Anyway, on Friday night, I bought myself a long sensible brown skirt. It's just plain but it certainly does the job. I wanted a long skirt so that I am free to sit on the ground with the kids if I want. Or so that I don't have to squeeze my legs together for fear that the kids can see straight up my skirt.
I prepared my lesson on Saturday (the manual says that you must prepare your lesson at least a week in advance, but I only got the manual on Saturday, so I'm sure that I'm absolved of that sin). It said that I could make crowns, which was pretty exciting. Even more exciting was where it said I needed a bean bag. I didn't have a bean bag of course, but needing a bean bag meant that I could haul out my sewing machine and get crafty. I made the bean bag and a bunch of crowns while Murray painted. How productive! All of a sudden, I think that I'm going to really love teaching Sunbeams, if only for all the fun preparation I get to do. I can't wait to see what next week's lesson requires! (I should have also prepared that yesterday or Saturday because now, it is no longer at least a week in advance, so I'm clearly not absolved this time.)
This is the bean bag I made. (Why sew two squares of fabric together when you can make an owl instead?)
Our Primary starts with Opening Exercises and Singing Time and Sharing Time, so I got to do that first. Of my two boys, one didn't speak at all, and the other only managed to mutter that he wanted his mommy and daddy. So I pulled out Walter the owl and let him play with it, and it was extremely gratifying to see his face light up as he exclaimed: "A owl!" And then for the rest of Sharing Time, I got to try to get him to play with the owl quietly and not chuck it at the other children. (I may include here that I saw the other little Sunbeams of the other classes eying that owl enviously.)
When it was time for class, Murray was waiting for us outside. He had permission to join us to help me. My owl-bribed kid had no problem coming into the class, but the other little boy needed a lot of coaxing. So I finally laid out a crown on the ground for him and promised him that he could choose the first crayon for coloring. And so it was that I just ended up teaching our lesson as we all colored crowns on the floor. I think I could get used to this. (I promise that they were paying attention as much as they could and I even got them to answer questions.)
By the end of class, my silent kid finally said a word (about Walter the owl) and he was happily playing as he waited for his parents to come get him.
So all in all, it wasn't anything to worry about. I didn't have to wipe any butts this week (and I've been promised that I'll never have to) and both children left my classroom undamaged, but filled with the Spirit from the excellent, wonderful, perfect lesson that I taught them. And they wore their crowns with pride.
Now, I might add one more word about church. See, we only live about three blocks away from church, so I think that it's absolutely lazy and wasteful and environment-killing to drive. We made a goal to walk. But it has happened for the past few weeks that the walk to church is fine, but by the time church is over, the weather is raging, and we have to run through frigid winds to get home. Since church moved to 9:00 instead of 11:00, I figured we were safe---clearly the weather only got bad at 2:00.
On our way to church this time, the weather was very mild, but the sidewalks were so slippery that any time there was a slope in the sidewalk, Murray and I would start to slide downwards. It was a treacherous trip to be sure. But by the time church let out, it was snowing horizontally in gigantic snow pellets. And we had to walk directly into the direction of the snow if we wanted to get home. Having no other options (no home teachers have been assigned to us) we grabbed each others' arms and headed out. Outside was even worse than we could have imagined and we screamed and laughed as we tried to get home. We couldn't even lift our heads up to look where we were going, and of course, we knew that under all that snow, the sidewalks were still icy and treacherous. We walked for what seemed like an eternity, and only actually managed to walk from one side of the church building to the other, when a ward member offered us a ride home. And we accepted. When it is snowing like that, the environment deserves to be killed.
11 comments:
You evil genius. That's possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. Those lucky, lucky sunbeams.
Once again, I think you're the coolest person I know. Love the owl, love it. I got a new class this year and my hubby just got called to teach with me and it's great! I think they called him to it because I would always still him from EQ to help me, so they figured if that were his calling it'd be easier. We got the 6-7 year olds. They are fuunnnnnny little people.
In our last ward, the church was about two blocks away, but we virtually never walked. We have this terrible habit of being slightly late to church all the time, so walking would've made us really late. But in our new ward, the church building is across the alley from us, so we walk every week.
I wish my daughter were in your sunbeam class. I bet she does too. Owls are her fav. This was the first time in two years she was bawling hysterically at the end of church. I haven't quite figured out what happened that scarred her so badly during her first day of Primary.
But did the owl make it home unscathed? THAT is the question. Because it is one cool owl, and you'll definitely be able to use it in the months to come.
Do you think it would work if I made one for my Gospel Doctrine class? Would they appreciate it as much as the brass plates replica that my team teacher brought yesterday?
Sounds like Sunbeams was a success!
I wish you could have seen this woman in action with kids.
She took to it like a duck to water..
or an owl to...um...seeing at night?
I sometimes randomly read your blog because what can I say, it's these kind of stories that keep me coming back for more. Cutest owl ever- you should have been in our primary this week, the poor sunbeams were traumatized for life. You can read what happened on my blog www.missrissa.net
So when do the owls go up for sale? My nephew would sleep with that thing every night. So adorable.
...to walk to church. I envy your closeness to your building. *sigh*
haha seeing as there is only ONE building in my city, it would take me approximately... oh, 1.5 hours to walk from where we live. I should try it one day.
You are awesome! Also, your owl is awesome.
In my ward, the nursery children and the sunbeams made crowns. We have 9:00 church with sacrament last, and 35% of our ward is primary aged or younger, so it was really very sweet to have so many kids reminding us through the many reverence challenged moments during the meeting that they are children of God.
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