Personal Progress Incentives

Lots has changed around here. Career changes, cross-country moves, new grandbabies, new homes, and different callings has left this blog on the back-burner. A blog's a tough beast to keep up with. At times I've wondered if my blog drove me to come up with activities that weren't necessarily what the young women needed. And I hated that feeling.

After lots of consideration, I've decided the best avenue for my personal progress ideas is through Etsy. It allows me to create without necessarily being in a young women calling. Also, I don't have to be near my computer to send files, because frankly, I'm not very good at that.

I realize Etsy is not for every one. But if you'd like to check it out, here's the link. Here's some of the stuff you'll see there:

A Temple Wedding

Something exciting has happened in our family! On this special day, I was feeling so grateful for the young women program, which has helped my daughter make and keep sacred covenants. Each leader she had, each activity she attended, and (of course) the Personal Progress program helped prepare her for making this eternal decision. We are thrilled for Elizabeth and Jacob and their new FOREVER family.

"BEE" Anxiously Engaged in Personal Progress

Our last Young Women in Excellence was based on Elder Ballard's talk Be Anxiously Engaged. We gave the girls honey sticks in the value colors to remind them to "BEE" anxiously engaged in personal progress. I ordered the honey sticks here.

Choice & Accountability 2 and Integrity 1

For the Strength of Youth Cranium:

Last summer, our stake young women leaders challenged all the young women to read the entire For the Strength of Youth (FSOY) pamphlet. The girls have to read FSOY anyway in order to pass off Choice & Accountability 2 and Integrity 1. We did not read the entire FSOY at this activity, but my goal was to help them get started.

This was one of my favorite activities. It turned out to be fun and the girls seemed to like it. Several of them asked questions about standards and some of them gave examples of how they follow standards.

Here's what you'll need:

1. Playing cards. You can download mine here. 
2. A copy of the For Strength of Youth pamphlet, which you will need to highlight. If you look at the cards, they will show you which color to highlight each section. 
3. Two cartons of Play-doh. Three if you're shopping with young children.
4. Word strips of some mixed up words. The words you'll need are in the cards (each card in the "zelpuz" category). The word in the above picture is "education," for those of you who are like me and can't move on until you've figured it out.

Here's how it worked: We divided into two groups. I drew a card, then invited one player from each team to come up play the card for their own team. Each card gives instructions on how play that round, gets a point, then has to read the highlighted section of FSOY aloud. 

The key part was reading the highlighted section out loud. That's when the girls talked to each other about standards and asked questions. 

Personal Progress Valentine

I. AM. IN. LOVE.

And I want the young women to fall in love too!

You can print this Valentine here: MS Publisher or PDF.

And you can purchase the mini stampers here.

Make personal progress your BAE this Valentine's Day!

Taste the Rainbow--part 2

It's been a while. A long while.

WAY back in May, this is what we did for part 2 of our "Taste the Rainbow" series.

Again, we had three rotations and every girl went to each 20-minute class.

For our GOOD WORKS #1 class, each young woman created three messages of gratitude with small candies. They could then use these messages to acknowledge quiet acts of service over the next couple of weeks.

They each received a package of sticky notes (aren't these sticky notes adorable?). Hopefully they will use the sticky notes to write notes of gratitude as they acknowledge quiet acts of service.

And they put their messages and sticky notes in a bag, which was labeled with ideas of how to acknowledge quiet acts of service.

Hopefully the young women recognized that they have so many people who love and serve them every day. 

Our next class was taught by our fantastic young women president because she is a spiritual GIANT. She taught a mini class on the Young Women theme and the girls were able to pass off CHOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY #6 that very night.

Our last class was taught by our bishop for INTEGRITY #7. He brought in several laptop computers for the young women to research how to strengthen their families.

Taste the Rainbow--part 1

There are lots of "Taste the Rainbow" activities floating around on Pinterest--I just had to join the party! I saw this one that was personal progress-based and so adorable. And this one that was for New Beginnings.

We had personal progress interviews last month, which prompted this activity. We've had lots of cute new Beehives join our ranks lately, so it seemed a good time to crank out a few value experiences in one night.

Here was the invite, with a small package of Skittles stapled to the back:

We had three rotations, so every girl went to each 20-minute class.

During the personal progress interviews, the one thing I heard over and over again from the young women is how difficult it is to start a two or three-week value experience and remember to keep it going. So, for FAITH #1, here's what I came up with:



I got a pillowcase for each girl, then used iron-ons to create a calendar-like thing.
At the activity, each girl got to decorate their pillowcase (here's a picture of mine--and yes, I realize faith #1 requires THREE weeks of personal prayer, not two. Good thing I figured it out before I made the rest of the pillowcases!)

I hope they will put the pillowcase on their pillow and every morning and night, will check off their prayers for that day. My bigger hope is that they will form a habit of prayer that they will find essential in life. I asked them to use the back of the pillowcase to write down all the service they recognize for GOOD WORKS #1.

The next class in the rotation was DIVINE NATURE #4. Our Elders Quorum president came and taught them how to memorize the sacrament prayers. He offered them a reward if the girls could recite the prayers by Sunday. And as long as they're doing DIVINE NATURE #4, they may as well do FAITH #4.

from www.modernroots.com

Our last class was INDIVIDUAL WORTH #4. The great thing about this class is the girls could finish it in one night. The teacher gave them a questionnaire with these questions:

What college do I want to go to?
What major do I want to have?
Where would I like to serve a mission?
What temple would I like to be married in?
What traits would I like in my husband? (physical, spiritual, personality)
How many children would I like to have?
What kind of mother do I plan on being?
Where would I like to travel with my family?
What fun things would I like to do with my family?
What kind of wife do I want to be?
Where do I want to raise my family?
What kind of home would I like?
How will I teach my children about my Savior, Jesus Christ?
How will I let them know that they are a Child of God?

Then we served rainbow cupcakes, recipe over at thefrugalgirls.com. You can find the recipe here.

Looking forward to Taste the Rainbow part 2, next month.