what i look like when i planned a really awesome activity and there is utter chaos

the first day of a new nursery worker’s day in nursery

Emergency Preparedness for the Little Ones

i'm the first one to openly admit, that i have like no emergency preparedness stuff. well, take that back. i currently have a few things put together thanks to a faithful lady in my ward who cornered me in nursery party to ask if i had my 72 hour kit together yet. and embarrassingly enough, i dont have one. i was sort of into it during the summer time but that whole mess freaked me out cause i went into end-of-the-world apocalypse mode and overwhelmed myself. so then i just quit and looked into all that since.

but there are some crazy things going on in the world and it's winter time over here. you never know what could happen. but i guess there have always been crazy things going on in the world but you just have to be prepared. that's the whole point isn't it? and i'm a mom now and have two little ones to keep alive in case there is an emergency and man oh man just the thought of being unprepared and panicked makes me cringe.

anyways, i committed to her that i would start on my kit the following day, so i went out with the few extra dollars i had and hit up the thrift store for backpacks and wal-mart for the things that i needed from the list. i'm happy to report that at least i have the 72 hour kits ready for the kids.

i was going to create this super awesome cutesy little printable to go along with this post, but that's not what is important. what is important is...

STARTING AND COMMITTING (isn't that the case for everything?)

and it's almost the new year, best time to start new and get things done!

here is an AWESOME starter list that was simple and not overwhelming for me. avoid pinterest, too much going on for the sake of an awesome blog post. this is seriously all you need.

here are a few tips to just help you start immediately:

- go around your house and see if you can find any of these items already.

- the "backpack" - if you have an extra travel bag, duffel bag, or even a pillow case, use that. just find something that can store things in. it doesn't have to be some lightweight whatever back pack but if you want that you can get this one for $20 on amazon. one per kid! 

- use a bunch of ziploc bags to separate everything

- go to your kitchen - if you have ramen or anything processed that has an expiration date of six months from now, put it in there

- schedule - write in your planner, set an alarm to check the 72 hour kits 6 months from now to replace clothes and food. 

you can imagine my pure joy at the small/toys and games suggestion for the little ones. here's my two cents on it:

- include a toy/activity or two that you know your toddler always has an interest in (peej loves cars and junie loves building things)
- notebook and writing/coloring utensils - there are endless things you can do with a notebook and a pen

we worry about getting things that make us look good or make our kids look adorable. we want people to ask us, "where did you get that?" and say "OMG! you look awesome." but when it comes down to being prepared, physically and/or financially and all we have are cute clothes and expensive stuff, none of which are emergency-preparedness worthy, who is the fool!? right??

after you've read this, start. START NOW. if you need someone to report to, report to me please! i'd love to hold you accountable ;)

GO!

[product review] - cheap "wooden" puzzles

a while ago, i posted about some really cute puzzles that i found at "the spot" at target (their dollar section). i hadnt really busted them out cause we lose puzzle pieces so fast here at home and i hate tracking them down. seriously, pull my hair out. in nursery party it's a different story because it's not your house and other people need to use the room so you have to clean. well, i finally let the kids play with them to see how they would like them. and conclusion? the puzzles weren't really that great. the print is adorable, i love robots and i love animals.

but...

they have no guidelines, no helps in how to complete them. toddlers need this. it helps them to feel like they know what they are doing and are somewhat in control and independent. it also makes things easier as a nursery leader/worker to engage but not hover (there are other kids to attend to after all!)

budget wise though, these puzzles were great for us. we needed puzzles and the kids seem interested, so we had to make a few little adjustments. i drew a few dotted lines in to outline the pieces and labeled them 1-whatever on the puzzle piece and the puzzle itself. the kids have actually done pretty well with the puzzles, go kids!

