I recently made these "bees" to give our primary children, but the experience made me recognize so much more.
They have been short of teachers for the primary classes at church due to a large number of moves that have recently taken place. Due to this I have been filling in as an honorary sub to assist a girl who teaches a class of nine 3 year olds - known as sunbeams. The lessons are of course wonderfully simple and each Sunday our focus is to keep them in their chairs and, above all, teach them that their Heavenly Father knows and loves them.
The girl I am assisting (Suzie) is one of my greatest friends and their family has many roles that interact with ours. She is an amazing pianist and has taught Ryley for the last two years. Her teenaged girls are wonderful examples to our children and have been their regular babysitters. Her younger sons are around Ryley's age - but play with all of our children with great kindness and love. Suzie was recently released as Stake YW President - where you interact largely with girls ages 12 to 18. She is now teaching a rambunctious group of 3 year olds and her abilities to do so are an amazing thing to watch.
We focus all lessons around a large amount of music and Suzie has every item imaginable to keep them entertained. If the lesson is about rain - Suzie has cloth raindrops hooked to strings and each child gets one to sing songs about rain and earth. If the lesson is about insects she has spiders made of yarn, string, and eyes so that each child gets one to climb up their leg during songs. She has birds on sticks, frogs for their fingers, fish for the sea, bees in a "hive", and much more. We trade off lessons each week and she continually offers her talents and creative ideas.
I look back at these past (almost) three years and am truly amazed at the things that women in this area have taught me. It doesn't stop with my above example either - teaching me about music and creative ideas is just the beginning. Different women have taught me how to garden, keep food storage well, stay organized, do family history, cook even healthier, use coupons and shop smartly, and the list just goes from there. I am so very grateful for all of these women who have truly made an impact on my life during our short time here. Memphis will be missed!
