Of paper beads and tweens

I had an opportunity to share a bit of creativity with some 8 to 12 year old girls at church. I'm of the opinion that you really do not know your subject until you can successfully teach someone else what you know and how to execute a skill. That was my challenge one particular night last October.....to teach these tweens how to make paper beads. I had a huge unused stash of scrapbook paper that I cut into long triangles. With paper triangles, bamboo skewers and white craft glue in hand, I was ready to educate these girls on the finer points of paper bead making. Some girls dove in, were enthused and ended up with some very nice beads. Other girls were equally enthused, but struggled with rolling the paper and finishing it with glue.....with a little bit of cheerleading and one-on-one instruction, these girls saw improvement in their technique with each bead. Then there were one or two girls that were not the crafty type and were not excited about the task at hand, but with some encouragement managed to roll up a few beads and didn't seem to hate it so much in the end. After the class, I had scores of paper triangles left just waiting to be rolled into beads. I spent several nights watching reality TV and rolling my beads. It made me wonder if the ladies in Uganda watch 'Dancing with the Stars' while they are making their beads.....probably not.