At church, we have activities for youth every week and children every other week. I was asked to lead the girls’ activities for a couple years. Here are some activities I remember.

Legos

I brought my bin of Legos to the activity and had the girls build a scripture story. I wrote my Lego philosophy here.

Science Toys

I brought all my science activities for the girls to play with. I blogged about each one so the other leaders could walk around and help the girls with the activities. I hope that my future classroom will contain days like this. Some girls were really utilizing the materials and working together in wonder of the beauty of science. The others were dumping too much food coloring and being loud at the pulpit. I got nerd sniped into some of the activities with them, so I couldn’t observe closely what the issue was.

What should I have done? If this were a classroom, I could have shunted them off to a worksheet, or watched them scientifically like Montessori teachers, tried to bring the bellwether into the activity I was doing, or asked them curious questions about why they weren’t engaged in what I brought.

They were having fun- but the loudness of the microphone was distracting and it made me fear that they were king of the house. Kids getting a hold of a microphone is a power struggle issue. It’s like which army controls the seas. The game was dramatic in nature, perhaps in a classroom setting I could have gotten them going on a production. Also the food coloring was getting messy and they used more than I wanted them to use. They didn’t clean it up; it required an adult.

The answer is more supervision. How do I get more eyes and hands? I’d hate to provide less engaging activities and spend less time with the girls who were really digging the science.

The answer is probably a mix of all of these ideas.

Reading party

The girls wore pajamas and brought blankets. I brought a cartful of books from the library. The issue was that my daughter helped pick them out. She was among the oldest and is two grades above her peers. So she was choosing hefty chapter books. But some girls needed someone to read Dr. Seuss to them.

You always have behavior problems when the activity is not quite right.

The previous group of leaders did this activity except that they had the girls bring their own books. It went a lot better that time.

Pinewood Derby

Pinewood derbies are traditions at our church… for the boys.

So I got the girls involved.

And usually the dads build the cars for the boys. So I arranged things so that all the work could be done during mid-week activities. I brought tools and extra helpers and tried to instruct them on the balance of helping just the right amount.

I think good things came of this… but I didn’t anticipate what would be a bottleneck and so kids had to wait (read: play loudly). The cars obviously weren’t as high quality as their fathers could have produced, but I think the kids were even more proud of their own work.

Goal Setting

At the beginning of the year I made a big list of possible goals and the girls wrote what they hoped to accomplish, from my list or their own ideas and each others’ ideas.

Ancestor Scrapbooking

I had the girls’ parents help them find pictures and documents about an ancestor, and then we scrapbooked a few pages of their ancestors. Kids who know their family history are more resilient. I loved their results.

PokeBraun Cards

I made these ancestor cards for my children. How would Maria Montessori teach family history? Like this!

I brought them to the church activity and hid them. The boys joined us, and the children found the cards around the room and assembled them into a family tree.

It was very difficult. I should have had hints printed up and ready to go. And I’m still finding cards around the church!

Ukuleles and Button Machine

One week we separated the younger girls from the older. I checked out two Maker boxes from the library: one button making machine and a pack of six ukuleles. I printed out songs and chord charts and we made some noise.

Soccer

I have created a method for playing pickup soccer. Teams don’t really have to be even for this game. When a team makes a goal, the cones come together one foot to make the goal smaller. When a shot is missed, the goal gets bigger. The goals are not usually the same size but the game feels balanced and everyone gets to try their best.

Calligraphy

I checked out the calligraphy set from the library and the girls practiced cursive. I read once that kids who write in cursive on standardized tests do better than kids who write in print. The theory is: cursive is faster so the brain is not impeded. That sentiment is a decade old, though, so I would be interested in an update.

Music Leader

I also spent time as the children’s music leader. I led group singing time every Sunday for a couple years (luckily different years than the activities.) I remember teaching the children to beatbox, and then beatboxing to church songs.

I also bring my set of bells, and arrange for friends to bring theirs, and every child can have a bell. Each bell has a color that corresponds to a note, and when I make a poster with words and colors, they can play and sing along.