Focus

I'm having trouble focusing on my plans for this Sunday.  My Junior kids know the song, and my Senior knows it even better.  The Junior responded really super well to my guided listening, but my Senior Primary didn't really care too much for the matching. 

I did a Valentine's Day themed activity, where we sang Primary songs that had the word "love" in them.  I think I used the same set of lines for Junior and Senior, but Senior had to either sing (I let them use the book and sing with me) or correctly guess the song title to get their choice of candy.  (I had suckers and chocolate hearts.)  Our monthly song was one of the options, but we also sang other songs.  Last week, I was kind of in the same block I'm in now, but I went to Dollar General to pick up some toilet paper and I always wander through the clearance/holiday sections of stores like that because you never know what will pop up.  Well, there was one felt envelope for $1 left.  (I guess they also had them at Target for the same price.)  My plan came together instantly!  All I had to do was choose the songs and write them on cut out paper hearts.  One of the counselors said she liked the activity, so *~*bam*~* I'll probably do it again next year. 

It's been a while since I've incorporated the scriptures into Senior Primary.  I might do that for them and have them read scriptures and match them with the line.  (I'll probably only use 5 or 6 lines.)

The Primary has been asked to sing for Easter, and I'll be back home.  I said I had no problem teaching them the song, but still have to find someone else to lead it.  I chose a short song and will teach the Senior both Spanish and English.  I may teach Spanish to the Junior if they pick up on English as quickly as they've been picking up on everything else.  Which shouldn't really surprise me, since the only new kid we have is so young I don't really expect much singing from him right now.  (His birthday is the end of December, and he had a bit of delay in his speech, so I'm just happy if he claps along or his eyes show that he recognizes the song.)  Everyone else is growing up and singing out more, which I LOVE!  I even noticed a couple of our Junior Primary kids singing along with the final chorus of "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" a few weeks ago in sacrament meeting, and it was definitely a highlight!

Anyway, since one option for completing Faith in God is to learn a song and teach it either in FHE or Primary, I left it open for my Senior kids to work with me to learn and teach it to the other Senior kids.  I was secretly hoping I'd get two volunteers so that one could teach in Spanish and one in English (we have four bilingual kids in Senior), but I only got one half-hearted response.  I told her she could have a week to think about it.  I won't let them see my disappointment, though, because I don't want them to feel bad for being scared or intimidated or just not wanting to do it.

Maybe I'll introduce the song to Junior Primary this week, since next month's song is kind of a doozy.  It was supposed to be January's song, but I wasn't prepared (I didn't even get a physical copy of the music until the second or third week of the month), and I wanted to teach it well instead of first.  Which I feel is going to happen.  The Young Women are going to sing it as our opening song/before opening exercises the first Sunday in March.  It's called "If I Listen With My Heart," and a lot of other choristers on the facebook page shared ideas for teaching kids what it means to listen with their ears first.  To teach my kids what it means to listen with their heart, I'm going to play the same Primary song (I Lived in Heaven) in three different languages that I'm pretty sure they don't know (Italian, Dutch, and I forget the other one) and ask how many recognized the song by the words.  Then I'll ask how many recognized it by the music and how they felt listening to it.  That's how we listen with our heart.  That's how we can feel the Spirit when testimony is born in languages we don't understand, and how we can know that a message is coming to us from the Lord.  (Review the scripture in D&C about "voice of my servants, it is the same.")

Maybe part of the reason I'm having a hard time focusing on that is because I'm so excited about my crochet work.  I'm making really good progress on the log cabin pattern I'm making for another coworker (I'd be making her a baby blanket right now, except she miscarried) and I just bought all the yarn I need for my c2c, c2c blanket.  (Corner to corner, conference to conference)  I'm using the YW value colors because that's an established color palette.  Is it April yet?!