Today I substituted for Kiki’s primary teacher at church. I don’t get asked to substitute in my kid’s classes very often, so I shouldn’t complain. I just depend upon having two hours of away-from-the-kids time during church and I don’t get that if I’m teaching their classes. I grumbled and griped inside my head while I prepared the lesson and during sacrament meeting. The actual experience of teaching the class was really pleasant. There was a group of about 8 girls aged 11 and 12. Because I know my audience, I framed the whole lesson as a discussion. This allowed the girls to talk and express opinions throughout the whole class time. It was fun. As an added bonus I got the 12 year old girls to talk about the Young Women’s program and the fun things they get to do. Kiki is 11 and has been apprehensive about entering the Young Women’s program. It was good for her to hear these good things about it.
After individual classes all the children ages 8-11 were gathered together for Sharing Time which is a group lesson. (The 12-year-olds departed for Young Men/Women.) My responsibility during that time is merely to participate and squelch rowdy behavior. Since I was sitting with 2 11-year-old girls and Link who ditched his class, there wasn’t all that much squelching to do. I was able to have a little contemplative time after all.
I sat there and realized that today was Patches’ last week in Nursery. He is about to become a sunbeam. He loves nursery because it is two hours of toys with brief interruptions for snack, singing, and lesson time. Sunbeams phases out the toys and snacks. It is an important transition into Primary, but it tends to be a rough transition. I’ve talked with Patches about being a Sunbeam. I act all excited about how cool being a Sunbeam is, but I’m not sure that Patches is convinced. The good news is that during sharing times Gleek will be in the same place as Patches. Gleek is a wonderful big sister when she wants to be nice. I may be able to leverage that into better behavior for both kids. I’m so machiavellian.
With the coming of January, most of my kids will be getting new Primary teachers. I don’t know who they are yet. I do know that I’m sad that Link will be leaving behind the teachers he has had this year. They’ve been wonderful for him. I hope the teachers for 2007 are as good. For most of the past year Gleek had two 19-year-old girls as teachers. Gleek loved them, but they were sometimes less than reliable. They were recently replaced by a young married couple. I wonder who Gleek’s teachers will be this next year and whether they’ll be able to handle the exuberance/determination that is Gleek. Kiki gets to keep her teachers. But in 5 months she’ll be 12, so she still has a major transition to undergo.