5 Random Things to Help a Case of the Mondays

Monday's are not my favorite. Like a lot of people, I am just so sad to see the weekend go. I come into work, get some things done, but end up getting way to distracted with things. I figured I'd post a couple of the neat things I've found today, share my randomness. :)


1.  This adorable outfit! I'm wondering how hard it can be to make a cardigan like this. I love that shade of blue skirt. **Please note, I tried to link this up to where my pinterest said it came from, but it looks like the page was taken down. If anyone knows who this is, or knows where I can give it proper credit, let me know and I will!**

 

 

 

 

2. 12 Hunger-fighting Salads! I wonder how they are, because that is totally my issue with salads. I never feel full afterwards!

 

 

 

3. This blog has an adorable "Artist's Tote." The directions are all in another language, but it inspired me. :)

 

4.This blogger did an Elf on the Shelf breakfast the day the Elf came for the season! I know it's early in the season, I just can't wait. I am so excited to my little guys' Elf!

 

5. This post is 30 unique Date Night things for couples. There were actually some good ones on there! It gets you thinking, you got to mix it up sometimes!

 

 

What did you guys find while surfing the web today? I know I can't be the only one who gets distracted on Mondays!

 

Please note, the pictures in this post are not mine. They are from the respective blogs I linked up to.

General Conference Activity Sheets

I've been wanting to make some pages for everyone for General Conference for about a year now. I actually did make some last spring, but couldn't figure out how to upload them. Well, I have finally figured out a way to do it that I think will work!

I have two word searches, one for older kids up to adults, and one for younger kids.


HERE is the link for the easier word search.

HERE is a link for the more advanced one.

I have a couple other things that I want to get on here, but I figured I'll post this up and update it when I have more.

Last year I posted a few links for neat General Conference packets that I'd seen, so don't forget to check that out. I found some neat ones that were a bit different then the normal ones you've all seen I'm sure.

Please let me know if you have any issues printing them out as I am trying something new with this. I don't know there is a problem unless you guys tell me. :)

Also, I should have the whole month of October Sharing Time helps up this week, so be sure to check in for that!

5 Tips for Teaching Nursery

Before I was in the Primary Presidency I was in Nursery. For years. Before I got married, I was unofficially in Nursery, for years. I would skip Relief Society and help my mom in the Nursery before I met my husband and started attending the Singles Ward in the area.

I have a strong testimony of Nursery leaders. In many cases, a Nursery Leader is a child's first interaction with church as an individual. The only time this is not the case is when a child does not attend Nursery for whatever reason. Before they are 18 months, they hang out with Mom or Dad wherever they are during the second and third hours. Nursery has a special place in my heart, because it's the first opportunity we have as leaders and teachers to touch the lives of children and make church an enjoyable experience.

I realize that for many children, Nursery is not enjoyable at all. It's frustrating and sad because Mom left them and they're with complete strangers and they don't like it. I don't think it has to be like that! I believe there is a period of time where they don't want anything do with anyone other than their parents, but I do believe that period of time can be shortened (depending on the circumstances of course!).

So what works?

1. Strategic planning
2. Being prepared
3. Creativity
4. Flexible structure
5. Talk to the Primary Presidency

Those would be the four major tips I would give anyone who asked me. 

You want to plan the schedule for your Nursery based on what makes sense to you. There are tons of schedule samples out there to give you ideas, but pick something that works for you. Look at the children in your Nursery, their temperaments and needs, and figure out what you think will work best. Try to stick to it, and remember that if it doesn't work you can always mix it up.

Be prepared for snack times, lessons, singing times, etc. I know that it's easy to say, oh they're two, they don't need a lesson. But I strongly believe that a lesson in Nursery is so important. Even from a nonreligious stand point, they need to learn to sit still, and they need to learn that during a lesson that is what you have to do. The lessons don't have to be long and detail oriented, but they should happen. The manual, Behold Your Little Ones, is so great. It has so many helps and activities and ideas in it. I would make sure that before Saturday night (I'm totally guilty of it too!) the lesson gets read for Sunday and the activity is thought about. That way, if there is anything it calls for that you don't have at home, you can grab it while your out and about. I can't tell you how many times I have had to teach on the spur of the moment and I wish I had known so that I could have done one of the activities in there. Some of them only require bringing in brown paper bags, or yarn, but they're all really great and geared towards the age group. There are also plenty of blogs and websites that have created extra helps for you if want to use them. Make sure they go along with our gospel doctrine but use them! I promise you, the weeks you prepare a lesson, activity, handouts etc, the class will go more smoothly. The more prepared and excited you are about your lesson, the more they'll be into it. Again, you don't have to make it long, just make it good. :)

Creativity. This goes along with the point mentioned above, but sometimes you have to think outside the box to drive a lesson home, especially to two year olds. The more props you get them to hold, games you can get them to play, etc, the better off you all will be. They don't have long attention spans, so you have to mix it up. You have to aware of when they're getting bored of one thing so you can switch to the next.

