday evenings (CLC services begin at 7:00 PM or at 12:00 noon for folks who don't want to get out after dark). Pick up a devotional book that gives thoughtful and heartwarming messages for the 24 days of advent. The message: get ready! God's message: I love you so much I am sending my Son to live on Earth.
Learning Tips:
There are four stages of mastery of a skill or ability:
Imagine driving a car.
- Unconscious Incompetence: You are a passenger and don't know any thing about driving or that driving is even a possibility (and usually are ok with that).
- Conscious Incompetent: When you first sit behind the wheel, you are aware that you don't know enough to get the car started and on the road.
- Conscious Competent: A way to feel this again is to sit behind the wheel of someone else's car. You can drive but not confidently and without thinking. Where are the lights? Were is the parking break.
- Unconscious Competence: When you get back behind the wheel of your car and it is an easy or mindless. You can tune the radio and flip on the wipers (not the turn signal) while driving without looking or even thinking.
Where are you in your language learning? I know that no one is in the first stage since you are meeting with us! Realize that you can bounce between stages as you grow in your skills. Back to the car analogy: you may learn how to drive, but then you have to learn to drive a stick shift, then you have to learn how to drive on the opposite side of the road when you visit another country, then you have to learn how to drive roundabouts (by the way, no one ever achieves Unconscious Competence on roundabouts!).
Understanding these stages helps us to get unstuck and move on to the next level or recognize when we need to step back and add to our skills. Keep learning and growing! All levels are great places to be as long as you recognize where you or others are. As teachers, parents, managers or adults, this helps model helps us to communicate. What level is the other person you are talking to about the subject you are talking about? How can you help bring them up to speed?
floating Yoga Class: Wednesday, December 11, 10:00-11:00, email for address and to RSVP
We had a great first yoga session. Stretching. Strengthening. Starting the day all over again in a relaxed state of mind and body. Our floating class (an event that is scheduled at different times and/or locations) will be Wednesday, December 11. Please email to RSVP if you plan to attend and for the address. If you are interested in participating, but are not able to attend at this time, please email us.
Understanding these stages helps us to get unstuck and move on to the next level or recognize when we need to step back and add to our skills. Keep learning and growing! All levels are great places to be as long as you recognize where you or others are. As teachers, parents, managers or adults, this helps model helps us to communicate. What level is the other person you are talking to about the subject you are talking about? How can you help bring them up to speed?
floating Yoga Class: Wednesday, December 11, 10:00-11:00, email for address and to RSVP
We had a great first yoga session. Stretching. Strengthening. Starting the day all over again in a relaxed state of mind and body. Our floating class (an event that is scheduled at different times and/or locations) will be Wednesday, December 11. Please email to RSVP if you plan to attend and for the address. If you are interested in participating, but are not able to attend at this time, please email us.
International Bible Study: Tuesdays, 9:30-10:30, room 100.
In Mark 4:1-20 Jesus teaches the people by telling a parable, that is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. A farmer plants seeds by throwing them, but they land on different places (hard path, rocky soil, weedy soil, and good soil), and some seeds grow faster and stronger than others. Jesus explains the parable in a master class. God plants the seed of his Word in people’s hearts. Some hear it, accept it, and produce good things in their lives: loving God and others. Others struggle to grow in their faith. Don’t worry! God keeps planting the seed!
December 10: Lessons and Carols. Did you miss the service? Join us in the chapel for this special event.
December 17: Let's read the story of the first Christmas in Luke (another biography of Jesus).
International Friends: Tuesdays, 10:30-11:30, room 100.
We made ornaments out of card stock and circles. I had trouble explaining how to make an equilateral triangle. Getting bogged down in geometry got in the way of the whole process. With crafts, it is often better just to wing it!
December 10: Let's bake Christmas cookies in the gym kitchen. Bring your mixer, apron, cookie cutters. Cost to cover materials is $3.00 per person. We will make gingerbread, sugar cookies, thumb print cookies, snickerdoodles, Russian teacakes, press cookies...We will have a cookie walk and take home our work.
Conversation: Wednesdays, 4:30-6:00, upstairs classroom.
We had great conversations about auto accidents and dealing with insurance including liability and deductibles. We checked the law about international driver's licenses in the U.S. and particularly Indiana. Federal law says that you must hold a valid driver's license to drive but the laws by state vary. Indiana BMV, your license from another country needs to be in English and does not count as valid personal identification. If your license is in a language other than English, you must have a valid translation of the document.
We very briefly talked about selecting English names, context and associations. Here is the link to the Daniel and the lions Bible story.
December 11: Join us as we begin talking about holiday programs in the area. Do you have a topic you want to talk about? Please bring it!
December 18: Join us. Should we take a joyride and see the Christmas lights?
English Classes: Thursdays, 9:30-11:30, upstairs classrooms.
I loved having a moment to pop by each of your classes. Please join us for Cookie Day.
December 12: It is never too late to join us
December 19: Join us for our last class of the year!
English for Kids: Thursdays, 9:30-11:30, the Brides' Room/Nursery
We have a great agenda for the month of December. We started with the classic Frosty the Snowman. Watch the full show here on YouTube. Sing Frosty the Snowman along with the kids karaoke style.
CLC gave our children a gift of Advent stories to read and a nativity set to make. These are available from the church for everyone.
December 12: Christmas Trees!
December 19: Join us for our last class of the year!
merry: happy, joy filled
Folks: people
mastery: being able to so something well
behind the wheel: sit in the driver's seat of a car; prepare to drive; drive
stick shift: a car with manual transmission
up to speed: operating at the same level as everyone else
Word: in this case the Word has special meaning; the Bible explains in John 1: 1-5
Master Class: taking a class from a professional to learn special tips and techniques to improve knowledge and skills in a field of study (a cello lesson from Yoyo Ma, for example)
illustrate: to make clear by examples or analogies
carol: a Christmas song or hymn
chapel: small church or worship space
bogged down: stuck, unable to move forward
wing it: just try and maybe fail
joyride: going in the car or vehicle for fun or steal a car (which do you think we will do?)
Jesus explains in a master class the reasons why
nativity set: a model used to illustrate the Christmas story
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