Snake!

Here's a little game to play that was suggested by a veteran nursery worker. He said when he was in nursery the kids loved it and would play it forever. That's music to my ears. The game is called Snake!
Put a jump rope on the floor and hold one end. Slowly shake your end so the rope wiggles. Then let the kids try to hop over it without getting "bit"-touched by the rope.
I think I'll try it tomorrow during play time.

My Lesson Plan: Heavenly Father's Plan for Us

Preparing lessons for nursery can be an existential experience. You brainstorm and work and all of your efforts will barely register. Still, I like lessons because they can be lively and fun. And nursery lessons are all like Nephi says, plain and precious teachings.

The Purpose of Sunday's Lesson: Heavenly Father's Plan for Us as stated in the primary manual is:
To help each child understand that we lived with Heavenly Father as spirit children before we came to earth and that we can live with him again after this life.

Okay, how do you teach that to a two year old? I don't even know if they know what a plan is. So that's where I think I'm going to start. Here's my plan:

I'm going to try to mention this earlier to prep them but I'm going to ask, Does nursery have a plan? Yes, nursery does have a plan. When we come to nursery first we sing don't we? Then what do we do? We pray? After that? We have snack? Then what do we do? We play? Then what do we do? We do a lesson. In nursery we have a plan, we know what we're going to do.

Do you know how else has a plan? (Pull out picture of Heavenly Father) Heavenly Father!
Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us. He has a plan for ... point out kids who are not paying attention by saying their name. Heavenly has a plan for each one of us.
Do you know what his plan for us is? His plan is for us to come to earth to get a body and be alive.

Here I'm going to run through the circle diagram.
I hold up blue circle: We lived in the pre-mortal existence with Heavenly Father who loved us.
I'll let one kid come up and tape the circle to the wall
Hold up Earth Circle: Heavenly Father and Jesus made the earth and sent us to live on it with our families.
Let another child stick up the Earth circle on the wall after the blue circle
Hold up yellow circle: After we live on Earth Heavenly Father wants us to come back and live with him because he loves us so much!
Let another kid put up the yellow circle. If I'm feeling ambitious I might make the yellow circle into a sun but that's a big if. I'm not crafty.

Heavenly Father sent us to earth to get a body and be alive. Are you alive? Do you have a body? What about this doll (as mentioned in the primary manual) is she alive? No. But you're alive aren't you? You can jump up and down (have kids jump) and spin around (kids spin) because you are alive just like Heavenly Father wanted. Is being alive fun? Yes. Heavenly Father loves us so much that he sent us to be alive with our families.

Time for the Special Guest visitor, my bearded brother in law with my 8 month old niece as suggested in the Primary Manual.
Look it's a daddy and a baby! Can you see the baby? Does she have a body? Does her daddy love her? Heavenly Father sent this baby to be with a family because he loves her! He sent you to your family because he loves you! Talk about the baby as long as they're interested...

Do you know what? Heavenly Father wants us to come back to live with him because he loves us so much. But first he wants to grow up big and strong. He wants us to learn to become more like him. Pull out "Daddy Shoes" my husband's size 12s should do nicely. I'm going to let the kids try on the shoes and walk around in while I talk about how they can grow up big and strong like Heavenly Father wants.

After the shoes we're going to have an activity with the circles. I think I'll cut out the circles and let the kids glue them onto another piece of paper with glue sticks or make a mobile with them with string and cardboard.

What you think? What are my chances of this lesson being successful? I think the baby and the "daddy shoes" are going to be a hit. I'm also thinking I might check out the book Swimmy by Leo Lionni to read to who ever wants to listen during play time because in the story Swimmy has a plan.

If you have any other ideas I am ALL ears!

Some Company

I think one of the hardest parts of being in nursery is how lonely it can be. I have a great friend who is the mother of a two year old. She told me when she was serving in nursery (she was released a few weeks ago) she would come home and cry because she felt like church was her one chance to get out and enjoy some adult company and her calling kept her in kiddie land.
I hang out with adults all the time with my work but serving in nursery does cut down on my "Mormon time." One thing I'll do when I get home from church is to read a conference talk then go hang out in the Mormon Archipelago for a while. I feel like it helps me get my church fix, get ideas about what to study personally and I just enjoy the chatter.
Speaking of chatter, I really love and appreciate the chatter that people have been making about this blog. A big thanks to
Feminist Mormon Housewives - I'm on their link bar. Little me! Wow.
Mormon Mommy Wars - Always good for a laugh! She did a post about this blog which I will be forever grateful for. People put some helpful, funny comments you might enjoy reading if you haven't already.
Finding Myself Again - She just put up a great post about what she does in her nursery class.
My So-called Blog - My new favorite blog. It's just SO fun to read.
I have a pretty good feeling that without them none of you would be reading this except my mom and sisters. Hi Mom and sisters! If I left anyone out please let me add you. The more the merrier!
Tomorrow I plan to post on the lesson I'm preparing for Sunday, Heavenly Father's Plan For Us. If you got ideas, I would love to hear them.

Really I Just Love This Video

Really I just love this video, but I think it might give you an idea of what my singing and dancing looks like. I am NOT a musical person. I never sang or danced for fun. I was more the art geek, athlete, and overall nerd in school. My voice cracks just singing primary songs. I often forget the words and have to make them up. My point being, that real talent isn't needed to lead a nursery. The willing are called to the work, right? And as the kid shows, pure enthusiasm can take you a long way.
Watching this video also made me realize what a big nursery dork I am. While I was CRACKING up I was thinking I wonder what those songs are. They're upbeat and have hand motions. What are they? Does anyone know?