(photo by: ashley so'oto)

tis the season to focus on the savior

i get caught up with a lot of motor skill activities and crafts for nursery. and then i catch myself totally engaged in, well, not the wrong things, but the things that matter less. i am constantly reminding myself that the purpose of nursery "is to help children learn the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and live it. The nursery class should help the children increase their understanding of and love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, have positive experiences in a Church setting, and grow in feelings of self-worth."

so then i feel a little guilty that i'm doing so much research on crafting but let's be real, you can't teach a full on 20 minute lesson to toddlers. it's just not possible. unless you sedate them of course. but you can find ways to have a positive experience in a Church setting and to grow in feelings of self-worth. i feel like crafting and developing skills in nursery help the kids feel that, feel confident, feel accomplished, feel loved. 

that being said, i wanted to find a nursery craft/lesson help that would satisfy my (and maybe your) need to find something different to do outside of the manual coloring page for the christmas lesson. with help from the google, i found these free nativity printables from pretty prudent. i'm probably not going to print fabric just yet, but i probably should for future usage for the nursery peeps or for myself! but for the kids, i want them to be able to each take home a set, so we'll just be doing paper. 

images from pretty prudent

waiting for the parents to pick up their kids after church

waiting for the parents to pick up their kids

strive to be the best parents in the world

this blog and IG thing about nursery party has been quite the spiritual adventure. hopefully it's helping a couple people out there but it's probably just helped me the most and that's what i needed. maybe i just needed a public outlet to assist my journey through motherhood/parenthood/nurserypartyhood to better understand my roles as a wife and mom and nursery party thrower but also to better understand the little people that i am serving. constantly searching and thinking about what to put on the blog and on my IG has helped me be more creative and patient with my own children, magnify my calling in church with the nursery party kids and see the babies in a much more different light (usually retrospectively because in the moment when they are going nutso, i dont see anything crazy). and arent most blogs just self-epiphanies in a social media form anyway? that's what mine are at least.

anyways, happy saturday. carry on! 

kid dropped a bomb in nursery and we have to smell every little bum in order to figure out who done it

and finally when we get to the culprit...

Toddler Christmas Craft Round-Up

i was looking at our lesson schedule, and man. there are only four sundays left of the year. four. and mentally, i did this little dance, like yay the year is over! but then, i siiiighed cause it's not like you have a two week break between this year and the next like between semesters. come dec 28th, you'll just get right back into it the next sunday. no breaks (unless you are going on a vacation). and man, it just keeps going, the years, the days, round and around and around. don't think too hard about it.

anyways, i rounded up a few of my favorite christmas craft ideas that we will be doing in nursery party this month and they are really easy, low maintenance and contain supplies that you probably already have in your closet. (so yay!)

1 - craft snowman found here

2-  candy cane pipecleaners and beads found here

3- toilet paper roll angels found here

4- paper plate ornaments found here

5- paper plate reindeers found here

6- christmas tree paper plates found here

on raising and nurturing children and how we can learn from the ferguson incident

(warning: this is long and i'm sorry if it doesn't make a ton of sense, it's what's on my mind!)

i don't want to use this blog as a political platform or whatever. truth is, i'm not a very involved person when it comes to social movements and keeping up with the hard news. i have SO MUCH going on, at least it feels that way and adding "reading the new york times" and other news outlets is at the bottom of the bottom of my to-do list. actually, it's not even on the list. but this ferguson issue, this ferguson issue. geeeeeeez. i've had such a hard time sorting through my feelings about it for a few reasons. and by now, the issue is probably past the news cycles and the facebook status shares, but they are still dealing with the aftermath out there and in a lot of black communities. and i'm not trying to be all, "look at me and how the ferguson incident affects me! i'm not black and i live in a very white place but i am considered colored!" but isn't the point to care? to dig deep down and feel this? but first...

here's a little background for you:

my mom is tongan and my dad is palauan but i was raised in austin, texas. there are neither tongans or palauans in austin and the ones that are there, my mom recruited from her immediate family to live there. maybe there are more, we just don't know them. because we were very culturally and ethnically isolated from other people like us, our parents raised me to be very american. what does that mean? i think it just means to be raised not seeing color, being aware of it, but not letting it hold you back in what you accomplish in school, work, in life. it also made it very easy to get along with literally everyone. i have my parents to thank for this, who, because of their passion for missionary work and love of the gospel and building the kingdom, left our doors wide open to literally everyone and anyone. my dad was also a bishop, and had a tradition to invite new families into the ward over. he'd often invite a couple of them over to meet each other and become friends. genius, i tell you.  

