Mother's Day

This was a crazy activity for me!

I know you all know about Pinterest. The thing with Pinterest is sometimes a craft looks easy... but it's not. Long story short, I had a craft all picked out for Mother's Day, and this craft (Tootsie Pop flowers in a clay pot) just was determined not to happen. NOTHING went right. I couldn't find basic items, like the flower pieces to slide on the sucker sticks. I found I couldn't afford to get 4-5 Tootsie pops per girl for 15 girls, OR clay pots. Dum Dums and styrofoam cups just weren't cutting it... so I basically started over and had to find a new gift idea.

Which, I hate to do. I like to have a well laid out, months in advance plan. Sigh.

My Mother's Day craft had to adhere to my own, personal "gift craft" rules:

1. Inexpensive
2. Edible component, because I like crafts that have a reason for disappearing.
3. Simple enough for the girls to really do on their own.

After several different tries on Pinterest what I ended up with was more "gift" than craft. It was basically just a cutely wrapped container stuffed with candy. I made a fun little tag, and called it good.

Except (did I mention this activity made me crazy?) that because it was so truly simple it was only going to take about 10 minutes to do. Maybe 20 minutes if the girls were really slow, or maybe even 30 minutes if I made them make it from absolute scratch. But even then.. not a complete activity, even WITH lesson.

A friend suggested adding cinnamon rolls. For some reason this sounded like an amazing idea. Then reality banged on my forehead: it is super hard to make bread in 90 minutes. It is just not going to happen with 15 little helpers and a double or triple batch of dough needed so that everyone can take some home. PLUS the schedule was weird and we are three weeks out from Mother's Day with no activity closer that is available, therefore I can't send it home easily and I can't pass it out easily in a few weeks either. And I don't live in Utah, so I'm not hand delivering them down my block.

What did stick with me is the idea of breakfast. Breakfast in bed for Mother's Day is a thing, right? And that led to this:

Teaching the girls a simple meal they could do on their own (if needed) on Mother's Day. I do have at least one little girl who lives with just her mom and younger brother, so it was important to me that it really be do-able without a lot of adult help.

The microwave is an awesome tool, and it makes really good scrambled eggs as long as you stir them well, and use the power level settings correctly!

I ended up dividing our activity into three mini activities, with groups rotating to each station:

1. Lesson on Mothers and why they are awesome
2. Make a gift for Mom to take home with you tonight
3. Make breakfast, and in the process, learn how to make it for your mom for Mother's Day!

Of course, the making breakfast part took way, way longer than the other two, but we made it work. And all the girls LOVED it. And they were able to make the eggs, make the toast, talk about cleaning up the kitchen, and discuss what to serve alongside the eggs and toast all in 20 minutes or so.

In the kitchen the girls buttered their individual sized microwavable ceramic bowls, cracked their own egg, added the water, salt and pepper, stirred it, and cooked it. They buttered the toast. They poured their own juice. And then they ate it all up. It was really fun!

It was also very intense, because with fifteen girls, even at just 90 seconds microwave time per girl, it was go, go, go, go... the whole time. I had one of the YW helping me with dishes, and supervision, and cleaning, and it was all we could do to get everyone through making and eating their own practice eggs, toast and juice in 75 minutes. I had planned to demonstrate microwaving pre-cooked bacon and arranging the tray to make it look nice... NO TIME FOR THAT!

And that was in addition to other leaders supervising the craft and teaching the lesson. This is not an activity to try with just one person!

Making the gift

( to stretch this out you COULD have the girls do all of this, but I didn't have them make the tubes):

Posterboard (premium, if you can get it, with some heft to it) 22 inches by 22 by 28 inches

Tissue paper (multicolor pack if the girls like to choose), 20 inches by 26 inches

Packing tape

scissors

ruler

Candy or other treats (I set the bags candy out with little sticky notes telling the girls how many pieces of each they could take)

1. Mark your poster board and cut it into strips measuring 5 inches high by 22 inches wide. Save the 3 inch high strip for later.
2. Cut each strip in half to make two 5x11 inch strips
3. Using a tube ( I used a Voss water bottle) roll the poster board into a tube and tape with packing tape.
4. Place each tube on the three inch strip and trace (they will likely all vary slightly) and cut out a circle of poster board which will be the bottom of your tube. Tape it in place with packing tape. PLEASE NOTE: you can skip all these steps if you have "tubes" already, such as empty, clean cans, or orange juice cans, or whatever, but I didn't, and these made a nice size container.
5. Cut your tissue paper in half to make 10 inch by 26 inch long pieces. (shown)
6. Fold your tissue paper strip in half, then in half again, then again (shown)
7. Making sure to cut the sides, cut the tissue paper as shown.
8. Place the tube on the tissue paper, with the base on the uncut side of the tissue. Tape in place.
9. Roll, and tape or use adhesive to close the roll.
10. Fill tube with candy or treats.
11. Use a length of ribbon and tie the tissue paper closed. And that's it! One cutely wrapped sweet treat!