Getting Their Foot in the Door

As was mentioned in a comment left by Marie, there is nothing really as unfortunate, as awkward or as painful as a bad goodbye. The way I see it, all organisms with protective parents have an instinct that tells them "Stay with Mom and Dad!! It's your only hope!" It's a good and powerful instinct and it can cause some major trouble when nursery starts.   

So how do you get your nursery kids through the door and away from the ones they love as much as life itself?

As I said before, I do it with music and dance and the chance to pick a laminated picture off the wall.  I've found the music and dancing is involved enough to attract attention away from Mom or Dad and on to me the nursery leader. I think it's also a lot of fun for the kids. It's a chance to really move and jump up and down after an hour of being pretty still. Going in front of everyone to pick a song is so EXCITING. As an added BONUS, singing can often drown out the sound of crying. It sad that that matters but it really does. 

That's how I start but I would love to hear what others do.  Here's a few more ideas I've heard:

Kids get to pick their laminated name off the door and bring it inside to be hung up

Play with Playdough

Puzzles

Snack

And as always, the Almighty Bubbles 

Anybody have any other ideas? I can promise they will be MUCH appreciated.

Thanks Mom!

Since playdough has been mentioned a couple times I thought I would provide my family's time honored recipe. I have eaten (age 2), played with (age 2+) and made this playdough through the years and it works great for every purpose.

Playdough

1 cup white flour
1/4 cup salt
2 TB cream of tartar
Mix these ingredients in a medium pot.

Add:
1 cup water
2 tsp food coloring
1 TB oil

Cook this mixture over medium heat, constantly stirring for 3-5minutes.
It will look like a globby mess and you'll be sure it's not turning out, but it will.
Just Believe!When it forms a ball in the center of the pot, turn off and knead
on lightly floured service.
Store in an airtight container or ziplock bag.

Advice from my mother:
I found that kids love using cookie cutters with playdough. Toddlers are not
able to manipulate the playdough well enough to makeballs or snakes, but
they can push cookie cutters into the playdough mass.

I really love to hear advice and ideas from anyone and everyone who has something to share. If you think it's too long for just a comment, email me at n o c r y l d s (at) g m a i l . Sorry it's spelled all weird, I want to try to avoid those evil spammers. If I can, I'll be happy to post your email up on this blog. Every tip helps so please keep them coming!

What To Do

I don't know why people expect a two year old to be completely satisfied playing with toys for two straight hours while we mature adults offer ourselves a chance to break, chat, and switch classes. Primary gets even more variety with class, singing time, talks, and sharing time.

When I've seen Nursery kids left to find their own entertainment they get bored and when they get bored they usually remember they miss Dad or Mom and begin to cry or they fight. As fun as it is to referee minority death matches I think everyone can enjoy themselves a little more with some direction.

So what to do? Nursery time is remarkably open to the discretion of the Nursery Leader which I think can be awesome or bewildering. I use a schedule I learned from a mother of six who was in nursery her 5th-6th time. It runs so beautifully all the other nurseries in our ward adopted it at the suggestion of our Primary President. I love the structure and I think the kids appreciate the routine as well. Here's how it goes:

9:40-10:00 Singing Time

Because it's hard to sing and cry at the same time. The down side is all the parents of nursery aged children get a front row seat to my song and dance show. That can be pretty humiliating. Anyway, I have chairs set up in a circle for the kids to go to. I put up small laminated cutouts on the wall with tape and each kid who is sitting in their seat gets a turn or two to come up and pick one of the wall. The songs are all active and fun like Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes so we burn off some Sacrament meeting wiggles.

10:00 Prayer

I use three finger puppets that the kids love a bunny, a duck and a mouse. I hold each one and ask what is this? Then we say this little poem

The little bunny hops without a care

Hop hop hop hop hop (have the kids hop)

Please tell her Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (The kids Shhh with you)

It's time for prayer.

The little duck quacks without a care

Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!

Please tell her Shhhhhhhhhhhh! (Kids Shhh too)

It's time for prayer.

The little mouse squeaks without a care.

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! Squeak! (kids squeak)

Please tell him Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (Kids Shhh too)

It's time for prayer.

You get the idea and others can be invented for whichever puppets you have on hand. Then one kid helps say the prayer.

10:10-10:20 Snack

Snack is done around the table and I try hard to have a conversation with each kids while they are eating.

10:20-10:50 Play Time

I pull out the toys and at this time the kids are free to do what they want. Meanwhile I run optional activities that the kids are welcome to participate in if they want. Usually they come and go which cuts down on the toy competition. Common activities are puzzles at the table that I do with them. Bubbles. Ring around the Rosey. Drawing with chalk on the chalkboard. Play Simple Simon. Read a story.

10:50-11:00 Clean up

11:00-11:15 Lesson with another song or two as part of it

11:15-11:30 Small Craft related to the lesson

It really works well. I know there are lots of other ways to do nursery. My mom always taught the lesson while the kids had their snack because she had a much more captive audience.

I also know people who hated the idea of a schedule so much that they pulled their kids out of a routine nursery to a "free play" nursery. I don't understand it but to each their own.