Daughter of a King...I am a Princess!

Hi...it's me again (in case you forgot). I know it has been ages since I have posted anything of real value but being a first time mother, a wife and working has taken up a lot of my time and to be honest I am exhausted. You get it, right? I can't possibly be the only one who is feeling like that.

I have had this idea in my head for a while, especially the closer that school had become. Many of you know that I am no longer in the YW program but am currently serving as an Activity leader of our girls ages 8-11 and we have struggled with the idea of unity and inclusion. Most of the time, the girls are pretty good. However, there are times when they are not so good. This also has come to my mind after I, myself, personally have felt like a lone little gold fish swimming amongst sharks. I have felt lonely and finding it difficult to want to go to my meetings because I feel that I just don't fit in....anywhere in my ward. Which is a great ward...I...uh...just...don't...fit....well.

So this idea of mine (and I apologize that this doesn't have any pics yet because this is still an idea in my head and haven't put it into reality...just yet...hoping to in November) involves our favorite Disney Princesses and a little known kids book that I have blogged about before (you can read about it HERE), the Paper Bag Princess. 

Every girl has a favorite Disney Princess...and if they don't they are lying *wink wink*. There is Aurora, Snow White, Merida, Belle, Cinderella, Tiana, Jasmine, the list goes on and on. I would have the girls name as many as they can think of. I would write the names on the chalkboard or have them printed up in cute fonts so everyone can see them. I would then ask them, what qualities or traits do each of the named princesses have? This could be a tough question to answer to try and get as many different answers as you possibly can.  

Next, read the book the Paper Bag Princess and talk about the qualities that this princess had and how she didn't need to have the stuffy old prince's attitude or shallowness.  Now that you have done this. The next section will take some pre-planning. 

Make a poster for each girl. Have a crown on the top of the poster and their name below. Then hang them up and have each girl stand in front of their poster. Hand them each a marker or pen. Then, picking left or right, have the girls go to the next girls poster and write something nice, some sort of quality they admire that the girls who poster they are at, has. Keep going until all the girls are back at their own and let them take a moment to read over the things that their peers wrote to them. You can have the girls sign who wrote what or keep it completely anonymous.

 Close with the talk if time allows from President Uchtdorf and remind them that all of them are a princess because they are a daughter of God and that no one, NO ONE can make them feel any less inferior. 

Just Loved This Reminder

Our Individual Worth

This handout/bookmark goes with lesson 39 from Young Women Manual 3-Recognizing our Individual Worth.  I used a quote from Sister Dalton's talk "Remember Who You Are! which can be found HERE. I loved this talk when I heard her give it in the 2010 YW General Meeting. 

So this is a double sided bookmark (one side has the quote the other side is just the plain red paper that way if you cut it out and laminate it and not mount it on to any other paper, you will at least have a back (just print page one first and then page 2 so that it is back to back). I think it would be really cute if you punched a hole at the top and inserted a ribbon or some sort to tag. This quote is a great reminder that we are someone special and that our Heavenly Father does love us. 

Click HERE for download (3 to a page)

Paper and element credit goes to Steadfast and Immovable (link in lower left side bar) from their Individual Worth/Celestial Values kit.

Each Person is Divine & Eternal

Here is lesson 33 for the Young Women Manual 3- Each Person is Divine and Eternal. I just love this quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley. Sister Susan W. Tanner quoted it in her talk that she gave at the General YW Meeting in 2007. You can read her talk HERE.

The handout is a set of 4 with paper and element credit going to My 4 Princess Designs and Hot Pink Pansy. Thank you ladies!

 Click HERE for download

Paper Bag Princess

I wish I could take credit for this activity idea....but I can't. It was borrowed from an idea suggested from Sugardoodle (you can click HERE to see it) but with some little adjustments made to it.

To start off the night we had a photographer come in (lucky enough our YW secretary and her hubby are photographers and were so willing to take our pictures) and photographed each girl with a tiara/crown. The girls were already excited by this point.

We popped popcorn (which I kinda burned because the church's microwave was unfamiliar territory to me) and had the girls gather round in a semi circle and my Beehive advisor read to them the story of The Parable of the Princesses by Jenny Philips. While she was reading this, I was in the back printing out all of the girls photos (if you do not have access to a photo printer...I would suggest that you take the pictures ahead of time, before the activity, and have them already printed and ready to go).

Next, I read to the girls the story of the Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. Then we asked them questions about the qualities that these princesses had and which of those qualities are ones that the girls wanted to develop.  Next we helped the girls by getting their Paper Bag Time Capsule put together. We just downloaded the attachments that were on Sugardoodle for this activity because I didn't have time to create other ones, because it was literally put together hours before. We had the girls write down the qualities they wanted to have developed by the time they were married and what qualities they want their future husbands to have.

Then then wrote a letter to their future prince. Once these letters were finished they folded them up and put them into their paper bags along with a picture of a temple and the photo of them wearing the tiara. Once everything was in their bag, we sealed them up and told the girls they were to open them on the night of their engagement.

The girls seemed to have fun with this and it looked as if they put some real thought in the qualities that they wanted both in them selves and their future spouse. It was a great night!