Separation Anxiety

haha! I bet you thought this post was going to be about handling nursery kids and their separation anxiety!! Nope. It's about mine from the nursery! This is the first Sunday without going to nursery, starting a new ward, and it was nerve-racking to me!! Seriously, it took all my strength to not find the nursery in the new ward and RUN TO IT!!  To start singing and playing and teaching and doing all the normal stuff I do..err did.  sigh.

Alright, alright. I will write about separation anxiety in nursery children. First of all, please understand that I DO NOT like the "sneak out." And yes, I will discourage it to any parent. Rarely does it work.  Instead, I first explain to parents my philosophy and plan.  Generally, children around 18 months are just beginning to grasp the concept of "object permanence." That is the mental ability to acknowledge that just because something can not be seen does not mean it does not exist anymore. While peek a boo and hiding a toy under a blanket is hiliarious to young children dissappearing mom, dad, or any caretaker NOT SO MUCH! Add that to the fact for the last 18 months of life they were hardly out of your sight while at church...it is like a double whammy to be dropped off in a room with a person they don't know with a bunch of kids.  Now, some kids are naturally ready and can just be dropped off in the nursery.

Other children need time.  Here is the plan. It is super simple. You need a good co-leader or assistant and a timer and maybe ear plugs. A good co-leader to either hold/entertain/distract the child or direct the other children in the nursery for activities and the ear plugs because sometimes they scream. lol  With the parents set an amount of time that the child will stay in the nursery, for example I generally use 10 minutes. If I was the one with the new child I would try to distract them with toys or singing all the while telling them in a few minutes I will take you to mom (dad, grandma, ect.) At the end of the time; TAKE THEM TO THAT PERSON.  The idea here is to build trust; mom goes to her class and you come to your class after class I will take you to mom.  Over the next few weeks slowly extend that time.  Always telling them after snack time or singing time or whatever we will take you to mom. And never lie. If you say you will take them, take them! 

This usually takes a couple months or so of Sundays, but generally it works.  However, you must remember every child is different.  Talk to the parents or grandparents or who ever brings them, this is why visits to their homes is a good thing.  You get to know the child and his/her personality ahead of time.  I remember one child and his mother.. attached to each other.  It was obvious that they had a special bond.  It was hard to break.  This mother would sit against a backwall for the entire 2 hours of church encouraging him to play with the other children or sing for a few months.  Around the fourth month she started leaving after 1 hour 45 minutes.  Tell him "See ya, be back in 15 minutes." and leave.  Yes, he cried and screamed. She over the next several months slowly add 15 minutes to her time away "see ya, be back in 30 minutes..45 minutes... an hour.."  Until one day, she finally just dropped him off saying "see ya, be back in 2 hours!"  I remember that boy still having a rough start each time he was dropped off in the nursery, but he had fanastic nursery leaders that just loved, loved, loved him!  Today, he is in Valiant 10 class, and yes, we still have a very close bond!!

It is important to remember that nursery class isn't for every child at 18 months. It isn't a magically number that means the child is ready for that big change.  I encourage all parents to be mindful of their child(ren) and pray about when she or he should enter the nursery and how. Work together with the nursery leaders!!

The manual has many more ideas to help ease the transition from a parents side to the nursery, so check them out either online or ask your ward nursery leader for a copy from the manual.  

God bless!!

PS if you want to pray that I get called back into the nursery in my new ward I will not be offended. hee-hee!!

Autumn in the nursery...and changes.

First things first. My family is moving, which means this is the last time I will decorate the nursery for the Kingsland, Georgia Ward.  I actually finished them last week, but I have been busy with school and packing so I didn't post the pictures.  Here is my autumn decorations! Some turned out well others I didn't like and would do differently next time.  Either way it created a warm and comfortable place for the nursery children.

Here is the large/main room.  The longer wall.  I tried to make this a bit changable for the winter months/Christmas season.  My co-leader will just take down the tree, pumpkins, and owl (if she wants too) in their place add a fir tree and snow to the fence... maybe some snowflakes to the wall as well as hanging.

I love this little owl! I thought he was soo darling! Good job me!!

 

 

The autumn tree just glued on a bunch of pre-cut leaves (from the dollar store) onto a large piece of gift wrapping paper. 

Due to time constraints and running out of stream from packing, studying and life.. my wheat stalks are not the greatest, but okay.  I added the fence and of course our check in sign (aka the Pumpkin patch) with pumpkins for each nursery child to add to the patch when they come in.
Winter/Christmas change... replace the wheat with snowman and either little snowflakes or little snowman for the check in.

Here is my misstep.. I thought oh I will do a garland effect with the leaves... kind of wish I would have just hung them individually.

Same thing with the apples in the small room.  And added some leaves.

