Monday, March 7, 2011

Singing Time without Voices

Being pregnant has the consequence for me of loosing my voice. It happened last time for about 3 weeks. And I have spent the last few weeks doing everything I could to keep myself from loosing my voice. But on Sunday it was gone and I had no idea where to find it. I thought of getting a sub since there was no way possible I could sing, let alone teach the song I needed to. But inspiration came and I had a whole lesson without my voice or the children's voices.
I started by reading (using the microphone and the children were actually listening very well).
D&C 25:12
Then compared praying to singing.
Where are we commanded to pray? 
What are the different ways we pray?
Do we pray without saying words out loud?
Is it possible to sing without saying words?
Then we talked about ways we could sing without singing out loud.
Here are the ways we came up with, and with the ones I note we used that song to express that song:

  • humming: we hummed to "I Will Follow God's Plan" with the piano
  • whistle
  • clap
  • listen, sing in your mind: we sat and listened quietly. I told the children that they show that they are listening and thinking about the words by showing me what the song is about. We listened to "Reverently Quietly" I don't think I had ever seen them so reverent.
  • Play or listen to an instrument play: wanted to do something with this one, but I was putting it together at last minute. Idea have an instrument for the children to play along with a primary song, or arrange for someone from the ward to come in and play their instrument for the children.
  • ASL: we have learned ASL to do along with a number of our songs we did a few of them, "Come Follow Me", "Follow the Prophet", and "Jesus Said Love Everyone".
  • Actions: Songs like "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and "Popcorn Popping" are not ASL but anyone who sees what you are doing know what you are with out hearing the words sung.
It all went so well. I don't know if it was the children felt sorry for me, having no voice, or if they were really understanding that singing doesn't always have to include your voice. I concluded by reminding the children of the lesson we did about "Music Soothing the Soul", and how there will be times in their life when they will want the comfort that music can give them but will not feel they can sing out loud at that moment. I then testified of the power music can have in their lives they have use that power either with their voices or without.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

I have lost my voice three Sundays in the past 3 months. I used the mic, too, and told them that this was my opportunity to hear just how well everyone could sing.....WITHOUT me.

They seemed to embrace the challenge, because they did amazingly well. It WAS a royal pain, however.

Kathleen said...

Gosh, I hope this won't go on for too long! Kudos for thinking of something besides throwing in the towel! You are so creative. Sending loving thoughts and best wishes.

cindy said...

This is such an awesome idea, I love it! Thanks for sharing it. Hope you get feeling better soon.