we went to a magnet middle school (and my siblings went to a magnet high school). those programs were embedded in inner city schools and kids came from all over the city to attend. there was SO MUCH DIVERSITY and i loved it. i had friends of all kinds. but i couldnt really identify specifically with one group because there was no one else like me. and i really loved that, my uniqueness. 

fast forward to the long-winded point of this post.

i've read quite a few things on ferguson, mostly blogs and the educated opinions of different people. some of them i don't agree with at all and some of them really hit home.

then i read this (please forgive all the "f" words, i hate that swear the most out of all the swears!) and appreciated a really honest post from the whiter side of things because for a lot of people who do want to care, they don't know how they can relate because they are so far removed physically and socially. (utah, i'm talking about like, all of you).

"What that tells me is that, for some of you, the destruction in Ferguson was not a “Never Forget” situation, or a national tragedy, or even something to be particularly concerned about … because the bodies in the streets did not look like yours, or your family’s. Because it looks like “other”. Because the problems faced by Black America are not the same as the problems faced by White America, and therefore, they aren’t worth considering."

the articles that really hit home though, were the heartbreaking articles written from the perspective of parents (like this one) and the heartache they experience because this ferguson incident perpetuates itself and is obviously not an isolated one and they can't change how they parent their children because of it. 

"I don't need to know much more than that statistic to know that I need to be vigilant with my son. No toy guns, ever. Teach him to address adults with respect. And if he has a problem with authority, he follows orders then brings his complaints to me so I can get to the bottom and handle it.

I will teach him to trust police, because he can't afford not to. Fear, and the urge to fight or flight could ultimately cost his life.

I'm sure there will be times where he'll get angry with me for not allowing him to do things his white friends do, but the fact of the matter is, he can't get away with the same things. It's a privilege I took from him by giving him my black genes. And until our country begins to value the lives of all of our children equally, this is how it has to be."

i can't say that i can entirely relate to the fears they have when they send their children to the corner store or out with friends because i live in a very LDS community. like the most LDS community you can imagine. it's pretty safe. i attend a tongan ward so my social circle is much bigger than just having a circle of white friends (i have really amazing white friends btw). but now because of this ferguson incident and all of the attention it's getting, i am starting to think about how i have to raise my children. what am i going to say to them when i can see injustices and unfairness and discrimination but they can't they will face in school and with friends? or when my son/daughter gets older and wants to marry a white person and their parents and family members have some resistance but won't come out and say directly that they don't want their child marrying a polynesian?  

so how? how in the world can you teach about this to small children in a church class? they can barely pay attention to a two minute lesson! i started making a bullet point list of all the ways that we can learn from this and apply it to nursery in how we teach children cause that's what you do with a blog, and that list just kept growing and sounded so repetitive and self-righteous and...geez we have SO MUCH responsibility as parents and as teachers and leaders of small children.  but really, it comes down to this:

take what you will from it then ask yourself this tiny list of questions:

1 - are you gossiping or making fun of others in front of your children and/or the children you teach? 

2 - do your children and/or the children you teach see you share? 

3 - do your children and/or the children you teach see you serve? 

4 - do your children and/or the children you teach see you love? 

you may not have a lot of diversity in your area, but if you can instill within your children and the children you teach the principles of love and service, that can go a long long way. oh they are so, so sensitive to the spirit and can feel the sincerity of our words and actions. so even though this isn't much, at least it's something. 

*update: i originally wrote this post a couple days after the ferguson verdict came out and then just a few days ago the eric garner thing happened. i was even more disheartened about everything. it feels hopeless, it really does. if you have a chance to read this article, read it. then ask yourself, what attitude do you have, why do you have it, and what can you do to make the world a better place? not just better for you, but better for those around you? 

so how was nursery today?

can also be applied to relief society anything.

scenes from a sunday

1- before the crazy started. one of the disadvantages of having two kids in nursery is that they are there to set up and play with the toys and activities a solid 15 minutes before everyone gets there. junie is pretty good about continuing to play, but peej. let's just call him "destructo" shall we? siiiiiiigh.

