Sunbeam - talk in primary - HELP!

[Heather]

My son is giving his first talk in primary tomorrow, and I'm a bit lost trying to find something that would be easy for him and for me. The topic is "I will follow the prophet." I don't know. Maybe some super short story about President Monson? Does one come to mind?

[Iggy]

Try looking up the primary lessons on Follow the Prophet, read them to your son and have him pick one that he likes or remembers best from Sharing Time.

Ask him what stories he likes the best from this years lessons then go from there. Do you have a list of the songs that are to be learned this year in Primary? The major song Follow the Prophet is a great one to glean talks from. What is your sons favorite verse in that song?

By talking to your son regarding this- you are helping him to remember the lessons he has had, and getting him to put words to his feelings. Help him find the common thread - then expand on it. Keep his talk to 2.5 minutes. Have him repeat it to you frequently, ask him about it.

The key here is letting him put it together- too often the parents write the talk and have the child read it- it is easy to tell who wrote the talk- parent or child.

Heather, surely they told you Last sunday that he was to give a talk this sunday - why have you waited until the eleventh hour to help him with it? When I was in the Primary Presidency, we gave the child a slip of paper that said he/she was going to give: the opening/closing prayer, or talk, or read a scripture and then we made certain that we handed one to his/her parent along with telling them verbally. We also told them that if they needed help in helping their child do this- we, the Presidency, was more than happy to help - CALL us.

[mightynancy]

Bless you, Iggy, for not posting a link to cutesy talks.

I have always helped my kids prepare talks by asking them questions. When they were too little to write, I'd write their answers for them. That way, everything in their talk was something THEY knew and were sharing.

Now that my son is 12, I can brainstorm with him, and then he goes looking for answers on the church website or in the scriptures. Soon he won't even have to check with me on any of it, I'm sure! His little sister is usually quite decisive now with what she wants to convey.

Good luck!

[Heather]

Because he is just barely into Sunbeams, and one of the youngest, so I'm definitely not going for anything close to 2 minutes long. I thought I could find something quite and easy online, but everything I pull up is way too advanced. I'd just end up reading the whole thing myself. I think no matter what I do, I'm going to end up reading it myself :P

Maybe I should just read him a story about a prophet over and over and then let him get up there and tell it in his own words. That would make for a very interesting primary talk.

[Jenamarie]

My DD (also a Sunbeam) was assigned to give the Scripture and Prayer in Primary a few weeks ago, and we did it "repeat-after-me" style. I gave her one to two words at a time (any more and the words got muddled) and she spoke them into the microphone. You could maybe write a short, 3 sentence talk and practice saying it at home, with him repeating the words after you.

[mightynancy]

How'd it go, Heather?

I remember once in a talk, my daughter said, "When you make bad choices you have to go to your room, and you don't get to make ANY choices for a while." She was four.

[WillowTheWhisp]

I realise it's a bit late now as the talk will already have been given but what I used to do when my children had talks in Primary was to discuss the subject with them and get them to tell me what they thought on the topic and then I would write down their own words. When they were really tiny and couldn't read I would then use what I had written (which was what they had said) as a prompt for them to give their talk. When they got older they could either read it themselves or use it to remind themselves of what to say.

They gradually got to writing the things down themselves and then to simply making notes to remind themselves of what to say. It just sort of evolved. My youngest is giving a talk in Sacrament meeting next Sunday and is a bit nervous of that prospect! She's asked for a bit of help.

[Heather]

It went better than expected. He talked on Joseph Smith. He knew right what to do. As soon as they said his name, he was right up there at the podium ready to tell all. I stood next to him and asked him questions, and then I had a piece of paper with pictures so I could point to the answers to help him remember. The hardest part was getting him to look down at the paper. I think he was just really excited to talk in the mic. The red parts are what he was able to say, and the text in black is what I said. Although except for saying "pray" he would say, "He folded his arms!"

Which Prophet are you going to talk about today? - Joseph Smith
What are some really important things the Prophet Joseph Smith did?
Brought forth the Book of Mormon
Restored the priesthood
Revealed Gospel truths
Organized the church
Established Temple work

Joseph followed the the teachings in James by doing what? Prayed
And who appeared to Joseph to answer his prayer? Heavenly Father and Jesus
How can we follow Joseph’s example? We can pray to Heavenly Father too.

[Mailis]

Kids are amazing... you think they are just playing around and not listening.. still they can answer.... so often we adults underestimate what the children can reach spiritually.... often the noisy classroom is showing to too easy lessons, not anything to learn, just everything they already know.

ops I am to have a primary class next Sunday... had quite forgoten that...

[WillowTheWhisp]

I often used to be amazed when teaching Primary at just how much the children remember - even when you think you are talking to yourself.