"As a Child of God" is a great song to use to teach the basic gospel principle of making choices and following the Spirit. Here's one activity I did.
I hid smiley faces throughout the room. I asked teachers to look for someone in their class that was singing their best. After singing a verse (of "As a Child of God") I'd choose a class, the teacher would choose a child, the child would find a smiley face. For each smiley face I would share a situation and we would discuss different ways we could respond. For example:
"You are riding in the car with your family. Your sister is making an annoying noise and you ask her to stop. She doesn't. You get to make a choice in how you react. What do you choose to do?"
"You are playing a video game, you are on the verge of beating a new level. Your mom asks you to stop and set the table. You get to make a choice. What do you choose to do?"
"It's Sunday morning, time to get ready for church. You are super tired because you stayed up late for New Year's Eve. You don't feel like getting out of bed. You get to make a choice. What do you choose?"
I took all of these situations, and more, from my own family to make them authentic. It was fun to watch my sons' faces as I told these stories. In fact all of the kids loved hearing the situations because I think they could relate to them.
We talked about how the Spirit will always tell us to do something good, how sometimes it's a sacrifice to make a good choice and what the consequences are.
At the end I told them that next week I wanted to hear about the good choices they made that week.
What would you do if the Sr. Primary boys would choose incorrect choices. THere are some boys who think it's funny to make wrong choices. One kid brings his PSP to Primary, and sits in the back row in his jeans and T-shirt. There is another boy who talks about his first person shooter games, and he is never serious about anything.
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough one! I'm lucky to have a good group right now, but I've been in your shoes before. I don't have a perfect solution, but I try to get them involved i.e., leading the song, helping with the activity, giving them some kind of responsibility right up front before they fall into their old habit. I try to help them(and me) remember they are in training to receive the priesthood and carry many more responsibilities. You might incorporate some of their bad choices(without singling them out too much)into your examples for discussion. Let the other kids teach them. Hope this helps! Good Luck!
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