Pre-Activity Days

When we moved to our new house and started attending the new ward, Aubree was thrilled to discover there were five other girls in her primary class.  There was constant talk of having friends over, or going to visit friends, but with the tumult of having a new baby and other life events, play dates just weren't happening.  I found myself wishing that Aubree was already old enough to attend Activity Days, because then there would be a built-in chance for her to get together with all her friends. Then, *ding!* I had an idea.  Why not have a mommy-led pre-activity days get together?  

I sent a quick email to the other moms to gage interest levels, and they were all onboard.  So, since November the girls have been meeting together once a month.  The mom in charge chooses an activity (whatever she wants), hosts, and provides the supplies.  The first month the girls made pies in jars. The next, they sewed stockings out of old sweaters.  This last week they made snowmen out of socks.  Mostly, they just look forward to getting together; doing fun stuff is just a bonus.

January was my turn to host and I had the girls put together Baptism Preparation Binders.  It's something I wanted to do for Aubree in anticipation of her 8th birthday later this year, and having the pre-activity days event with all the other girls helped give me a deadline to make sure it happened.  

For the binders, I combed through Pinterest and the internet and gathered up what resources I could find.  I also bought a couple workbooks from Amazon.  I was surprised there wasn't more specifically geared to this type of endeavor.  Once I pulled everything together (worksheets, stories, puzzles, coloring pages, and activities) and made a million copies, we were ready to go!

When the girls arrived, they first labeled dividers as follows: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost.  Then they sorted through their huge stack of papers and put them in the appropriate section.  Once finished, they should have enough material to keep them learning and focused on their upcoming baptisms for the next year.  

Not a great picture, but the best I could get...the girls just wanted to go play by that point!

So far Aubree is really enjoying pulling out her binder and systematically going through the activities.  The idea is that it will help make sure she has a firm grasp of the choice she is making.  I hope the other girls like their binders as well.

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Two weeks after I sent out the email getting the pre-activity days group started, I got called to be the (actual) Activity Days leader in our ward.  Coincidence?  

That was a really fun calling for the very short time I had it.  Last week we got callings in our new ward.  I am a primary teacher (5-year olds) and Mark is Gospel Doctrine teacher.