By flexible structure, I mean that it's good for the kids to have expectations coming to class each week. They should know when they get in there they get to play for a little bit, then it's snack time. After snack we have lesson, etc. What I mean by it being flexible is that it's important to remember that the needs of your class are going to vary week by week. It's important to be sensitive to the needs as they change. If you have a new child, whether they've just turned 18 months or are an investigator or visitor, this is a new maybe scary experience. They may be okay for 10 minutes playing and not 20 minutes. You may want to cut play time short and offer snack early in order to keep them happy. Or you may want to allow them to skip snack and color while the other children eat. I believe that being sensitive to the needs of the child that needs it the most will benefit everyone in the long run. If you can prevent that child from having a tantrum, your more likely to not have other children throw fits as well.
Please keep in mind that sometimes it may be best to take the child to their mother, if none of this is working. This may not work all the time, when it gets to that point, getting the child to their parent is probably best for everyone. They can join everyone when they're feeling up to it.

It is so important to talk to your Primary Presidency. Let them know what your doing that works, if you need help, if you are struggling with something, keep the communication open. That is the best way for them to help you. They'll feel more involved in the Nursery, making it a high priority on their list (out of sight, out of mind sort of thing), they'll make sure you have what you need etc.

As I've mentioned before there are tons of websites and blogs that have posted things to help with Nursery and that age group. I have been pinning a lot of things on my pinterest account and want to weed through the good ideas and not so good ideas in the next few days. So look for that also! I've also been doing some research on how to post fullsize attachments to the blog so I can continue making handouts. So hopefully next week I'll be able to make a couple things for Nursery specifically. If you follow me on Bloglovin you can get my posts directly to your email, so you won't miss a thing. :) There should be a direct link on the right hand side.

2014 Theme for Primary Announced!

For anyone who has missed this, the theme of the 2014 year for Primary has been announced! It is "Families Are Forever."

I don't know about you, but I see a big temple in my Primary's bulletin  boards future!

I am so excited about this theme, temple work holds a special place in my heart, and it seems that temples would have to be a focus throughout the whole year. Along with the plan of salvation and missionary work I would think.

If you'd like to look it over it is on lds.org available for download. The church should mail each unit new copies for the 2014 year.

Really exciting!

How I Weaned my 2.5 Year Old...

Okay, I know this sounds kind of TMI to a lot of people out there, so if you are one of them, I apologize, but I feel like this needs to be posted. I had such a difficult time with this, and I wasn't able to find a lot of helpful resources, I felt like I needed to post this. Even if it only helps one person, it'll be worthwhile. I recently weaned my 2.5 year old son. It was the most difficult part of parenting thus far and took me a long time to do it. But it wasn't as bad as I had originally made it out to be. I know I wrote a lot, I just wanted to be as detailed as possible so I could offer help. If you have any questions please comment, if I can help, I will! If I can't, maybe someone else passing by can. :)

I guess a back story is in order. ;) I am the middle of seven children, all of us nursed some, and some of us nursed past one. My mom was working and young and was not able to nurse us all as long as she wanted to. I witnessed my mother nursing my three younger siblings and honestly, it seemed natural to me. I never imagined myself not nursing, so when I became pregnant and doctors began asking me, I automatically said, yes I am nursing. When my son was born he had a webbed tongue (I believe it is called). Basically that webbing underneath your tongue, the part that connects your tongue to the bottom of your mouth, well it's normally not connected very far, which means you can stick your tongue out. Well, my babies was connected all the way to the tip of his tongue, so he couldn't stick his tongue out. This made the first few days of his life not only very painful, but next to impossible to nurse him. I pumped and he received some formula. After he got his tongue clipped (very painless procedure, he didn't even cry), I had to wear a nipple shield to get him to latch on. This continued for two months of his life. Long story short, I had a difficult time getting him to eat without it, but I was dedicated and was successful in getting him to nurse without it. This created such a special feeling for me in nursing. It was something I fought for. I loved nursing my baby. It was good for him, it gave me special time with him, and it was convenient.

Even with these feelings, I only wanted to nurse him for a year. It's not that I had prejudice against nursing a toddler per say, I just thought a year seemed like a good age to stop. Well when a year came, he was still a baby to me, and it didn't seem right to wean him. When 18 months came, I tried. I failed. He cried and threw a fit. He didn't understand. I felt so terrible, I just gave in.

