Sam's First Few Weeks in Primary

I am the Primary chorister at church. Sam is now old enough to be a brand new sunbeam in Primary. I knew it wasn't going to be any easy transition since he used to climb all over me while trying to do music time with the nursery classes. Take away all the toys, and make a large group of three year olds sit still through 50 minutes in one place is very difficult. Now add to that the fact that one of those three year old's moms is sitting up front, and he's not allowed to sit with her, climb all over her, and have her hold him... Yeah, it's not easy.

Sam's first week was awful. Chris was home sick, so I had to wrestle with him all by myself. He refused to sit with his class, so after lots of lip quivering, clinging, and crying I let him sit with me, until I had to start doing music time. While I try to teach jr. primary their new song, Sam and his little partners in crime decide to try jumping off of the chairs making shooting noises as they fight with their pretend finger guns. They are loud, and running all over the place. Our primary has 20 new sunbeams on the rolls--about 14 that come regularly, split between two classes. The first Sunday of the year is always chaotic, but knowing my kid was one who was causing some of the chaos was stressful. At class time, he left ok, but was later brought back to me sobbing his little heart out--right when it was my turn to do singing time with the senior primary. He refused to sit next to me, but insisted that I hold him. Holding a whimpering little boy while trying to teach a song was practically impossible.

Chris has had to sit with him during parts of opening exercises and class time but each week since then has progressively gotten better. This week was the first time he didn't need Chris at all. He was still loud and disruptive with his partner in crime, but he didn't have any emotional breakdowns at any time. I think we're headed in the right direction!

Here is a picture of Sam with his two teachers, Sis. Music and Sis. Shurtz.