Today, i volunteered to help a neighboring ward watch kids in Primary. They were having an adult meeting on provident living and wanted everyone to be able to go. So they asked the singles ward to help sit with the Primary children, to make sure nothing got out of hand.
When i got there, they had me and another girl go to the nursery. ??? Uh... this isn't what i signed up for. I was afraid.. Ha. I dont believe i've been to the nursery since i was about thirteen. While i have helped take care of small children since then, it was no where NEAR this many and they weren't all the same age. (which MULTIPLIES the difficulty)
The other girl quickly turned to me and said, "i'm not good with children.", which pretty much put all the pressure on me to get things goin and entertain..
"Alright kids. Here we go."
So we started with snack time. As much as i wish WE had snack time now as an adult, they quickly lost interest. WHAT?! Who ARE these kids?! They have ADHD attention spans! In the forty minutes we were there did the following:
1. Snack time
2. Sang "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" (twice)
3. colored
4. Sang "i am a child of God", all FOUR verses. (and when i say we sang, i mean, I sang...)
5. blew bubbles. (i had NO IDEA how much kids love this. It NEVER got old. We did this for a while...)
6. The primary chorister came and sang 3 or 4 songs with them.
7. (CRAP! we STILL have time left.... uh....) Finally i was just like, "what do you wanna do? Jump? OK! EVERYBODY, JUMP!" and they all jumped around. This surprisingly, was SO fun, for all of them. "Let's see who can jump over there the fastest!" Then we changed it up to skipping and walking backwards and things like that. LUCKILY, this didnt get old and took the rest of the time. :)
Now, there was one little girl that did not want to cooperate with anything. She was pouty and "just wanted her mom and dad". It made me think of a talk that was given this conference. It said, those children that cause the most trouble, need your love the most. Remembering that really helped me decide how i was going to respond when she was being so difficult and everyone else was being playful and fun. And, soon enough, she joined in with the skipping races and had fun too.
It was a good time. I think i could do it again, and like it. :)
2 comments:
That is a great story and that's how I feel sometimes with my Jr. High students.
that's a very awesome story! i kind of wish i could have been there to see you jump-jump-jumping around with everyone.
i'm glad that you were wise to take time with the lonely girl.
i'm also glad that you survived and enjoy it. : )
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