Our 'Amish' Visitor

Earlier this school year I introduced my K- 3 students to Life with Lily, a book by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher. They were quickly drawn into the life of this little Amish girl and were excited with each chapter I read to them. I think part of the reason they love Lily and her family and friends so much, is that in many ways they can relate to them - can be indentified by the way they dress, help with farm chorus and live in tight knit Christian communities...

Right now we're enjoying the second book in this series, A New Home for Lily. And yes, they still love Lily. Besides savouring the story, I find these books are a great way for children to learn about the Amish culture and to compare and contrast it with their own.

As we're nearing the end of this book, I told my students last Friday, "We're going to have an Amish visitor around 2:00 today." Of course the first question was: "Is it Lily?" To which I had to reply 'no', of course. No matter, they were still very excited and kept watching the window and door. Just after I had finished reading a chapter from the Lily book, our 'Amish visitor' arrived.

All heads turned towards the door. Some were stunned for a few seconds, and some started laughing when they realized who it was. Our 'Amish visitor' was one of our grade six students dressed Amish. My sister, Elma, our principal acquired the dress from a girl at another colony, who had an Amish penpal at some point and got it as a gift from her.

I'm glad that we got the dress...it provided a fun little activity to do while reading a Lily book. We're all looking forward to book three!