Nursery Singing Time: DIY streamers

I finally got around to posting the instructions for making these!  You can find it here on the blog I write with my sisters.

Check out my post about the other things I do for Nursery singing time.

Nursery Singing Time

I am the music leader for the primary (children's group) at our church.  That means every Sunday you will find me doing all kinds of crazy things to help the children learn the gospel through music.  A few months ago, my primary president asked if I could also go into the nursery (children 18 mos to 3 years) and teach them as well.  I was more than willing as my daughter is in that class and I know how much she loves music.  I will admit that I was apprehensive because is seemed a bit overwhelming to add that to my already busy schedule.  So of course I turned to the internet for help.  I took most of my ideas from here and here then modified them for my situation.  Here's what I do....

Happy Easter

"In our hour of deepest sorrow, we can receive profound peace from the words of the angel that first Easter morning: “He is not here: for he is risen.”"  - Thomas S. Monson

FHE

Last night for Family Home Evening my younger ds had the lesson. His idea was to have everyone draw pictures of something Jesus did. Here's what they came up with:

Older ds: Jesus and Peter walking on the water.
(Check out the guy in the boat)

Younger ds: The resurrection

The one kneeling down is Mary. Sadly, I wasn't there as I had a rehearsal. I was really impressed with what they came up. The whole thing was younger ds' own idea. I don't think I could have planned a better lesson myself.

General Conference

Well, it's been another wonderful conference! This time I tried something a little different from what I've done in the past. Before conference, I wrote down some questions and inspiration I wanted answered to see which would be answered by the talks, and to focus my listening. Well, every thing I wrote down was answered in some way during conference, some directly and some by spiritual impressions that weren't necessarily related to the topic. Even though I was expecting it, I was really amazed.

There are two talks that really stand out in my mind, both from the Sunday afternoon session. The first one is Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk to young mothers. I felt like it was addressed directly to me. The best piece of advice for young mothers that I got from it was to realize that joy comes in moments. This short time raising children is too soon gone, so live in the moment!! I am too concerned with finishing whatever it is I'm doing, especially with the kids, that I don't take the time to enjoy it and them. So this week I am going to do my best to enjoy, really savor, some moments with my boys.

The second talk didn't really address anything I wrote down to listen for, but I was very inspired by the talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It was so direct and powerful!

I loved every talk and I can't wait for the May Ensign so I can read them all! Luckily, I don't have to! They are all available online here, to read, listen to, or watch in English or ASL.

This year we ventured to take the boys to conference at the church. Usually we just watch it on the Internet, but the bishop challenged us to attend at least one session at the church. So we went to the Sunday morning session (at noon here!) and it was a good experience. The boys behaved really well, and I really enjoyed it. I don't know that the experience was any better than watching it at home, but I'm glad we followed the bishops counsel. We'll definitely make it a tradition.

Just as an aside, I was so excited to see the improved video feeds on the church website. There were virtually no problems with stalling that we have experienced in the past. We alternated between watching the English feed and watching the ASL feed. If you've never watched the ASL video feed, you should. ASL is a very expressive language and can really add depth to a talk, even if you don't understand it.

Easter

This year for Easter we decided to celebrate the whole week. The events of Easter are too important to our beliefs that we wanted to make sure it would be a holiday that they boys would enjoy, maybe not as much as Christmas, but at least more than Halloween! Basically we decided to have a devotional every day based upon the events in Christ's life for that day plus some little activity related to it.

We started out Palm Sunday by making 'palm leaves' out of construction paper and sticks and then doing a readers theatre (with simple costumes) of Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. It was a big hit with the boys. They read the script probably 5 times through before I made them stop. On Wed. we acted out the parable of the talents and showed them the 30 pieces of silver (quarters) that were promised to Judas Iscariot. Thursday we had a meal like the meal Jesus may have eaten at the Last Supper. The boys liked eating on the floor but they weren't too crazy about the food. Friday we watched "To This End Was I Born". A bit graphic, even for me. Sunday we woke up the the Hallelujah Chorus and had fish and honey (minus the comb) for lunch.

In all, I think it was a good experience, though there are a few things I will change for next year. But I think the importance of the message got through to them, as evidenced by this picture my younger ds drew:

He told me the first person, in red, is Mary, the one in brown is Joseph, the other two are disciples. They are thinking about the tomb.

Maybe I need to focus more on the resurrection next year. ;)

My new calling!

And I was just starting to enjoy not doing anything. ;) I've been called as the Ward Choir Director. So Becky is the winner! Yay! I'm actually looking forward to it, though I'm not looking forward to putting on a Christmas program with only 8 rehearsals. Oh well, I'm sure it will all work out! I haven't directed anything since just after my older ds was born, so I'll have to spend some time getting the cobwebs out.

In addition I have been subbing as the Primary pianist for the past several weeks and I'll be playing for their Sacrament Meeting Presentation this coming Sunday as well as directing the hymns in sacrament meeting! I guess I spoke too soon when I said the ward had plenty of music talent. They really do, I just think they're happy to have someone new to call on. And I'm really happy to help. I'm pretty comfortable doing anything church music-wise, even playing the organ (if there's a great/bass coupler! and no real organists in the congregation.)

Anyway, thanks to everyone who participated in my little contest. I promise I'll have some more entertaining posts soon!

Join the choir!