2 - sweet folau engaged in the pegs activity 

3 - the crazy twins working on the crazy eyes magnet board

4 - salted caramel cookies. not homemade, bought the mix at walmart then baked it. AMAZING

5 - post nursery recovery fries. i'm working on it. 

Happy Thanksgiving

i'm not a holiday mom. like at all. you wouldnt be able to tell by my pinterest boards. i mean, maybe you could tell, a little. the only time i was ever the least bit festive was if i was invited to a holiday themed play date and/or a church activity but that's about the extent of it. we don't do traditions, we don't have decorations, no special christmas eve dinners, no turkey at thanksgiving (we do a tongan thanksgiving here with lupulu and manioke. no matter how hard you try to photograph lupulu to make it look good, it just doesnt, but it tastes AMAZING), no easter baskets for the kids with crazy gifts. we don't do any of that. maybe, just maybe we'll remember to wear green for st pattys day. holidays... they just aren't my love language. i feel no pressure whatsoever to display a festive home on social media. plus, i have ZERO storage in my house for decorations. so basically, if it's out, it's out. like my christmas tree kitchen towel that we keep using since last christmas or the christmas lights that just stay up in the room because white christmas lights can go with any time of year. i also HATE black friday.

i guess i inherited this low-maintenance (or no-maintenance) holiday thing from my parents. they weren't crazy holiday people either. the grams would buy a few christmas things that we've used for years like the clay village pieces that you could paint and we loved painting those together. or the over expensive "the nutcracker" spinning twirly thing that played all the music. we did have matching wal-mart sweats a couple of years and we usually open gifts when everyone is awake and start from youngest to oldest. but other than that, we just enjoyed the time off from work and school and the chance to lay around and do absolutely nothing except maybe go out to eat a lot and go to the movies. good times. serious good times.

today i was feeling particularly sorry for myself. i literally laid around the house and didn't do anything. i'd just scroll and scroll through all 50 of my instagram accounts, then scroll some more. i walked around mindlessly. i indexed about 80 names today, threw in a couple loads of laundry and that was the extent of my productivity. the sun was out and it actually looked like a day i should have taken the kids outside. ohhh pregnancy and cold weather and basement living, how you take away my motivation to do anything. it was a very existential day. like, WHAT AM I DOING ANY OF THIS FOR!? but then my husband came home early, we all took a long nap and i finally got a shower and put on my face and felt so much better.

life is ridiculous but so, so good, isn't it? between all of the sadness that is the ferguson situation, the anti-duggar campaigns and everything else that is awful floating around in the news and social media, i hope you can dig down (but not too far) to find what you are grateful for. just take a break from whatever it is you are busying yourself with

i'll start with....

- an incredible husband who accomplishes everything he sets his mind to and who works so hard to build our life physically and spiritually
- two hilariously beautiful fair haired babies who drive me crazy in all of the best ways and make life better than i could have ever imagined
- a warm place to live, food in my fridge, too many clothes and lots of extra things in between
- the best parents who still parent me a lot and have become the worlds greatest grandparents

how about you?

enjoy your family day, don't stress.

quiet service

it's thanksgiving week, which means a lot of reflection time and/or stress. for me it's reflection. i don't stress about thanksgiving. i'm not really a holiday person. i love holidays, but i don't go all out decorating every inch of my house or carrying out traditions. and i don't do the black friday thing either cause well, we don't have the money for that, as cheap as things are. it's not worth getting into more debt just to buy stuff and battle the other crazies out that day.

the other night, when i was feeling particularly sorry for myself, i had this thought. and it basically went like this:

before i was pregnant, i could go out, often, and deliver treats to friends. help watch their kids if they had appointments or were pregnant and needed some rest. i could show up to a service project and actually serve and work and sweat along side everyone else. i didn't have to do a lot of coordinating to get out my door and to a tiny bit of service. 

but now, two kids later and another pregnancy in the works, i can't. do. anything. i'm too tired to leave my house. i can't run into different stores to stroll around and find things that will cheer people up without a massive production of prepping children to head out the door then wrestle them in and out of car seats and in and out of shopping carts. geez, typing the entire process is making me tired. this pregnancy, just thinking about slightly strenuous activities literally makes me tired. and service projects? there's no way i can go to a service project because my husband probably has to be there and one of us has to chase the kids and it can't be him. 

