Personal Progress Sit 'n Sip

Many of the value experiences overlap, so I figured: Why not combine a few experiences into one night? We worked on:

Faith 2
Divine Nature 2
Knowledge 1
Integrity 4

Each value experience has to do with motherly advice, so we had a kinda-tea party. Except without tea. And the big hats. And the fancy accents.

We had four stations, divided the girls into four groups, and let them have 10 minutes at each group. At each table we had one FANTASTICLY qualified woman who lead a short discussion on each topic.

Each of the four tables had tiered plates with tea party-type food (little brownies, mini cream puffs, raspberries, and strawberries). They also had journal pages at their tables.

This activity would have been perfect for May to coordinate with Mother's Day. Or the summertime would have fit well too. As it turns out, the day of this activity the weather turned very cold and we got our first snowfall in the mountains! Shoulda served a hot chocolate bar. Or maybe I should pocket that idea for next July....?

Meet Elizabeth

Let me introduce you to my daughter, Elizabeth.

This beautiful, sweet girl earned her Young Women Medallion not once, but TWICE! She also earned her honor bee. The second time she earned her medallion, she was a senior in high school. I tell you this because if you have young women who are 16 or even 17 and think it's too late to be working on personal progress, NOT SO! In fact, maybe earning a personal progress medallion is easier the second time around because the program is familiar. We have another young woman in our ward who is also working on her second medallion!

Here's how Elizabeth did it:

She reviewed the personal progress book and highlighted every page. She highlighted scriptures to look up in blue. She highlighted actions items (talk to someone, write in journal, share testimony, etc.) in orange. Green items are time-sensitive. Yellow highlights was a personal indication of "I'm planning on doing this one." Her hand-written notes indicate that two value experiences overlap.

Most of her value projects had something to do with activities she was already involved in: Student council, community orchestra, etc. Some included new skills, like learning to knit an infinity scarf.

In this photo she is holding her new cookbook, a gift from our family. The page is opened to a recipe and picture of her with her young women president.

Last week I dropped Elizabeth off at college. Man, I miss her!

 

Personal Progress Popcorn

About once a month I invite all the young women to come to my home and work on personal progress. I usually don't make special invitations and the night is totally optional. Next week, however, I have asked ALL of them to come because I want to talk to each of them about what they are working on for Young Women in Excellence (which is going to be totally awesome--it's already in the works).

I found the greatest popcorn handout, but it was originally produced as a thank you. You can find it here. I thought the popcorn kernel idea fit so well with personal progress, so after emailing Ellie, she gave me permission to re-create her cute handout. Thank you Ellie!

Click here for a copy in Microsoft Publisher (this will allow you to modify it).