This is where I will complain a bit. When I began nursing I had so much support. I had so many people giving me tips and calling to check in on me. I called the Le Leche League and they would tell me how to be successful, and I was thankful. They told me to nurse him when he was sad, nurse him to sleep, nurse him...nurse him...nurse him. I was grateful for their help, but it made it really difficult to wean him. I was facing an 18 month old child who didn't know how to go to sleep without nursing. I had an 18 month old child that would get sad and automatically want to nurse. No one told me how to get him to cope other ways, or when to stop this. I felt like I had been a successful nursing case, I'd nursed a child for 18 months! I had no idea what I was doing. I felt like no one had good answers either. I went to breastfeeding forums for support, nothing. I felt like all they cared about was getting me to breastfeed and didn't care about after. Anyways I don't want to rant. Long story short, I was very unsuccessful.

At this point he was only nursing to sleep and if he hurt himself and wanted to be soothed. By the time he was two he was only nursing to sleep for one nap and at night. When he would hurt himself I would just love him and offer him to hold a toy he liked or even give him a lollipop (don't judge me!).

Now the massive hurdle of night time. I tried putting him in his room when he was almost asleep, it made me feel evil. After all, we got into this together, we will get out of this together. My husband works a sporadic schedule, so I was on my own. I didn't have a partner I could pass him to for night time, even though I have heard that works wonders for some people. I read somewhere that it is less traumatic, although more difficult, to do it this way. I tried nursing him until he was almost asleep and popping him off and rocking him to sleep. This worked sometimes, but not consistently. All kids are different, and this may work well for someone else. What did work involved tears, on both our parts, but not as many as some of the methods I tried.

I sat in my glider, and would nurse him for a few minutes. I would tell him before hand that I would only nurse while I sang whatever song, it would come out to maybe 3 or 4 minutes each side. I then popped him off and he was done. He was not asleep. I didn't feel mean, because I wasn't say absolutely not, I was just saying he wasn't going to fall asleep that way anymore. I had a lot easier time eliminating feedings that weren't related to his sleep. So I thought, if I could separate nursing and sleeping in his mind, then I could eliminate nursing all together easier.

He cried. He tried to fight my shirt open, he yelled, he even hit me. He didn't understand. I kept my calm, I never yelled, never spanked, nothing like that. I just told him that I loved him so much, but I needed him to cuddle with me night night. I told him I was happy to hold him and love him, but he was not going to nurse. Sometimes (okay a lot of times, haha) I would set him on the ground while I was in the glider, cause he got himself really worked up, he wasn't listening to me. He always wanted me to hold him again. I picked him up, and I hugged him and rocked him. He would stop crying when I picked him up.

I know this sounds mean, I am sure there are people who will read this and feel so bad for my son, I get it. But PLEASE keep in mind, I nursed him until he was 2.5. At this point he was about a month shy of 2.5. He was able to understand some of it if he would calm down enough to listen. At this point I was beyond done. Not because I didn't love him, but because I wanted to be able to have my body back. He had teeth, it hurt a lot of times, I knew he was able to get his food and drink elsewhere. I just felt like I needed to stop. Everyone is different, I know some people couldn't imagine weaning a 2.5 year old, but please keep in mind, I nursed him far longer then the norm. I celebrate what I was able to accomplish because it's not often you see someone nurse past one year.

Back to the story -At this point, he would still nurse in the middle of the night. I was so terrible with this. I would be so tired, I would forget to tell him no. 

Within maybe three nights, when I was trying to get him to sleep, he wouldn't even try to nurse after I asked him to "pop off," as I would say. It took me maybe three nights of tears, and I had gotten him to differentiate between nursing and sleeping. I kept this up for a few weeks because I was okay with just maybe a 5-10 minute nursing session. At this point I was still nursing at night when he woke up. Once I was ready to move on, I made the nursing session even shorter. Then after a few days, I just eliminated them all together. There was some crying here or there for him, but it was really short lived. What the first two nights taught me is that he can do it. And the next morning, he would wake up, and guess what, he didn't hate me! It was like it never happened! He still loved his mama! What I found was that once he stopped nursing to sleep, he started waking less frequently to nurse. Now, he never wakes up. When he did wake up, I just told him no, I'd hold him. I would give him a drink of water (I filled an empty Capri Sun up with water after rinsing it out a few times. This way he didn't have to sit up, and was more inclined to go right back to sleep) and tell him to go back to sleep.

I realize it sounds silly, but I think that was part of my reluctance to wean, I thought it would change our relationship. But I can say, my little guy hasn't nursed at all in probably two or three weeks, and maybe twice total in the past six weeks, and I think he is more cuddly now then he was before. That has been the only change. He loves to give me "giant kisses" and "big hugs!" I am so relieved that this process is not only over, but that it left my relationship with my son better then it was before, as crazy as that sounds.

