I'm Back!

After three years, I'm back teaching the same age group I left.  I love it!!!  And how wonderful that I have the same manual I left off with, so I get to pick up right where I left off.  I am so excited to be posting about lesson ideas and sharing the joy of getting to know these wonderful girls!

Released

In our faith we are asked to serve in different assignments of the congregation- sometimes with the youth, sometimes the children, sometimes the adults.  There are hundereds of assigements that keep an LDS ward running.  In July of 2009 we moved away from our ward and I have been reassigned a new "calling".  I will leave this blog up for idea's but will not be posting anything for awhile.

I'm Back!!!

Lesson 19: Personal Records

After a lot of personal life detours- I'm writing again. I put together these journals for the Records lesson. I found them at Michaels for just $1.00 and then I tied a little ribbon on the spirals.

For this lesson I'm going to share a personal journal entry from when I was dating my husband- just so they can see how fun it is for me to go back and read about it. I also want to discuss all the different ways they can keep a record- scrapbooking, blogging, journals, etc.

I made a list of questions they can answer about themselves in their journal as a handout. I'm encouraging them to write during the summer since they don't have much homework. Here are some examples of the questions on the handout.

What makes you a good friend?

Describe an act of service you have performed for someone and how it made you feel.

What are you most grateful for?

Who are your best friends and why?

Describe your favorite outfit.

Describe your room.

Write what you remember from your baptism.

How do you feel about the temple?

What kind of mom are you going to be?

What technologies do you use every day?

List your talents and what you can do to develop them.

Last October I was challenged by our ward's Relief Society to read the Four Gospels from October to Christmas and then the Book of Mormon from Christmas to Easter. Yesterday I finished. Fitting so much time to read in my day (sometimes a lot more than others as I played catch-up) has been such a part of my life these last months that I feel I have to share what has become a part of me. What a great experience to walk with Jesus everyday as I spiritually prepared for Christmas. For the Book of Mormon we were given a brand new book and a newly sharpened pencil and encouraged to highlight everything that described the characteristics of God. The words I highlighted the most were:

Power
Power of his Word
Delivered
Directed
Preserved
Prepared
Supported
Strengthened
Led
Prospered
Redeemed
Resurrection
Mercy
Justice
Hear/Answer


Of course there were others, but these words were found countless times. You could find one of these words on almost every page. It amazed me how the book came to life to me in a very different way. I felt so enlightened as I began to see that this book is not only a history and a record full of amazing doctrine as well as a Testament of Jesus Christ, but is also a plea from our loving Father in Heaven for us to let Him into our individual lives. Story after story relates the Lord's hand- guiding, leading, supporting, prospering, and delivering. I am SO thankful that I was given this challenge! I am so grateful for my new understanding of God's will to be a part of my life.

Every time I finish the Book of Mormon I am so touched by the sacrifices made by countless people so that I can hold a copy in my hands. I know it the Word of God. I KNOW that there is GREAT POWER in its pages. I pray that I can be submissive and humble enough to ask the Father to let this power be a part of my every day life. I bare my testimony of its truthfulness, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sustaining Preisthood Bearers

Lesson-13

I tried this last fall and it worked so well I'm going to do it again. I asked the girls ahead of time to pick one of their favorite talks from conference and answer the following questions about the talk. Then I had them present what they had prepared for about 2-3 minutes. (It really ended up being just a minute for each girl, but I was proud of them for doing "church" homework- and following up on conference.) I think this ties in perfectly with this lesson.

What was the message of this talk?

What did you like about it?

How did it make you feel?

What changes are you making in your life because of it?

I think I'll also get one of those picture pages from one of the primary conference activity packets I found on Sugar Doodle with all the apostles on it and have the names blank and have them fill in the names as part of the questionnaire at the beginning of the lesson.

Growing and Maturing in Self-Reliance 1&2

Lesson- 11&12

We combined these lessons into one. One idea that would have been really fun that I didn't think about until the morning of, would be: Get a picture of each of the girls when they were a baby from their parents and hang them up in the room. Number them and have the girls write the numbers on their papers and guess who is who. After everyone shares who they really are, discuss how the girls have changed since then. What can they do for themselves now? How would it feel to back to being that dependent? Use the questions from the other introduction activities in the lesson.

Getting to Know the Girls

Our YW president has encouraged us to get to know our girls one on one.  We've been challenged to try to do something every week to get make contact with at least one girl.  I don't share this to toot  my horn, but have found these experience extremely helpful in getting to know the girls and understand their home life and their needs.  Here are a few ideas:

• Facebook:  really, where else do you get the true low down?  Plus I've even been treated to sweet messages on my wall and in my inbox on occasion.  This way I know who is sick, who has a big paper due, who is studying for a test, and who is having  a downer day and on the flip side who just went on a fun trip or had something exciting happen.
• Ice Cream: the president and I are trying to take one of the girls out every week until we've seen them all.  This has been AMAZING!  They open up so much and tell you about their dreams and what is bothering them and we always ask "what can we do as YW leaders to make this a better experience for you?"  My favorite reply was "Just check up on me so I have someone to be accountable too."  (This came from a girl who hasn't received permission to be baptized yet.)
• Sending notes: our president is awesome about snapping a picture of the leaders and making costco cards to send out for every holiday, telling the girls we love them.  She also encourages us to send out thank you notes to the girls when they've helped with a program or accomplished something for YW's.
• Phone calls: we had a season of "discord" among some of the girls and it was amazing how much a phone call just to see how they were doing meant to them.  I had one girl break down on the phone and really share her heart with me.  I think they really appreciated the fact that I noticed they were unhappy and cared enough to call.
• Notice events:  One girl had her wisdom teeth out but I didn't find out until Sunday when she wasn't at church.  I wanted to bring her something but couldn't go to the store, so I just put a ribbon on a box of pudding and brought it over.  We ended up visiting for 1/2 hour and it was a great way to get to know her better.  Showing up at other events like plays, games, or performances are things I need to do better at, but I'm sure would be fun and meaningful to the girls.

What are your ideas?  I'd love to hear your ideas of works for you to get to know your girls!!!!