Nursery

Dallin is now old enough to go to nursery at church. I've been a little nervous about this for a few reasons. Yes, he is old enough, but he's not your typical 18 month old. He can't walk or talk or eat or do any of the things you would expect a child to be able to do upon entering nursery. Our ward has a lot of kids in nursery, so I worried about how the nursery workers would handle all the extra attention that Dallin needs. And I wondered how the bigger kids would play around Dallin. With all this worrying I was doing, we were blessed (depending on how you look at it) with a calling in our ward. Mckay and I were both called to be nursery workers.

It might not be the most glamorous or sought after calling, but I was a little relieved when we were asked to be in the nursery. This way Dallin could be in nursery and have the good experience from that environment, but I would still be able to watch him and help him. The down side is that now we don't get to enjoy having a 2 hour break from him during church because we're in nursery with him!

Yesterday was the first Sunday in nursery for all 3 of us. Mckay and I were invited to come just to observe and see how things run before getting an assignment over a specific group. It made me laugh when all the adults would talk to Dallin or ask him a question, thinking he would understand what they were saying or answer them. When it was snack time, someone came over to Dallin, got down to his level and said, "Dallin it's snack time! Come on over and get your snack." I explained to her about his gag reflex and how he would not need any snacks during nursery.

They had little classes where the kids would go to color a picture, learn about the scriptures, or sing songs. When they would tell all the kids to line up, I picked Dallin up and stood in line with the other kids. When they colored their pictures, Dallin wanted to eat his paper. I tried to show him how to color with the crayon, but he did not want to hold onto the crayon. He just wanted to eat his paper.

The purple and blue crayon was me showing him how to color. The yellow was another kid coloring on his paper.

During the lesson, the teacher passed around a bean bag turtle and the kids were supposed to say an animal they liked. When Dallin got the turtle, he got really excited and put it in his mouth. Of course, he did not say what his favorite animal was, but I'm thinking it was a turtle at the moment. When I took it from him to pass it back to the teacher he got really mad and started screaming. I think some concepts are a little over his head.

A lot of the things they do in nursery are a little advanced for him. He doesn't understand the lessons being taught or the songs they sing. But lets face it, not many of the young kids his age understand either. The point of nursery is to get them used to the structure and routine of learning, and they will eventually catch on to what is being taught. Dallin really likes watching other kids and I think this will be a really good experience for him.