and then in the same train of thought i became literally enlightened and it finally hit me: my service is here at home with these babies and my husband. my husband is a bishop right now, and his service is needed much more than mine. the service i can give him is to take care of the kids and the home and let him go out and take care of everything he needs to. it's caring and teaching my children.

i mean, we all know that, but do we really, really, know that? has it sunk in? it finally sunk in for me. i don't always love it, but i get it now.

and to sum it all up in the most perfect way possible, my friends at the small seed wrote this on IG one day:

on free play

images via 

or "free time." i know you've probably seen articles floating around on FB or passed through forwarding emails regarding the reduction of "free time." parents are doing it through overscheduling their children, schools are doing it pushing kindergarteners to try to read at first grade levels and all that. i often catch myself surfing through pinterest to try and find "scheduled activities"for my kids to do.

first of all, my kids are TWO and THREE. every thing i've read (like here), especially through charlotte mason homeschooling curriculum, says to just let the kids that age play. there is no curriculum for them yet because they are just supposed to use their senses and explore on their own. this is hard for me. i feel like i'm not really doing anything for them if we don't have an organized activity and then i get upset if an organized activity doesn't go the way the pinterest picture portrays. and then i realized, that i'm trying to distract them instead of interact with them. being engaged in anything really for five minutes is much better than the struggle and frustration to distract them for ten.

for nursery party, don't confuse "free play" with a "lack of schedule." that is a common misconception and feels like it's easier for a nursery leader to just let the kids play for two hours. first of all, that defeats the purpose of nursery, learning the gospel of Christ. second, kids that age in a nursery setting need a schedule. not a rigorous schedule where they are constantly busy, but a schedule to help them feel like they know what is going on, so they know what to expect and can be more helpful. third, it keeps your sanity as a leader. you aren't trying to make up activities when the kids finally get tired of playing with toys. and fourth, it gets them ready for sunbeams. if the kids don't learn how to sit through a lesson (or the concept of sitting, cause getting a bunch of toddlers to "sit" through a lesson is rough but at least they are learning the principle!), or sit through singing time, it makes life more chaotic for the sunbeam teachers and up and up and up.

it really starts in the nursery!!

here are some fun, motor skill building, interactive toys (for cheap!) for the kids that i love:

here

lesson printable and craft for lesson 15 - I will be thankful

november, thanksgiving. so we are going to be doing gratitude activities the last couple of weeks this month, duh! i spent all of last week revamping our closet with the motor skills activities, that i really didn't have time to think of a thanksgiving thing. and my personality is to make things as simple and stress free for myself as possible. which means i'm only doing one big thanksgiving lesson/activity the week of thanksgiving. it just makes my life 10 million times easier. i'm juggling two kids under three by myself every sunday since my husband is the bish, so naturally i'm all about the one-trip-wonder method. gather everything--bags, nursery stuff, snacks, kids and take it all all in one trip into the building.

i've created a simple printable for coloring and a craft! each printable i create, i want the kids to have the opportunity to learn, see letters, color in lines, etc. not just color a picture. though your nursery party kids may not be able to read just yet, some might be able to identify letters, enjoy learning a phrase. the printable provides some dialogue for the teacher. dialogue = extending an activity by four to five minutes (in my personal experience!) i'm all for making the time go by!

hopefully most of these things you already have in your house or can find for cheap/free at different places. and if you don't have stuff and not a lot of budget, ask the parents of your nursery party kids if they have things they can save (like toilet paper rolls, cereal boxes, pringles cans) or donate (scraps of paper, paper bags, lunch sacks, etc). if they are anything like me, they'll have hoards of craft things hanging around the house that their spouses are dying to get rid of.

and here's the "I will be thankful" booklet that you can use in addition to the worksheet provided in the manual.

i love free hand stuff. let the kids put stickers, stamps, markers, pens, crayons all over this little booklet. the older kids might enjoy tracing around the letters and coloring them in.

just print, cut and staple! and if you want it to appear to be a little fancier, use that vintage brown looking scrap book paper for the cover page and the last page.

here's the link, enjoy!

if you are having trouble downloading it, send me an email at josie.nurseryparty@gmail.com and i'll send you a copy!

and here is the thanksgiving paper plate turkey! cut the paper plates, the toilet paper rolls, beaks and draw the eyes in before you take them to your activity, helps keep the attention span! 

