Currently in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some members of the congregation are asked to run a nursery for children from 18 months to 3 years old while their parents attend Sunday School and other meetings.
The Church has released a new manual specifically for the Nursery:
A few years ago, my wife and I were called as the Nursery Leaders for our LDS congregation. We had just moved into the ward from another part of town where I had just been a nursery worker for the last year. I spent a total of two and a half years working in the Nursery.
As nursery leaders, we found that it was very important to have a consistent, repeated order of short activities every week. The small children would quickly come to anticipate the order and it made it much easier for them to adjust to having their parents leave them for a while. They were comfortable because they knew what to expect and that it would be the same each Sunday.
In some congregations we had seen a tendency to assume that the children were too young to teach and as a result the Nursery workers would often just pull out a bunch of toys and sit around chatting while the children played, punctuated by a short snack time. Going against this trend, we also felt that it was important not to underestimate the ability of these small children to learn the Gospel and feel the Holy Spirit. So among our weekly activities we would present a short, organized lesson, based on the previous manual, beginning and ending the lesson with a prayer offered by two of the children.
It was great to see that the new Behold Your Little Ones manual clarifies that the “nursery class should provide a loving, safe, organized learning experience for the children.” It emphasizes that “This time should be separated into several segments, such
as lesson time, snack time, music time, and playtime…. Children respond well to consistency, so follow the same order each week.” It also suggests that you “provide the children with a routine that helps them change from one segment to another.”
The Manual also insists that nursery workers “ask parents if there are any foods they do not want their children to eat.” We found that this is really important. Food often has a strong effect on children, and some kids have specialized dietary needs or allergies. Some parents simply have different nutritional standards and you shouldn’t be giving candy to their children without their approval. Even though many nursery workers do it, in general it is probably not a good idea to give the kids candy for a snack at all, even if the parents approve. The new manual emphasizes that the snack should be “healthy” and in our experience the simple sugars in candy can have negative effects on the short term behavior of some children, which can complicate having them in nursery.
The new manual has lessons designed specifically for the nursery age group to “help nursery-age children learn basic doctrines of
the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.” This really should be the purpose of nursery.
Something that we didn’t do that the new manual suggests is using the scriptures during the lesson. “Use the scriptures as you teach the children. When a lesson suggests that you tell a story from the scriptures, open the scriptures and point to the place where the story is found. This helps the children understand that what you are teaching comes from the scriptures.”
Another interesting instruction in the manual is that when teaching lessons, leaders are to “be sensitive to the home and family situations of the children. When a lesson refers to the children’s parents or families, consider the feelings of any children
who are being raised by a single parent, by grandparents, or by other family members.”
The manual also has some great tips for teaching gospel oriented music. Another helpful section lists common problems and suggested solutions.
Also interesting is that the manual includes a letter to be given to parents of children who are about to enter the primary. It outlines things parents can do to prepare their children for nursery and the responsibilities parents have for their children during nursery, including “[remaining] in the nursery class with your child if he or she is afraid.
The letter also emphasizes that the parents should not bring sick children to nursery and includes a list of symptoms that parents should keep in mind.
Being a Nursery worker should be a lot more than baby-sitting. It is an opportunity to teach the Gospel and help children feel the Holy Ghost. It requires as much work, preparation, and inspiration as other callings in the church, and it can be just as rewarding and fulfilling.
Encourage your Primary President and Bishop to get the Behold Your Little Ones manual and implement it in your Nursery.
As a kind of a follow up to my previous post on the family, I wanted to share a story about our children that occurred yesterday.
First, a little background:
A few years back, the Marriage and Family class at our LDS church was taught by sister Williams, who is a professional psychiatrist working with young, recently married couples at BYU. She had lots of wonderful insights, both as a marriage dynamics professional and a gospel instructor, that have stuck with me ever since.
Among the many topics she presented, one discussed studies that indicated that some parents were enforcing the virtue of “sharing” upon their children so much that their children were growing up with a deficient, warped, or even nonexistent concept of personal property. As a result, these children who lacked a sense of property were less likely to respect the property of others and more likely to steal or vandalize.
My own parents had been careful about how much we were forced to “share” our toys.
With our own children, we have tried to teach that their belongings really do belong to them, and that, while sharing is the right thing to do, we will not force them to share against their will. After all, what virtue is there in sharing unless you have the choice not to share? And if no property is ever your own to withhold, then what beneficence is there in giving?
The 18th annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival starts tomorrow, August 30th in Orem, Utah and continues through Saturday, September 1st.
The storytelling festival is absolutely awesome! If you have never been, and can be in Utah County this week, it really is worth checking out.
Every year, they invite ten or so of the most accomplished national and even international storytellers to come to Utah to teach workshops and perform for the festival. The festival is well known among professional storytellers, and each year the tellers comment on how impressive the event is when compared to similar events nation wide. Thousands of people attend.
Sorry for the lapse in blog postings during the last couple of weeks. Blogging is but one of my time-wasting endeavors. As many of you know, another is Puppetry.
My cousin Rus Wilson, his wife Kelly, my close friend Sean Healy, my wife Chastity, and I founded the Maxed Out Puppetry – Puppet Comedy Troupe nearly a decade ago while still students and recent graduates of Brigham Young University. Since then we have performed at museums, libraries, festivals, parties, churches, and many other venues, primarily in Utah County, but also as far north as the Davis County Library in Layton and as far south as Filmore.
Since then we have been joined by additional puppeteers: Caitlin Shirts, Patrick Svensson, and David Wilson.
We are very excited to present our brand-spanking-new website:
