Stand and Deliver

Bryan and Sophie sat all by themselves during church on Sunday. Peter, Cooper, Phoebe and I were on the stand, participating in the Primary Program. I'm a newly called Primary teacher, so my role was crowd control. I had a group of older kids, except for a sweet six-year-old girl that liked leaning over and commenting to me about the program and a four-year-old boy who preferred to drum on the bench in front of us rather than sit. It was a pretty easy gig.

Phoebe was pleased to deliver the first line of the whole program. She had her part memorized and the teacher in charge of her group didn't even try to lean over and feed her the line. That was refreshing. I remember being so nervous for Peter's first Primary Program. His stage fright was a big deal then. I had no such qualms about Phoebe. She delivered her text in a loud, clear voice into the microphone and had a grand time.

Peter came next. Due to illness (his) and injury (mine), he missed both rehearsals. His part was a lengthy six sentences long so he didn't memorize it. We had practiced sounding natural while reading aloud and I think he did a lovely job.

Cooper's part was about halfway through the program, which was appropriate since he was half memorized, but he read a scripture, so he could kind of get away with that. Cooper is such a wonderful reader. I especially love to hear him read. He uses inflection and vocal variation in a way that is interesting and engaging. We listened to him practice his part and gave suggestions (as we had done with the other two), and he did a great job.

I'm not sure if it's because I was on the stand and couldn't see if the kids were misbehaving or if it's because the kids all did so well, but I think this was the best program yet. We were even early to church!