Sharing Time - Schedule


lagarthaaz
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Just wondering if anyone can tell me how you organise your Sharing Time?

 

After looking at the Handbook, and Section 11.4.2, I have taken the 'order' there to be reasonably flexible in that it "normally includes the following elements" but does not specify that they should necessarily be in the order stated on the page (Opening Exercises, Gospel Instruction, Singing Time). The 'elements' are numbered 1 through to 4. 

 

Because we meet late in the day and the children are tired and hungry after being in Sacrament Meeting for 70 minutes, we have opted to have Opening Exercises followed by Singing Time to break the monotony for them, and then do Gospel Instruction. The children are still getting the full elements of the program, just not in the order of 1-4 in the Handbook.

 

I have recently been advised by the Stake Primary Secretary that we should follow the order stated in the Handbook, but my understanding has always been that the order is up to the Primary Presidency as long as all the elements are being covered.

 

The pattern I'm following was also set by the previous Primary Presidency for many years - but have we been doing it wrong all this time?

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated - thanks!

 

 

 

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Guest LiterateParakeet

In our Primary we have Opening Exercises, Singing Time, and then Sharing Time (the instruction part).  I don't see a problem with doing it that way.  

 

I think your Stake Primary Secretary is mistaken...and overstepping her bounds.  

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Yes I thought it was fine to do it that way too, maybe this is a case of taking the Handbook too literally...eg. if the 'elements' of Sharing Time are numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4 - then she is assuming they should happen in that order.  She's a wonderful woman who prides herself on 'knowing' the Handbook, but I read it as allowing for more flexibility than what she's suggesting. I'm willing to change if I've got it wrong though!

 

It just makes sense to me to break things up with the Singing Time straight after Opening Excercises as it also helps to re-energise the children. If the kids have been sitting through 70 mins of Sacrament meeting (even though they have time for a break they all literally come running down to the Primary room), then 10 or more minutes of Opening Exercises...it's a long time for little ones especially to be sitting still if we then add on another 15  mins of Gospel Instruction.

 

Thanks for sharing, it'll be interesting to see what others are doing too :)

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Yes I thought it was fine to do it that way too, maybe this is a case of taking the Handbook too literally...eg. if the 'elements' of Sharing Time are numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4 - then she is assuming they should happen in that order.

 

Thus demonstrating the virtue of the unordered list.

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At the end of the day, it is up to your Primary Presidency AND your Bishopric Counselor & Bishop as to what order you conduct your primary. 

 

Your Stake Primary Presidency are there to help and guide you and support you in your calling. 

 

That's what I thought, and I was a litte surprised when I was 'encouraged' to 'read the handbook' and 'align' our practices with it. As far as I knew, that's what we were doing!  Not much response to this question here unfortunately, as I am genuinely interested in how Sharing Time is structured elsewhere and am more than happy to alter our routine if it's meant to be a certain way. Much of the Primary chapter in the Handbook is all about flexibility depending on the needs of each unit...so I have always interpreted the instructions for Sharing Time in much the same way. Thanks for your response :)

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We had such a large primary when I was primary president we had 2 sharing times.  One for the younger and one for the older. While one group was in class we had sharing time for the other group.  There was no other way to do it because all of the kids couldn't fit into the Primary room at the same time.

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We had such a large primary when I was primary president we had 2 sharing times.  One for the younger and one for the older. While one group was in class we had sharing time for the other group.  There was no other way to do it because all of the kids couldn't fit into the Primary room at the same time.

 

I thought this was always the case when you had a junior and a senior Primary.

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We've had ours different ways.

I've served in Primary for a long time. The first time, we had the talks and sharing time with the junior primary while the senior primary goes to class. The senior primary then join the junior for singing time, then the juniors go to class while the seniors have talks and sharing time. This is,to this day, my favorite set-up. Junior sharing time is tailored to the little kids with lots of wiggle time and fun object lessons and they don't normally just sit in chairs. We even had blankets on the floor and hold floor sharing time and such.

Then we moved to another ward and they had a different set up. We had talks, then singing time, then sharing time for tthe whole primary then they all split up to classes. The presidency either substitute taught for absent teachers or they held presidency meetings or they prepare for next week's lessons while the kids are in classes.

We moved back to the old ward but the ward got split and primary changed. This time we had talks, singing time, and sharing time for juniors on the first hour while seniors went to class. Then the juniors go to class on the next hour while the seniors have talks, singing time, and sharing time. I got called for singing time in this set up and it was super tough.,, I set up everything for 1st hour, hold singing time, then run to nursery singing time while they held sharing time. Then run back to set-up for the 3rd hour and hold senior singing time. This was especially challenging when practicing for the primary program or special songs like Easter or Mother's Day, etc. because we have to overhaul the schedule so the juniors and seniors can practice together.

Edited by anatess
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Our Stake have insisted we use the terms 'Singing Time and Gospel Instruction' as part of  what constitutes the session called 'Sharing Time'. Up until recently I assumed 'Sharing Time' was the lesson time given by the Presidency, but they are right, the Handbook states that it consists of both Singing Time and Gospel Instruction.

 

The way we structure our Primary is as follows:

 

  • Opening Exercises (Talk, Scripture, Article of Faith, Announcements) - All Primary for first 10-15 mins.
  • Junior Singing Time and Gospel Instruction/aka Sharing Time - (Seniors go to their classes)
  • Senior Singing and Gospel Instruction - (Juniors go to their classes)

It works well, the kids are happy, and having the Singing Time first gives them some time to move around and have fun.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I feel for you! Sometimes it is amazing how many different places/ideas people can have in the church and when they collide, I had an institute teacher that referred to it as "polishing." How do you polish rocks? You tumble them and crash them into each other. And who are the rocks? Often other members of the church....

 

I believe following the handbook is always a good policy, but I have to say that strict interpretation seems a bit like looking beyond the mark...

 

Maybe do a quick check of your counselors, teachers, singing leader to see how it's working for them. And if everyone agrees it is working well, I wouldn't see any reason to change.

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