Sister Christiana Marie, SMMC
When I first began in the Atrium, I was an untrained assistant; as time progressed and I received my Level 1 formation, I was relaxed because I had an experienced Sister serving as lead catechist. However, a year after completing my Level 1 formation I found myself in the scary position of lead catechist.
My first year as a lead catechist, I worried about how to start the Atrium year and how to introduce brand new children to the Atrium. I had no idea how to prepare the children or parents and I could only be thankful that there were few children for whom this was a new experience. That first year, I decided to bring the new children one at a time for a couple of weeks until they were all introduced to the Atrium. Years later, with the increased number of new children, I found that the one child at a time model was not a possibility. Instead, I decided to do away with orientation opportunities and everyone started cold on day one, that led to what I began to call “holy chaos”. While the “chaos” settled over time, it was clear to me that bringing children into the Atrium with no introduction was definitely not the way to go; so I needed to find a way to balance my limited availability with the children’s needs.
Over time, I began to see the benefit of introducing new children to a normalized environment, so I implemented previews. Previews were an opportunity for parents who anticipated enrolling their three year olds in the Atrium in the coming year to have them join the Atrium community for the last 30-45 minutes of session toward the end of the year. It was perfect! It meant I didn’t have to do too many introductory sessions and would not have to worry about having a cold start of a first session. However, while that was a great solution, it wasn’t enough; preview worked for most of the children, but there were others who still needed the one on one introduction to the Atrium. This was yet another transformation opportunity for me in the method of Catechesis of The Good Shepherd.
I knew the importance of following the child, I was even applying that philosophy! Yet I still needed to recognize that following the child was not just a matter of responding in the Atrium but doing so even before the child entered the Atrium community. It was important for me to be aware of the family dynamics, is this child an older sibling or a younger sibling? How does he relate to others? How is he in new situations? Being aware of the answers to these questions were in many cases necessary so that I may know how to best serve the individual child. In Chapter 7 of the book Nurturing the Whole Child (an update of the book Listening to God with Children), Gianna Gobbi speaks of the need to get to know the families as part of the preparation of the adult; with every New Atrium Year I am finding that the reality is there is no set way to begin the Atrium year; the one constant we can be sure of is the need to take time to get to know the child we will be serving in the Atrium by getting to know his family, his particular needs and interests, his struggles etc.
In preparing to welcome new children this year I offered multiple 1-hour sessions for up to 5 children with their parents to come tour the Atrium. This gave children the opportunity to see the space, get to know other children and work with some materials; in the case of children with older siblings in the Atrium, they had the opportunity to explore the space with the older sibling so that both siblings could be oriented to independent work. Parents also had the opportunity to tour the Atrium environment, ask questions and express any concerns about their child(ren) in the environment. After completing the 6th orientation I felt like we were on “good footing” to begin the first week.
There is nothing perfect on this side of the veil but I think I might be on the way to finding a balanced solution to the need to properly introduce Level 1 children to the Atrium.
I would love to hear from you! What has been your experience and practice for introducing new children to the environment? What adjustments have you made? How do you begin your Atrium year? Comment below, I and your fellow catechists would enjoy hearing what you do.
Sister Christiana Marie is a professed member of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church, a Catechist and CGSUSA Level 1 Formation Leader. Sister Christiana Marie currently serves children in Levels I, II, and III and as the Coordinator for Religious Education at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Spokane, WA
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