[missionary monday] - toddler approved motor skills package

my sister, Marie, is on a mission in Vancouver, WA. if you see her, say hi, give her a hug. she'd love that, and she's a great hugger.

anyways, seeing that i'm blogging on the regular now, somewhat with a purpose, my mind never shuts off and i am always jotting down ideas. one of my ideas in the middle of a night when i desperately needed sleep was to see if my sister could use some of these things we had just found at the dollar store as teaching helps. mostly as a way to help small children keep quiet and occupied (and to feel engaged in something) during lessons.

last monday came around and she replied with, "Answer to my prayers. That would help SO MUCH. I was going to ask you for stuff like that in this week's email."

how validated do i feel right now??

we've always kind of functioned on the same wavelength with eight years in between us (i'm the oldest and she's the youngest) so this whole email correspondence was a little hilarious but mostly awesome.

here's the breakdown of the package:

Travel sized peg set - $1 -  found these at the dollar tree but you can find them at walmart or target or anywhere that will have travel sized games in the game/toy section. right now, these are all over the place because it's the holidays and they are great stocking stuffers. 

Homemade notebook - took some leftover scrapbook paper, cut computer paper to fit inside, then stapled it. i taped the sharp side of the staples on the back cause those snag and cut little hands. 

Ambulance puzzle - $1 - found this at the dollar store. i drew the numbers and the dotted lines because as cute as these puzzles are, they need a little guidance for toddlers.

Smiley stickers - $1 - dollar tree score as well. it gets pretty overcast up in the PNW so i wanted her to have sunshiney stickers. 

you can also insert lacing cards. those are fun and I need to pick some up.

make sure to put anything with little pieces in ziploc bags so they are ready to go when the package is opened.

total for this package is a little under $10 including postage!

uh, men can be nursery people too

so, i'm doing a lot of researching (aka switching back and forth between facebook, instagram, downton abbey, food) and found that there's a lot of things that cater to the women-folk. ahhh, yes, the women of nursery. (no, there's not a feminist rant in the following paragraphs. wrong blog for that!)

well, hate to break it to you, but men can have callings (i.e. designated responsibility assigned by his bishop) in nursery, too! whooooooa. i know, it's rare, but they do! and they are often really, really good at it in their own way. it's kind of like in a family/new parents' how to article where it suggests that the wife try as much as possible to let the husband figure out his own special way of parenting. it's kind of like that having a guy in nursery. instead of trying to control how he talks to the kids, or how he lays out the snacks, give him a little guidance and let him roll with it. plus, kids love guys, they love the change in the vibes they put out. it's different from the women, and that's a great thing.

i went home to austin this past summer and my mom was no longer the nursery leader. in fact, she hadn't been the nursery leader for almost four years. she was called to be the stake nursery specialist. yeah, i didnt even know they had that! but the lady has a divine gift or sixth sense or something when it comes to children. i get a lot of what i know from her. i'm trying to convince her to hold workshops when she comes to town. aaaanyways, a new nursery leader was called. an awesome brother who was previously a ward clerk, had a wide age range of children from college to kindergarten. his assistant was another older gentleman who had kids in high school. they had an older widow woman as a nursery helper. their system was simple but incredible. nothing out of the ordinary, but still so so great. and they didn't take any credit for it! they said they inherited the schedule and the supplies from the previous nursery leader (who also did an amazing job). but watching them care for and interact with the kids was 100% them and the good man upstairs. it re-motivated me to do better in my calling both as a nursery leader and as a mom. sure they got a lot of transitional help from the previous leader, but this was their show now and it was great.

point of that personal anecdote was to just briefly share that men are pretty great in nursery too, so don't count them out!

a lot of what i post will be for both men and women called to serve in nursery party and a lot of it will be crossovers into homeschooling, parenting, keeping toddlers busy during the winter, at doctors appointments, wherever you find a situation where you need to teach/entertain/interact with the under four crowd.

the usual,

keep it simple & teach the doctrine. and pray, pray a lot.