The chalkboard in the small room with lyrics from the CSB Autum Day.  Thanks for the tip Charlene! MUSIC GODDESS!
The winter change here is take down the paper and create the navitiy scene for the children to see.

The walls are to look like an apple orchard, ready for harvesting. 

Again, for the winter/Christmas season, take down the trees, buckets and apples... add the Shepards and the star on the large wall... and the 3 wise men on the shorter wall. 

 

 

I love the apple trees! Reminds me of home!

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Jesus Created the World For Me

This is what I came up with for our nursery lesson today which was on "Jesus Christ created the World for Me."  I did something similar when I previously called to the nursery, but couldn't find it again.  So, I made this one. 

We just talked about the world part of the creation.  I did pre-color the black and yellow day and night spot, but then we just put glue on each spot as I told about that one section.  For example, land and sea.  "Jesus Christ created the seperated the land from the water."  We attached a piece of blue cellophane and a piece of sand piece.  If that made sense.

For the Sun, Moon and Stars: Attached foil stars and a yellow sun (forgot to cut out moons)
For the plants, trees and flowers: a leaf, but anything would do (petals, pine needles, grass blades, ect)
For All kinds of animls: bug stickers, feathers, animal stamps.

I like to use different types of paper, textures and even ways to "stick" things to the paper.  Some of the senior primary kids really liked gluing and sticking stuff (as most little ones do) and even the juniors liked it.  I admit that I wish I had had more time to gather stuff and remembered the old one I did.  oh well. fun times in the nursery. 

I will be very sad to leave at the end of the month!  We are moving, as my husband got a  job with another police department, and that means I will be released! BOO!  I have one more room change in store so hopefully this week I can get it done and have it up before Sunday! (fingers and toes crossed!)

Michelle

Fishies are finished! I think...

Today we ended our monthly theme with I Can Pray with My Family.  To do this, we "fished" for the things we need to do to be ready for family prayer.  Such as arms folded, gathered together, ect. Each child was able to cast the fishing rod (ruler with a string and magnet) into the "water" (our blue feltboard) and pull out one of the paper fish (with a paper clip taped on it) with the step written on it. 
I dont have any photos of this, because I didn't have my camera and I was flying solo today.  Anywho, as each child caught a "fish" we all did that part.  It was cute and the little ones really loved fishing! Who knew?!

I am now in the process of thinking up what to do next, as far as nursery decoration is concerned.  This time is really hard, as within a month my family might be moving, so I would like to leave my partner/co-leader with something she can just add to or make minor changes to for the holiday season ahead.  I was thinking fir tree/forest. So, that during the Christmas season she can add some snow or shepards or something.   I am still thinking. 

Today's cutest moment has to be this!



Half of the nursery kids, crowded around the window.

 

 In our schedule we have a block of time that is called "Books and Babies" where they get to 'read' or tell a 'baby' (either a soft baby doll or a stuffed animal) about a book. We sometimes bring a child to the window and open it so they can look outside (aka be distracted either from a parent leaving, settle one down, or just when we need to fill the time.)  This group of nursery kids wanted to show their babies the outside. So, I opened the window for them. 




Showing their babies the outside.

The funny thing about this window is that it looks out into the A/C units and the brick wall the encloses them. So, really it just isn't that exciting unless we see one or two anoles (little lizards) running about or a bird.  But they love it!!

**Generally I do not post photos of the nursery children on a public blog as to protect them and their privacy. However, since it is the back of their heads I figured I was ok!**

Michelle

The Family A Proclamation to the World

Hey! I know I didn't post last week, but our stake had conference, and honestly, it wasn't a good day.  I went to drop off a couple puzzles I had purchased to discover that some people from the Saturday evening session were let into the nursery, cupboards opened.. and long story short..stuff was damaged and the room a mess.  It was highly upsetting to me. Sadly, I spent most of conference venting/writing a letter to our stake presidency about the problems.  That is all I will say about that, because I don't care to have any of you be struck by lightning. 

Onto today's lesson. While I wasn't able to stay for it (had to take a friend to the airport) my wonderful nursery co-leader took the helm.  She is fanastic! I don't think I say it enough!  Our theme for the month has been families, with that she talked about families and how to love them. The activitiy for the lesson was coloring.  I know, not that original or cool, but wait. I think it was super cute! Just look!!

First, I printed out The Family A Proclmation to the World on vellum. I was very lucky to find some on clearance at Walmart a few months ago. Otherwise this might be costly to some, but that is what the primary budget is for! Ask your Primary Presidency, mine is fanastic and she is okay with most of the stuff I do, and tells me to reimburse my spending. But check with yours before you do, honestly I hardly ever turn in receipts unless it is something big. Just me, okay back on topic!

 
During the activity, she had the children just color (any design, color, whatever) a blank piece of thick paper (mine was sketching paper, but cardstock or just white copy paper would be perfect too!) Here is the one I quickly did..since I left all the materials with my co-leader.

