For many years, I worked in Primary --- occasionally as the President, but for a cumulative 37 years as the Song Leader. Most of my Primaries had enough children that we split for Junior and Senior Singing Times and I also spent a few minutes in the Nursery. I had never been the Nursery Leader before, but as of three weeks ago, I am now. And thank goodness, I already know a LOT of songs and have a bunch of VISUAL AIDS!
We have one very young boy who is our sole regular, plus a handicapped older boy who sometimes comes into the Nursery. However, this ward has a lot of Grandparents who often have visiting grandchildren. I was told to plan for at least five children every week because of visitors. I was also told that the previous leaders basically gave up on giving lessons, even short ones, because the children just wanted to play with the toys.
We have one very young boy who is our sole regular, plus a handicapped older boy who sometimes comes into the Nursery. However, this ward has a lot of Grandparents who often have visiting grandchildren. I was told to plan for at least five children every week because of visitors. I was also told that the previous leaders basically gave up on giving lessons, even short ones, because the children just wanted to play with the toys.
Well, the first day we had no manual yet, so we just let the children play. But after talking around to previous Nursery Leaders "par excellence," I learned that we had to do more than just allow the kids to play. So we came up with a schedule to fill our 50 minutes that starts with a Gathering Time (tactile) activity at our small table, a short Lesson with visual aids, Singing Time with all sorts of manipulatives, and then Play Time with the toys.
After two weeks, I can report that having a schedule works so much better than just letting the kids play with toys. We find that the children like how we sing nearly the entire time. We sing when we bounce balloons, twirl with scarves, shake our little shakers, drop falling Autumn leaves, dance with finger puppets, and share smiles with the silly paper plate frowny/smiley faces.
These children are COVID Kids. The youngest ones were actually born during the pandemic quarantine. Most of them have never had play dates with other children or even been tended by anyone outside of their own households. It may take time for them to get used to our ways of doing things, but one thing we know for sure, they enjoy dancing, twirling and moving to our SINGING!
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