Yesterday was the primary program.
I took this picture the night before to document some of our preparations. The folders held scripts, one for each adult that assisted, plus one for the podium. The index cards became name cards that I taped to the benches so all the kids and grownups would know exactly where to sit on the stand. Every kid had a primary program buddy, another primary kid to sit with. We paired a big kid with each little kid to facilitate reverence and tried to split up the busiest, chattiest children. We also asked the Bishopric to sit on the stand among the primary kids. They, along with our three primary teachers that were in town (which included Bryan), helped the kids stay calm while they waited for their turns to speak and sing.
All nineteen of our active primary kids were there and eighteen of them spoke their part clearly into the microphone. Our youngest and littlest sunbeam let me pick him up and hold him up to the microphone while I said his line clearly and he repeated in a low mumbly voice, "I don't want to." His older sister has an intense case of stage fright. We had a back-up plan for her part in case she wasn't up to delivering it. But she didn't need the back-up plan! She said her part into the microphone and did a great job!
I had taught all the kids the sign language to The Church of Jesus Christ. We practiced it for three months. Most of them did it last week at our final practice. Then almost all of them forgot it yesterday. A friend told me how much she enjoyed watching Sophie's sign language solo. Well done Sophie for remembering the sign language!
Sophie also had an official solo. The did a beautiful job singing the second verse of We'll Bring the World His Truth. This was her last primary program since she's turning eleven before the year ends. She was feeling kind of melancholy about that. Her solo was for her benefit, but also for mine. I realized I didn't have time to teach all three verses of that song to the primary kids. So instead I taught them the first and third verses and asked Sophie to take care of the middle verse. I'll miss her lovely singing voice and thoughtful responses next year when she's in Young Women.
I said that all nineteen of our primary kids were there, and that's true, but we actually had twenty-one kids participate in the program. There's a sweet family that started bringing their ten-year-old son and six-year-old daughter to primary in August. I never saw them in Sacrament meeting and couldn't find them in the ward directory. Someone had told me that Egyptian was their first language and that they were in another ward in the Stake. Someone else told me that they traveled between Virginia and Pennsylvania for work. The mom speaks very little English, so most of my communicating was with the dad. Even then, I didn't know much about them. I just happily welcomed the kids each Sunday and said hello to the parents when they came to take the kids home.
At the end of our second practice last week, the dad came up to me and asked what time he should have the kids there for the primary program. I told him I was so happy they could be there and gave him the time. Then I asked the kids if they wanted to have speaking parts also. They both said yes and we talked about a person from the Book of Mormon that they would want to talk about. The dad gave me his name and number so I could text him the parts during the week. Those were the only lines I wrote for the program, all the other kids wrote their own parts with the help of prompts. I felt that in this case, these kids would need a little more help.
They came yesterday, nervous but excited. Their dad told me that they travel for his job (I think he's a translator, but I'm not certain) so they've never been able to be in a primary program before. This was their first time. The kids both did a great job. The parents were beaming while watching their kids. That was one of the sweetest parts of the day for me.
Overall, I think it was a success. And I'm already planning for next year.
