So for the last two years I've been working in Relief Society (an organization within the LDS church for women 18 and older) It's been an adventure planning activities, cooking class, and serving the sisters. However this adventure as come to an end and now on to the REAL fun. I have been asked to serve in the nursery. Eight precious toddlers ranging in age from 15 months to just over 3 years old.
I have been doing lots of research and found several fun sites with great ideas to use in nursery or with my own children, to keep the kiddos learning, entertained and me sane.
Just in case anyone reading this could use those sites I'll list a few of them here.
http://handsonaswegrow.com/2012/04/50-toddler-activities.html
http://www.simplelittlehome.com/2012/03/50-ways-to-distract-toddler.html
http://movingsmartblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/too-pregnant-to-play.html
http://www.sugardoodle.net/Nursery%20Program/index.shtml
1 other thoughts:
Nursery is great! I was just released as nursery leader.
What our kids did really well with was a consistent routine. They knew what to expect and they looked forward to the different things we did every week.
Also, the moms would take turns bringing snack and everyone was really good about bringing substantial snacks and not just junk food/treats. My favorite is when someone would bring something like cheese, fresh fruit, and pretzels. The kids weren't bouncing off the walls from the sugar and it was substantial so they weren't all starving by the time their parents came.
I also found that while the lessons didn't have to be elaborate, the kids did much better when whoever was doing the lesson actually put some thought into it. Bringing visual aids was always a hit.
The kids LOVED singing time, so if your primary chorister doesn't come in each week and do that, I would do it yourself or have one of the other workers do it. It was a great time killer. :)
One more thing. We had a couple of difficult kids in nursery and we really tried to be consistent with them as far as not tolerating hitting/throwing toys/biting, etc. Each time they misbehaved, we would talk to them about it and they would need to return the stolen toy or say they were sorry or whatever the case may be.
You're a teacher so this will be old hat for you. Just a few suggestions of things that worked for us. Good luck!!
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