So to anyone out there weaning a toddler, or any child for that matter, I feel your pain. I was there. I do not envy you! Haha, but it does get better. It gets easier. The first 2-3 nights are the worst. In fact, expect to get hardly any sleep. Plan it on a weekend or whenever you feel comfortable being a zombie. Once you make progress, DON'T let them regress. I did that several times when he was younger, he would get sick, or I would and I would just let him nurse again. This was just confusing to him, I think it taught him that I would give in if he made it miserable enough. So don't start weaning until you know your ready, but don't wait until you need to do it NOW. This method may not work, and maybe something else will. Give yourself time, maybe a few months. Do what feels right. For me, I wanted to hold him when he was sad.

M&M's Can Teach Us Something...

M&M's are delicious. We have awesome teachers/choristers/piantist etc. in Primary. Can these two things be combined? Absolutely!

 

I'm sure you've seen this poem on Pinterest,if not here it is:

Green is for the inspiration you give to me each day.

Blue is for your patience in showing me the way.

Orange is for your warmth and caring style.

Yellow is for the way you can always make me smile.

Red is for my life that you have touched this year. You’re a very special teacher just like this jar, that’s clear!

You place knowledge in your children’s hands and

melt into their hearts and lives forever.

You’re a “Magnificent” and “Marvelous” teacher!

Thank you for being my M&M!

This doesn't really work for Primary though. So I thought of a different idea, along the same lines. The colors represent characteristics that make up an awesome teacher.

Red is for the love they show their children each week. We know lessons are taught best when taught with love.
Blue is a calming color and can represent patience that is so necessary certain weeks. ;)
Yellow is for a cheerful attitude that makes the children love to come and learn each week.
Orange is for creativity, as sometimes we need to be creative to get lessons across.
Green is for righteousness. (Think green behind the CTR shield.)
Brown is the same inside and out, therefore it is genuine or sincere.

I wanted to make a thank you note using this, but have not gotten around to it yet. So I just read this aloud while holding up each color M&M. I am hoping to have one made in the next week or so. So check back!

For the thank you gift I got hot & cold cups that had m&m faces on them, and put four fun size packs of m&ms in each one. That way they got a variety of flavors. :)

 

I got these cups at WalMart, they are being discounted down, so if you happen to miss them, I'm sure you can get them online. Or use solid colored ones. If you want to do a thank you for a teacher at school, use the first poem, for church, use the other version of colors. :)

Sharing Time: Jesus Christ Taught me How to Serve Others

Hey all!


So I have sharing time this week and it's on how Jesus taught us to serve others. I really love the idea of showing them the pictures of Christ serving others and trying to act it out. To make it extra fun, you can bring some robes and scarfs in and they could dress up as the character. **Update** As mentioned by commenters below, please remember that children are not to dress up as Christ. This is why I love when people comment, we help each other out!!

One of the ideas I thought of immediately when I thought of this subject is the "secret service" activity I've seen float around Pinterest some. The whole idea is to give the kids some kind of "sign" and have them preform an act of service secretly and leave the little sign by the act of service they did. For example, you see your mom has a ton of dishes in the sink, secretly (we don't want to get caught!) do the dishes. After they are done, leave the sign by the sink.

Ideas on what they can do...
1. Clean the litter box
2. Take out the trash
3. Make a siblings bed
4. Weed the garden.
5. Clean up a siblings toys.

Now that they're mom, sibling, friend or whoever has the sign, they have to do a random act of service....secretly. It's fun to keep it going. You can give each child a couple of them so that if one person doesn't keep it going, someone else might. They can come back the next week and share their stories on how sneaky they were, and what they were able to do.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach a full size document to this post. If anyone knows how to do this using blogger, I would SOOO appreciate a quick walk through. I've been using Photobucket in the past to create a link, but now they don't save it full size. Again, any help would be awesome! (to be honest, I've been so frustrated with this it's kind of zapped my desire to post :()So I didn't make a hand out, but I posted a link to a picture that is kind of what I'm talking about. If someone helps me out, I will totally make a handout for it!!

I like the idea of using a heart, writing "secret service" and putting underneath that something along the lines of "Now it's your turn to serve someone....secretly! Don't let it stop with you!" I think it's neat for the children to see how one good deed can multiply. 

http://ldsmobileapps.com/activities/secret-service,1/  Here is a picture of what I was envisioning, unfortunately I don't see a link to print out. It looks like they just used a crayon to write secret service on it.


If you're looking for an awesome FHE to do along this same idea, check out THIS blog post. I thought it was a neat idea!