I learn the gospel better in Primary than I ever do in adult classes. You have to know a subject well to reduce it to its core principles. No wasted time arguing about whether there are horses in the BOM. We are busy learning the parts of the gospel that really matter and we’re having a blast doing it. Even my nursery lessons are educational and follow all the rules.

I went from being Elders Quorum President to the Primary, and that was very hard. The Bishop called me to the “Class-That-Must-Not-Be-Named”, and it was a huge adjustment. But one day we were teaching a class about pioneers, and I happened to have spent a lot of time in practicing for a play the previous week, so I just naturally started acting out the things the pioneers were doing. The kids leaped out of their chairs and started doing those actions with me. I rarely had any problems with that class again, as long as I thought of ways that they could all get up and do something with the class. Instead of being the enforcer, I became the friend, and when I was released I was sad, and so were the kids.

Unfortunately, I have to say that the sharing time activities, etc., although I’ve sat through worse, really didn’t have anything in them for the adults, and I absolutely love the idea of Sesame-Streeting the Primary program. If I get another shot at it, I’m going to use some of these great ideas.

It would be frustrating to have a leader who discouraged using products for achievement day that are not published by the church since there IS NO offical achievement day program published by the church. Sure some people are creative enough to think of a thousand things to do, but others need a quick idea source.

Sorry, BiV. I wasn’t trying to suggest that it needs to be. I was just saying that was the one related experience I had. As you’ve said, it’s better integrated into the presentation itself, and I agree.

As for gimmicks, I love gimmicks. I always use gimmicks (or shall we say “attention-directing activities”) in all of my talks and lessons. As you know, Sesame Street uses videotaped spots, humor, puppets, animation, live action, and music. One of the most important indicators to the researchers and writers that a show was “working” was that the children responded to it actively, by laughing, or dancing to the music. Loretta Long was chosen to play Susan when the children who saw her audition stood up and sang along with her rendition of “I’m a Little Teapot”. In our Primary, the exact opposite happens–when the children begin to show these signs of engagement, all action is stopped, and they are told to sit down and be quiet before the lesson can continue. What a shame. I agree with Hawkgrrl that kids need to move physically. It’s true, I find it difficult to sit still that long myself.

But, I’ve seen some awesome primary presidencies and I’ve wondered to myself, “Wow, how much time did she put into preparing that?” Because you can really tell she put in the time.

In my current Primary, we do very few gimmicks/cutesy things. No one uses anything “non-correlated,” but I find most of that stuff to be pretty bad anyway. Some Sundays go better than others, but any time you get 50+ kids in a room, it’s always hit-or-miss.

High Priests ultimately trump the sisters because “blessed are the pacemakers.”

as she taught, she would comment and make little asides that would reference the adult Sunday School lesson, conference talks, politics, or even ward gossip.

I haven’t known of or served with anyone who did this in a planned way. But when I was last teaching Primary a few years ago, I remember that during sharing time and singing time–whatever all the parts are called collectively when the classes aren’t broken out individually–there was under-the-breath conversation ongoing between the members of the Presidency and the music leader and piano player and teachers. By “under-the-breath” I don’t mean that it was at all negative. I mean adults said things to other adults under their breath, not aimed at kids. It was never anything earth-shattering–it was often commentary on what was going on, how the presentation was going or how the kids were paying attention (or not). But I thought it was a fun way to keep a little adult contact up.

Like I said, though, I haven’t seen such things planned beforehand. That sounds like a really good idea. I doubt the Church will ever publish materials that include such adult-audience undertones, simply because such material might almost necessarily include parody and mocking, and Correlation is not, I suspect, a fan of such things.

My wife was recently called to do the Achievement Days program for the girls in our primary. She found a couple of books with suggested activities at Deseret Book and showed them to the Primary President, who told my wife “I’m uncomfortable with using anything that isn’t published by the Church.” Really? For Achievement Days? It is Primary Presidents like that who made me hate Primary when I was a kid.

Great line.

The institutional Church is all over the place, too. In our stake, if there is a conflict, for example, between the Relief Society and the Primary on use of the building, of course the Relief Society always wins, no matter which organization scheduled it first. After all, didn’t the Savior say “Suffer the middle-aged women to come unto me”?