Once they finished coloring, she glued the pre-printed vellum paper on top of their colored paper. I thought it was cute. What do you think?

At this point, the parents could do whatever they wanted with it. Hang it on the frig, send it to grandparents, frame it.. up to them!

Sand and Sea!!

Changing the decoration in the nursery is always challenging...sometimes I wonder how far can I push the boundaries? How crazy can I go?  Well, I decided to take a dive...under the sea!  

 
This is the long wall in the larger room of our nursery.  It took me FOREVER to attach all the pieces, blue tacky poster putty stuff as to not damage the walls.  I think it was worth all the effort and time.. and pulling off tiny bits of poster putty!! 

 Hmm. I thought you'd be able to read that better, but oh well. It's Neal A. Maxwell. You can't go wrong with him! It reads "If we will hold fast to the Church's proclamation on the family, we will see that we hold the jewels, as it were, that can enrich so many other things..."

A view from the doorway between the two nursery rooms of the hanging fish, seahorses and a couple octopus/jellyfish.  I think the kids liked them!

And our chalkboard in the large room, still need to add the Proclamation to the World on the Family to it.  Looks cool either way!

In the small room I decided to do the shore, so the beach!  Here is what I came up with!!

This our chalkboard in the smaller room (the one we use for snack, some lessons, playdough, ect.)  The sign reads "Don't Be Crabby!" and a quote from Elder David Bednar "We can begin to become more diligent and concerned at home by telling the people we love that we love them. We simply should sincerely and frequently express love."



 And our stuff/shoe/craft holder, they are laminated shells with the "regulars" name on them as well as a few that are marked guest, buddy, new friend, ect..

 The hanging stuff in the smaller room, shovels, pails, sand castle molds. 

And lastly the long wall in the small room, complete with sand castle, sun (in upper corner) two kites, and a shovel and a couple pails.  

I hope it was completely over the top! haha!! Let me know what ya'll think!

"I WILL" Olympics 2012

Excuse the mess on the table. =)

While I admit that I did not get to decorate and do as much as my mind had wanted to.. it sure was a fun idea!!  Tomorrow will be our "Medal Ceremony" and each child will be getting there little Gold medals.   However, today I wanted to post the photos of the room as well as ramble on about what we did all month. 

In addition to the photo above is the another angle of the smaller room that we use for snack and sometime lesson and fine motor activities. 

My darling husband next to the Olympic ring wall.

Our Leader Board

 I admit there is much missing here.. I never got around to adding the scripture "...I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded..." 1 Nephi 3:7 to that blank space above the leader board. Oops! The leader board has each nursery child's name and a column for the "event" aka lesson.  After each lesson a corresponding smiley face sticker was placed.  I was very conflicted about marking everyone's or just the ones that were there...as you can see I ended up marking everyone.  The half circles on the left listed the event/lesson by it's corresponding color. I hope that made sense.
The lessons were  I Will Be.. thankful, say "I'm Sorry," Share, Love Others and Obey.  They are in the "Behold Your Little Ones" manual that is used for the nursery class.

My son's addition to the decorations; olympians.

 Normally when I decorate the nursery, my children are in school but it's summer break. Peter-Leo (my son) wanted to help so I tasked him to make the olympic rings out of tissue paper.  He tried cutting and cutting and the shape was never right. But he kept getting the shape you see to the left of the bathroom door.  He said it looked like people and he wanted to make them olympians.  It was a great idea.
Our normally undecorated shoe/paper holder was decorated with shoes cut outs that I purchased at our local dollar store that had each child's name written on them. I thought it went with the theme nicely!

The main/larger room was pretty simple. I added the Olympic rings (which should of had the scripture quote underneath it as well... but I just ran out of time. sorry.)  And of course the same balloon and stars hanging from the ceiling as the smaller room. While the smaller room's chalkboard had a leader board, this room's chalkboard was decorated with those medal winner blocks. 

You may notice the small baggie on the upper left hand side of the poster, it is filled with gold paper circles with each child's name written on it.  These gold medals/name tags have velcro on the back and attach to a poster (attached to the back of the door to the left of the chalkboard) decorated with the Olypmic Rings.  The purpose is to have them attach their medal to the Olympic Rings as a "Check in." Most of the little ones like doing it.  Later we move those medals to the Helper Chart.  

Again Olympic Rings on the wall in the main room.  That long rectangle white blur on the left side of the cabinets is the "Helper's Chart" when we attach the medals of those that are there that day to simple tasks/jobs like Cup Carrier,Snack Carrier, Music Helper,  Rug Person, Opening Prayer, etc. 

I know that children have really enjoyed the new decorations and the theme.  I know tomorrow they will love getting their little gold medals! I will try to take a couple photos and post them.   

many wows and woes,
Michelle