Primary

Of course...last night I have two girls coughing so badly I had to check and make sure they were breathing when it got quiet. I have been thinking about what I'm going to do for primary singing time all week and still haven't come up with anything. The junior chorister calls this morning and asks if I can do junior and senior because she is sick. (Of course I don't mind at all. She took over for me for over a month when I had surgery in October. And she is a total sweetheart.) So, sadly, but gladly, I'm home with the little girls for the first half of church. They are both vegging on the couch and I'm waiting for my singing time stuff to print. We are going to do "Singing Bee". I'll have them sing a song and then stop at some point. Each "team"** will have one guess. If they get it right they get to put an X or O on our Tick-Tac-Know game board. Last time we played Tick-Tac-Know one of the younger girls put the X in the wrong place leaving it open for anyone to win. The kids were going crazy! So, at the very end I had the Primary President choose an X or O from the bag and put it up. The kids watched with anticipation. Then there was an explosion of screaming (yep, in church) when an X was pulled out of the bag. They are all excited! They didn't care which letter was pulled out. They were just happy to see the end result. It was awesome! I realize it was loud. But singing time is at the end of the church block. So after the round of screaming they somehow got quite enough for the prayer. It's a very good day when the kids are all having fun and learning at the same time. Teaching singing time is like putting on a little skit each week. Sometimes it is a hit, sometimes it is a disaster. Like last week. But, it is a great calling and I enjoy it. It's better than, let's say, being Bishop or RS Pres or teaching or being a counselor... you get it. I love teaching music in primary. This year has been sad in a way though. I taught the 11 year old girls and boys from the time they were 8 until they were just turning 11. They are awesome kids! All 14 of them. Now, I'm watching as they each leave Primary to advance to YM/YW. It's sad. I'll miss them in Primary. They are my great singers in the back. When I can get them to look at me and they stop laughing at me. They are also the ones who always make fun of me when I cry. Crying is a real problem for me. I can cry at the drop of a hat. Literally. Depending on whose hat, how far it's falling, what it's falling on, and if it has to be worn again. haha! Seriously, they love to make fun of me and I love it too. We always have a good laugh together. I always cry while singing during Christmas or during the program or the Sunday after the program or when we sing "Give Said the Little Stream". That is my favorite song and they learned it just for me. It wasn't even on the list of songs for this year. What a great Primary we have! All 250 of them! At least I'm not giving a talk! ooooppppsss Be careful what you say!

**There is not supposed to be any competition in Primary. So instead of having an X team and an O team, each player who gets the question right gets to choose a letter from a bag. If there are 3 X's drawn then X obviously wins. It is a fun twist and all of the kids feel like they have won. Kinda like BYU and Utah. You can choose who you want to win or you can go for who wins right? haha!

*****

Update: The Senior Primary kids loved singing! They had a hard time filling in the blankes, but really enjoyed trying to figure it out. The games was awesome too! No one won, but there was just as much excitement as before.

The Junior Primary kids are so hard to entertain. You would think with them be younger they would be easier. But NO! They are harder than the big kids. They did enjoy choose songs from the "Music Machine" and then helping to lead it or some other fun activity, like "Once There Was a Snowman" became:

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman.

Once there was a snowman WIDE WIDE WIDE.

In the sun he GOT SMALL, GOT SMALL, GOT SMALL

In the sun he GOT SMALL.

It was a good day!