From The Director, Kathy Irvin:
October 2006
Another school year begins and the halls of Kenilworth Union Church are once again filled with the voices of children and parents. The "Noise" is back. As I sat in church this past Sunday listening to my father's sermon, surrounded by fellow worshippers, I was filled with gratitude for our A Joyful Noise community. With so many quality preschools on the North Shore, why send children to church, to preschool at KUC? Like other schools the teaching staff at AJN is knowledgeable about the needs of young children and their development. Classes are planned with time for play, exploration, stories, art, socialization, large and small motor movement, and music. So why do we come, teachers, children and parents? I can only speak for myself, about what I observe, and what I think we need on this journey.
Parenting is the most rewarding, demanding, exciting, exhausting, joyful, confusing, overwhelming experience in life. We can strive for perfection in almost every area of life but parenting. It just doesn't exist. And trying to perfect our children, from the womb to college, is an exhausting, stress filled 18 years with unknown results. At AJN, at church, we believe that each child is a gift from God, just as they are. Here we delight in watching them unfold in their own time, God's time, with their own very unique gifts. Deep down, on sleepless nights, we know that no matter how hard we try to control the environment, we are ultimately not able to secure their future. Hopefully we learn to place our faith in our God who is traveling through these years with us. Hopefully we learn to hand over our children, trusting that there is a plan that we do not know.
And, I think we need AJN and our church, because parenting is impossible to do alone. At least I believe that community, where families support and lift each other up, makes for much happier families, happier days. When we are too self-focused, caught up in comparing, pushing to be more, we struggle. But when we follow footsteps much larger than our own, we find moments of joy. It is easier to get out of bed when we know we are heading to a place that values the children and the parents, where we know that we can be just - us. At AJN we are journeying together.
My hope is that we create this kind of community for every family that comes through our doors. These moments of community may be just a smile or a word or a listening ear, but they fill us up and help us face all of our parenting hours. You may never know when you have provided someone around you with a moment of joy. Never doubt the plans He has for you.