WC Academy: Housekeeping Basics

Lynley Jones of Asbury UMC in Lafayette, Louisiana is a KidMin Ninja and incredibly creative in how she shares Jesus with little people. Thanks to this dear colleague who shared pictures and her organizational tricks with me, WC Academy started the first of four life skill classes for 1st-5th graders. WC Academy is a free community outreach of WCKids. We created the event on Eventbrite for free registration and to gather information of ages, names, and emails for a Friday night 6-7:30pm.

5pm: Volunteers arrived for training and set up (needed every minute of it)

6-6:10pm: Arrival games in the Children’s Hallway

6:10-30pm: Amazing volunteers (3 middle school youth and 3 adults) introduced themselves and told an interesting fact about themselves. We then welcomed and gave instructions.

6:30pm: Students received packets of handouts (all found on pinterest and noted below) to be used at each station and began rotating every 10 minutes.

After the 3rd rotation, we gathered for hot chocolate and I shared the story of Jesus making the Leper clean from Mark 1:40-42…including the shouting of “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!” Jesus makes us clean on the inside. Then we finished the last two rotations.

7:15pm: Huddled to give testimony about what we learned, favorite station, and what we can’t wait to demonstrate as soon as they get home. Handed out certificates (what’s an Academy without certificates?) and celebrated with an all-hands-in cheer at dismissal.

Folding Clothes Station: My adult daughter does this ninja-tshirt-folding-thing and sock-roll that totally amazed each student. Yep…one of their favorite stations. We received texts from parents later that night about students teaching their parents how to properly fold clothes! Supplies: kid sized tshirts and white tube socks.

Dusting/Sweeping Station: Set up in the corner of the room with a little baby cornstarch (with lavendar for obvious reasons) and Lego bricks to dust. Then to sweep up what fell on the floor. A huge mess by the end of the night, but with all the wet towels and washcloths from the dishwashing station, the students cleaned up the floors pretty well. Supplies: Baby Cornstarch, a few Lego bricks, 2 brooms, washcloths.

Bed Making Station: Set a twin top mattress on a long table and had the Eagle Scout teach how to make the bed with hospital corners. Interesting fact: Not one of our kids knew the bottom sheet was called a ‘fitted sheet.’ Supplies: twin top mattress (put out a request on facebook), mattress cover/case, top sheet, fitted sheet, pillow, pillow case.

Dishwashing Station: Learned the order in which dishes should be handwashed and how to load a dishwasher. We used a single sink and a dish drainer. Supplies: Dish drainer, bowl, silverware, 2 glasses, saucer, washcloths, dish detergent, gloves.

Ironing Station: Set up two ironing boards in an adjacent room with irons on lowest setting and ironed a washcloth first. Using the directions in the packet, students ironed a dress shirt and hung it on a hanger. Supplies: 2 ironing boards, iron, hangers, two dress shirts, 2 washcloths.