Preparing for your Adventure

I had a hard time in the beginning. I didn't know what was required of me and I often felt as if I were in the midst of chaos those first couple months. It didn't help that the binder I got from the previous leader only had a couple handouts from previous activities and a more than year old outdated phone list in it (yikes!!!). There was also little to no planning ahead of time and activities were often planned very close to the day they were to happen. I CAN NOT WORK LIKE THAT!!! I am an organization nut. I need to plan ahead and I need to know that things are taken care of. I also found that there wasn't a whole lot out there in the way of helping me organize my binder for what I needed. So…I made what I needed myself. And now I am going to share it with you.

First you will need a few links to some of the things I use quite a bit for my papers, handouts, invites, etc.
1) you will need the font I use on most of my binder papers:
     http://www.1001freefonts.com/always_in_my_heart.font
2) the website above has lots of other really cute fonts that I use as well. Browse and find stuff you like and use it. It makes for really awesome handouts.
3) Clip art: there are 2 places I go the most for this. Some stuff is free and some you have to pay for but I found that even the stuff I pay for is well worth the investment.
    a) http://melonheadzillustrating.blogspot.com
    b) http://www.djinkers.com
4) I use a lot of digital scrapbook paper. You can find links to quite a few free ones on http://www.pinterest.com/  just search for free digital scrapbook paper.

And now for what is in my binder:
1) Your job as an Activity Days Leader (from the church handbook)
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jQXJHbTdkSWExbzQ/edit?usp=sharing
2) Phone list template
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jTTVZZWV4UVpIX1E/edit?usp=sharing
3) Activity planning sheet template
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jcm83SVpnbmY0ekE/edit?usp=sharing
4) Faith in God Award check off list (so you can keep track of where each girl is at)
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jMC0wQ3FzbU0ybmc/edit?usp=sharing
5) Attendance sheet
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jSXBBeEc1cWdGaTA/edit?usp=sharing
6) Calendar (you will have to make up your own)
7) Binder cover and spine (you can edit the ward info) print on 11x17 paper
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6-SGz_Y1u-jNXk4QmJhTDZJNmM/edit?usp=sharing
8) If you ever go on a field trip, you will need to have one of these for each girl
   https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/callings/young-men/parental-permission-medical-release.pdf?lang=eng

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What is the Activity Days Program?

If you are new to the program, it helps to have someone break it down for you. In the Activity Days Program, girls ages 8-11 are working toward earning their Faith in God award. In order to get their award they must complete 8 goals in each of 3 areas (this breaks down to 2 goals in each area per year):
1) Learning and Living the Gospel
2) Serving Others
3) Developing Talents
Most of the activities should be geared toward passing off one of these goals.
When the girls turn 11 years old, they should begin working on their goals for Preparing for Young Women. These goals are done on their own with the guidance of leaders and parents.
They are also required to memorize the 13 Articles of Faith and write out their testimony. Daily scripture study is encouraged as well.

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Modern Pioneers

Last summer we did the traditional Pioneer Day stuff and it was fun…but this year we wanted to go a different route. We decided to talk about modern pioneers and why they are important. While trying to figure out what to do for that, I remembered going to the Exploratorium in San Francisco as a kid. If any place could teach a kid about modern pioneers it is there. If you have never been, it is so much fun yet very educational.
Link to their site: http://exploratorium.edu

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Father Daughter Olympics

SO. MUCH. FUN.
4 fun filled events and everyone gets a gold medal in the end.
1) pool noodle toss
2) ring toss
3) beach ball / kid size golf club put put relay
4) giant marshmallow in a little spoon relay
Begin with a barbecue, work up a sweat playing games, proclaim everyone a winner, end with root beer floats for all.

Thank you to my amazing sister who took all these pictures (Alisa Duenas Photography)

http://www.alisaduenas.com

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5 Years From Now...

We wanted to emphasize the importance of setting goals. While they have goals they need to set in order to get their Faith in God Award, for the most part if they come to the activities they will pass most of them off. We felt that we needed to prepare them for bigger future challenges as well as all the goals they will have to work on their own once they get to the Young Women's program. We actually had the Laurel class come and help us with this activity. We talked about setting big long term goals and then setting smaller goals to work toward reaching the big one. We talked about the kind of person they want to become and how to set goals to become that person. Afterwards we did kind of a time capsule activity. I had the girls fill out a questionnaire about who they are right now. Link to the questionnaire is here:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/518758450800439195/
I then had them write down 3 goals they want to have achieved in the next 5 years. I then had them write letters to their future selves. I took all of these and put them in envelopes for each of the girls to be opened 5 years from now.

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Mother Daughter Tea-less Tea Party

Amazing girls all come from amazing moms and my girls and their moms are beyond amazing, they are spectacular. To celebrate Mother's Day this year, we decided to throw a little tea-less tea party on my back porch. I made mini muffins and scones, chocolate dipped strawberries, cupcakes and punch. We asked sisters in our ward to donate teacups and mini tea sets to use as decoration (reassuring them they would not be used for drinking by small hands). I also found some really awesome cupcake wraps that look like tea cups so we could at least have tea cups at each place setting. When we were announcing this activity, a few of the girls asked what we were drinking since there was no tea. That gave me an idea for a little game. We played name that beverage. I had a few different sodas and juices that I poured into little cups and they had to guess what it was. For our lesson, we talked about the importance of spending quality time together and gave them some ideas of what they could do to spend time as mother and daughter.
Link for tea cup cupcake wraps is here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/170026860/12-tea-party-tea-cup-cupcake-wraps-diy?ref=shop_home_active_1

Thank you to my amazing sister who took all these pictures (Alisa Duenas Photography)

http://www.alisaduenas.com

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Kitchen Safety / Chicken Pot Pie

An educational yet tasty activity. I had the girls sign up to bring different ingredients (really the mom's on our Facebook page) like chicken, stock, carrots, frozen peas and corn, potatoes, butter, cheese, etc. If you do this activity, you may want to get the chicken in the oven first thing as this is what held us up at the end, waiting for it to finish cooking. We talked about rules of safety in the kitchen like no goofing off, being aware of your surroundings, knife safety, hot pots and pans safety, etc. We then had the girls break off into different assignments depending on their age and maturity level (older girls used the knives, younger grated cheese or peeled potatoes). We had some cutting up veggies, some peeling, some grating, some making crust, some making gravy. We then dumped it all in a big bowl to mix it together. I bought 8x8 square pans for each of the girls and we divided up the filling for each of them. we then sprinkled cheese on and then rolled out the dough for the crust on top. the girls tucked in edges and poked holes to let out the steam. The pot pies got wrapped in foil and baking instructions attached. Each girl got to take a pot pie home to bake the next night for their families.

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