Have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes how much I love being in nursery?
I have fallen head-over-heals in love with every single one of the little munchkins in our ward. And, I can't wait to have more little ones come in!
I was called to be a nursery leader around September. I've never been in nursery, even when my kids were little. I've stayed to help or fill in when needed but never week after week.
After a few months it was my turn to teach. All of the leaders take a month that works well for them. Since I was the new person I watched for a while until I got the routine down. Last month is was my turn to teach. I missed a week so someone filled in. I figured I'd teach an extra week.
But . . . I LOVED IT!!!
So, I decided not to give the manual back. I've been teaching this month too. Why, because I love it.
On Sunday afternoon I look at next week's lesson. I read through it and jump on to the Sugardoodle website. (I adore this place.) There are fantastic ideas on there as well as coloring pages and clip-art. Monday and Tuesday I mull over the lesson and come up with a theme. I put this theme into the lesson, coloring page and *drum roll please* our activity. Let's be honest, in our group of 14 kids, there are probably 3 kids that can sit and color nicely for more than 7 seconds. We need an activity to occupy time instead of gettin out the toys again.
Our first week's theme was having a healthy body. I like to have the kids participate since it keeps them interested. I use file folder activities and have every child match one piece. This file folder had things that were healthy for our body. Then we sang a silly song about growing up. We sat down and pulled out the coloring page. I've found that simple pages are better. For the activity I made peanut-butter play dough that we molded (smashed) onto a paper with a body shape on it. Since it was made out of edible ingredients, we didn't sweat the 18mo babies eating it instead. Successful first lesson.
The second week we had a jelly bean theme. I couldn't find a file folder lesson so we posted paper jelly beans with pics them onto a big poster board. The kids got a jelly bean to eat after they had helped so nicely. Then came out the standard coloring page. I had put a poem relating jelly beans to family (thanks Sugardoodle) in a heart on a 2nd paper. We used white frosting as glue and put jelly beans around the heart signifying loving our family. We did have some paper licking and lots of jelly bean consumed but it was fun.
Since I got a feeling that my food activities weren't necessarily approved of I thought I'd switch it around a bit. The next week's theme was Prayer Bears. I found a cute file folder game on prayer and all the kids participated twice. We sang a song intended to use "teddy bear" but changed it to "prayer bear." Time for coloring page. I made 6in bears filled with wheat for each child. It was a good way to rotate 20lbs of wheat! For our activity we glued eyes and buttons on our prayer bears. This one was a huge hit! The next day at a basketball game one of the moms told me that her daughter hadn't put her prayer bear down. Ugh, melt my heart. (pic of prayer bear at the beginning of this post)
I still haven't given the book back and we're well into December now. I don't intend to either.
This week's lesson is on having a family forever. It took me a little while to come up with a theme for this one but I finally got it. Building blocks. My sweet husband is going to draw me a big picture of a temple on poster board for the lesson. After he so willingly helps I'm going to cut it up into squares (blocks). We'll build our temple and family. We'll have the same temple on our coloring page. Then, I've made a set of little wooden blocks for each of the kids so they can build their own family around the temple. I'm pretty proud of this one.
This week has been a week from hell. We've had no fewer than 3 activities for multiple children every night. Tuesday I was ready to throw in the towel. I had 145 basketball jerseys delivered to my house 2 hours before they had to be handed out. My daughters had a dress rehearsal and I was helping backstage. AJ was performing in the show. Dallon had a basketball game as well as Kason. Rob had home teaching appts during this time. When all the kids were in bed and I looked at the homework I had to correct I knew I needed a little time out. I ignored everything that had to be done and started working on my nursery lesson. Some might think that it's just one more thing to add to my stress but it's not. It's something I love and enjoy. Taking that half hour and coming up with a theme was exactly what I needed. I needed the simplicity of the lesson, the strength of the gospel and a reminder of the children's uncomplicated love for everyone. It was this one moment focused on my nursery lesson that has kept me moving the last 2 days.
I need these little people more than they need me. I know my testimony grows surrounded by the simple lessons and love in nursery. They are a light of the Gospel in my life. I'm beyond grateful for my calling and the wonderful parents that support us. I'm grateful that my husband supports me and is willing to go to Sunday School alone. By the way, have I told you how much I love nursery?
