Sunday, October 19, 2008

Good Thing They're Cute...

Today at church, the little girl in my Sunbeam class said to me, "Teacher, thank you for loving me."

I guess it's when they say these nice things that it makes up for them driving me absolutely insane. We had a practice for the primary presentation we are doing during sacrament meeting next Sunday and they were soooo out of control (again) this week. I thought it couldn't get any worse than last week, but....a group of 4-year-olds have a particularly great talent for making a person crazy in a very short amount of time. With all the bouncing around and almost falling off benches multiple times, it's very surprising to me that someone didn't at least loose a tooth or something. It's also amazing how much better they suddenly hear you when you tell them something and add that, if they don't start behaving they are going to have to go see their dad next. Sometimes, it's otherwise like nothing was never said to them. But, they always hear that! I finally resorted to just sitting on the floor in front of them so I could try and keep them all within my reach. In the chapel, no less!

Our church must be the true church of Jesus Christ, or else we never be able to survive the wrath of the Sunbeam class. But, since it is, we sit on the floor in front of them and spend 2 hours asking them to be quiet and sit down and be reverent, hoping something worthwhile in the middle of all the craziness gets through. I guess it must, because many Sunbeams have probably grown up to be leaders in the church who eventually stopped jumping around and making their teacher crazy. Even I was once a Sunbeam. However, I don't think I really could have been that wild!

4 comments:

Krista said...

We had our presentation last week, here's what I did to keep the kids in a two spot radius IN their seats (all ages 3-6):
1. Gave them all a small booklet of blank pages (that I made by simply stapling pages together) with a pencil.
2. Gave them all a baggie of snacks (our presentation went from 8:30 till almost 10) that were easy to eat, quiet and not messy (fish crackers, popcorn, wheat thins)
3. Kept an eye on the presentation run down and tapped on the shoulder just before they needed to be at the mic.

It worked even better than I had anticipated.
Just make sure you know the kids well enough that the parents won't object to you giving out snacks. Or ask parents to send a baggie of snacks up with them ...

Nancy at ManicForMosaics said...

What a cute story! Nooooooooooo, you were probably the PERFECT Sunbeam! LOL!!

Lindsey Rae said...

Those are good ideas. I asked the Primary president if I should bring something for them to do and she said "yes!" I hadn't really thought of it before because I thought they might not participate in the songs otherwise. But, it might be better than seeing someone try to stand on a bench while they are up there....or try to stand on two benches at once. 'Cause, it happens.

Krista said...

Just remind them before the presentation starts that they are to pay attention and stand up when the songs are to be sung.
Once again ... worked great for me.