I also made these little tags and punched them with a 2 inch circle punch and added them to the ribbon.

A PDF of a sheet full of them is available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7eEFpdUIyazgxN3c/view?usp=sharing

Babysitting Clinic

This was an activity the girls requested. I'm pretty sure that, like making bread for sacrament, if you're going to be in Activity Days, you HAVE to do this activity. ;)

Here are some tips, some hand outs, and some reflections from our babysitting night.

1. There is so, so much to babysitting. You cannot possibly do this topic justice in 90 minutes. The girls are excited, but please let them know, they are not experts after tonight. They are beginners with some good ideas!
2. Not every girl wants to babysit, and the younger girls are too young to do it anyway. BUT... most are not too young to be left home alone for 30 minutes or so, or left with older siblings and no "official" babysitter. Many of the things a good babysitter needs to know are ALSO good for the girls to know if they are home alone. Emphasize this.
3. While some girls just LOVE babies, most girls want to babysit for the money! A discussion of what are fair babysitting rates is a good idea. I've heard some ridiculous amounts--$15/hour... wow, really? That's crazy! I think $5/hour is fair for 2-3 kids. We also discussed how more kids to watch should = more pay; how to split the profits with a friend if you bring help along, how to tell your rates before you agree to a job, paying tithing on what you earn, and also offering FREE sitting sometimes as a service.

Because there is so much to cover, I had to decide what basics we were going to hit. Hands on teaches the most, so we divided our group of 15 girls into three groups of 5 and had these three stations:

1. Basic first aid (super basic): cleaning and bandaging a small cut, cool water on burns, ice packs for bumped heads, and so forth. The girls also made a small first aid kit that went in a sandwich sized ziploc bag, and included bandaids, alcohol wipes, sterile gauze pads, and disposable gloves.

2. Fun snacks: we made Teddy Bear Toast, with toast, peanut butter, sliced bananas and chocolate chips. (The "recipe" for Teddy Bear Toast, along with a 2 other fun snacks, is in the booklet.)

3. Babysitting scenarios: we gave the girls a babysitting tips booklet (link to download below) and then talked about "what if" situations as we went over the booklet. This section included the "what do you charge?" discussion. Some scenarios we discussed were:
What if someone calls or comes to the door?
What if you have a fire?
What if someone tries to break in?
What if the kids are fighting?
What if the kids will not listen to what you say?
What if someone gets hurt?

Everything from the minor, to the major, we talked through, and let the girls comment and ask questions.

TIP: Of these three stations, basic first aid was the shortest, and that group was kind of waiting while the other two groups finished their 20-25 minute sessions. We included an emergency numbers sheet with the Babysitting Scenarios group, but I would probably move that handout and its accompanying discussion to the First Aid group next time to even out the time better.

Supplies needed will include: first aid items and baggies; teddy bear toast ingredients, and handouts for each girl. Extra snacks/treats are not needed, as the girls made, then ate, the teddy bear toast!

The Spiritual Side:

Faith in God application: Serving Others, #5

“Entertain young children with songs or games you have learned or made yourself. Show that you know how to care for and protect a young child.”

Scripture verse: Mosiah 4:14-15

  14 And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the devil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.

  15 But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

The pamphlet was a take home for the girls and covered a lot. We used it as the basis for most of our discussion.  

Download it from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7MjZwY1NqVmM5THc/view?usp=sharing

It is meant to be printed double sided on a single sheet of paper. Cut the printed sheet in half (so each half sheet is 8.5 inches by 5.5 inches) and then fold the halves. This makes a little booklet which you can staple in the middle.

Download the basic information sheet from this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ltWADMnsx7ZVZNckZXbjA3aTg/view?usp=sharing

This is a sheet that the girls can take with them when babysitting. They should fill it out with the parents before the parents leave. It is also a good idea to keep one for themselves home on the refrigerator for when they are home alone!

What is in the babysitting pamphlet: