Blog Tag: Primary
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It’s Time for Sharing
There's a new Bloggernacle blog out that I wanted to highlight today. "It's Time for Sharing" is a new blog for Primary teachers and leaders. As time goes on, they hope to cover all the Nursery, Sunbeam, CTR, and Valient lessons along with sharing time and singing time ideas. The goals of It's Time for Sharing are to
Keep Christ as the focus of our lessons
Invite and incorporate the Spirit
Be scripture-based
Teach solid principles without relying on 'cute' or 'fluff'
Promote active rather than passive learning
Adapt lessons according to the children we teach
Reflect the varied personal experiences of children around the world
Jeans,...
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Poll: Dedicated Children’s Church Classrooms
Thank you to Jenne for suggesting this poll topic.
When I attended a baby blessing at a friend's LDS ward building, I was thrilled by their nursery room. The room had windows on the doors so parents could check on their children without interrupting the class; huge, built-in toy boxes and shelves; and (best of all) an adjacent restroom with a toddler-sized toilet.
In my ward building, the children's classrooms look like all of the other rooms. The advantage to generic rooms is flexibility--any children's classroom could be used as an adult classroom instead, if necessary. However, such generic rooms sacrifice...
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If You Chance to Meet a Frown
I teach nursery. It's a nice place to be: snacks, dancing, and simple lessons focused on basic gospel principles. No one in the back is raising their hand and bringing up Adam-God. In fact, no one raises their hands at all.
I've been teaching in the Primary for only a short time: I taught Sunbeams from January-July this year at which point I was asked to be the nursery leader. Nursery is unique in that the new lesson manual does not have enough lessons to fill an entire year: it is expected that you'll repeat lessons and go out of...
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What my daughter learns
I have a two year-old daughter. A beautiful, mischievous, redheaded imp of a girl who leaps and spirals through life. She is my light in this world, a daily reminder of the goodness of God.
This past Sunday, as I picked her up from her nursery class, my daughter proudly thrust a piece of paper into my hands and said, "Look Mommy, I drawing." I started to tell her how lovely her drawing was but stopped short as I registered the image before me. Underneath her pink crayon scribblings was a picture of a little boy with the words "I...
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What's a Feminist Mom to Do? Gender Roles and Primary
by Caroline
I recently learned about a song primary kids all over the country are learning. It's called "The Family is of God" and here are the 2nd and 3rd verses.
A father’s place is to preside, provide,
To love and teach the gospel to his children.
A father leads in fam’ly prayer to share
Their love for Father in Heaven.
3. A mother’s purpose is to care, prepare,
To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the fam’ly.
Finding out that this is the type of song that is being taught in primary has unsettled me....
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Solving My Primary Dilemma and Creating Another One
By EmilyCC
Last September at our stake training, I started sweating when I heard the theme for Primary this year. I wanted this theme to be one I can embrace, but I'm having a hard time loving it.
I'll state my bias right off: the eternal family doctrine is an aspect of the Church that I struggle with. Add to that my worry that this theme will make families who are already in tough positions, feel inferior, and well, it feels like a long year.
Still, I've been trying to find ways to be true to my feelings and teach the material...
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2009 Primary Program: My Dilemma
By EmilyCC
How do you promote the family without hurting those who don’t have the “right” family?
This is what I’ve asked myself every day since we got the Primary theme for 2009, “My Eternal Family.”
Last year’s was “I am a Child of God”—I hopped right on that bandwagon because it’s always good to remind the kids that we are ALL children of God (Um, we have some racism 'round these parts.).
But, when we got next year’s program at our auxiliary training meeting last month, our presidency looked at each other. Our most vulnerable kids, i.e. the kids who we worry...
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The Wise Girl and the Foolish Girl: Feminism in Primary
Now, I know that Primary is not the place to preach my feminist ideals. So, while I don’t think I should do a lesson on the three waves of feminism during sharing time, I do try to bring in examples of underrepresented groups of people whenever I can.
I loved Mary Ann’s guest post on FMH for new verses to Follow the Prophet posted last year about this time. And, since then, I’ve been looking for ways to make some Primary songs a bit more gender inclusive. One of my male evangelical students pointed out Proverbs 14:1 that has...
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Jesus wants me for the Primary?
A couple months ago, I was asked to see the bishop, with my husband. I knew what was going to happen. I was a Relief Society teacher, and the Education Counselor had recently moved. In my eight years of being married, I have been in Young Women’s for five and Relief Society for three. Knowing that Young Womens had recently been fully “re-staffed,” it was easy to guess what I was going in for.
4) I love the women I work with. They are great examples of people I might not have sought out as friends because we don’t seem...
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About Face
Not long ago, when my husband and I were in a stage of life where we were changing wards every few years, I kept getting called into the Primary Presidency of each new ward. I thought it was strange. My kids were either newborn or just barely in Nursery. I didn’t have much experience in teaching kids, my background was in the sciences—not in elementary ed.
After the third time this happened I asked the bishopric counselor who was extending the call why he thought I kept getting called into Primary. He replied:
“Well, you just have a Primary face.”
I was...
What is Exponent II?
Exponent II provides Mormon feminist forums for women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum to share their diverse life experiences in an atmosphere of trust and acceptance. Through these exchanges, we strive to create a community to better understand and support each other.
Exponent II was founded in 1974 by a group of Mormon women in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These women were inspired by the original periodical, “The Woman’s Exponent,” to create a forum “posed on the dual platforms of Mormonism and Feminism.”
For 50+ years, Exponent II has shared women’s voices in its quarterly magazine, and members of the community have convened at an annual retreat. Our reach has expanded as technology has advanced: the blog, founded in January 2006, has reached millions. As we look to the future, we are focused on growth and building a more inclusive community.