Sending you all the best vibes in the world,

josie

The Magic in the Manual

what to know what the magic is?

reading it.

READ. THE. MANUAL.

the intro has so much good stuff in helping you figure out how to stick to the doctrine and keep things simple.

too often, we think that we have to scour the internets to find tips and ideas for nursery, and their are lots. we can thank the overload of technology and social media for that. but when you find yourself with brain farts and blockages, go back to the manual. seriously, good stuff. simple stuff. obvious stuff.

and then, you should probably consult the man upstairs, because not every nursery is the same, not every kid is the same. things that work for my nursery party may not work for yours. the needs are different, the dynamic of leaders are different.

via

keep it simple & teach the doctrine. 

Sending you all the best vibes in the world,

josie

{Pinterest Review}: Pipe Cleaner Strainer and Pool Noodle Beading

here's a round-up/brief review of a couple of pins from pinterest that i tried with my nursery. some of these probably really worked well for the kids in your nursery or maybe they failed miserably. i'd love to hear from you on why yours worked/didnt work!

Activity: Pipe cleaners in strainer

Rating: B-

Review: Lasted about three minutes. I had only two strainers (yay for tight budgets and limited storage space), lots of pipe cleaners, way too many kids who wanted to try it at the same time and lost patience because of the waiting to take turns. Mostly human error on my part, kids want their own things to work on! Who knows, we may try this again when we clean out the closet and acquire more funds.

Suggestion: Better for nurseries that have five or less kids and lots of adult one-on-one accessibility. OR if you have lots of kids in your nursery, split into smaller groups and have an adult help each group. OR have another activity going on at the same time so you don't have to have one strainer per kid to occupy everyone.

Activity: Pool Noodle Beads

Rating: B

Review: Seasonal, so you have to remember to get pool noodles in the summer time. If using the dollar store jump ropes, make sure you tape off the ends cause they fray really quick. Kids who are teething or little boys in general like to bite these and then they get ruined. But was pretty good for my toddler at home to play with by herself. 

Suggestion: Save on the space in your closet and just use cereal and string, cut up straws and string, anything other than the pool noodles. #dointoomuch. But if you want to get double usage out of them and utilize them as building blocks, that could work too. Just beware the chompers.

i conquered a massive crazy house post halloween nursery party in relatively good spirits

the nursery was CRAZY. C-R-A-Z-Y. i mean, every kid either cried, cried then vomited, threw a tantrum, jumped on the tables, pushed over chairs, fought over toys, yelled during singing time, ran around, bonked heads, threw snacks on the floor, spilled water, ripped their craft papers, etc. (i know, after all of that there is still an etcetera.)

this was probably a result of post-halloween-massive-sugar-hangover. nursery is definitely not like this every sunday, not at all. now that i know about the post-halloween nursery party sunday, i'll try to write it in my nursery calendar to plan for it next year aka bring sedatives, load them up with turkey, turn all the lights off, light sleepy candles that sort of thing.

whelp, in the end, i felt like i handled it pretty darn well considering the situation. my nursery people might say otherwise. but in the spirit of feeling awesome about not completely losing my cool in front of the kids and turning into a rage momster...

so then i loaded them with fruit snacks and sent them on their way when their parents came to pick them up.

you're welcome, mom and dad. #sorrynotsorry about the sugar rush you had on your way home and into the first few minutes of nap time.




as always,

keep it simple & teach the doctrine. and pray, pray a lot.

Sending you all the best vibes in the world,

josie

Welcome!

hey friends, fellow nursery leaders, primary presidencies, parents of toddlers. welcome welcome welcome! let's try to navigate this nursery thing, shall we? i'll be asking for help, reporting successes, documenting my self-medication-post-nursery (when necessary), venting, and mostly just trying to make you laugh and feel sooo not alone in this.

(image via pinterest)

just remember (and i'll say it every time i sign off...)

keep it simple & teach the doctrine. and pray, pray a lot.

Sending you all the best vibes in the world,

josie