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Primary Time: Help! Nursery Is Too Big!

There are times when your ward may be dealing with a problem in the nursery. The biggest problem is when the nursery grows too large. This size really is dependent on the size of the room you have the nursery meet in and the number of leaders that you call to nursery. Each Primary presidency will have to make it a matter of prayer in order to find the perfect solution for their situation. It is important to not crowd the children into too small of a space. As a mother of a child who broke her arm the first day of nursery, this really is important.

One solution is to move the nursery to a larger room. This can be helpful if you have simply outgrown the room that you are in. You should have the nursery in a large enough room that the kids can spread out and so that there is room to run around without running over each other. If your gym partitions off, then one of the partitions makes an excellent size room for the nursery. If not consider moving the Priesthood or Relief Society meetings to the gym and move the nursery into these larger classrooms. You could also have the sharing time exercises take place in the gym or the chapel to find a bigger room for nursery.

The other solution is to split the nursery. You should have more than twenty active children in nursery before you consider doing this, because you want class sizes of about ten each. You should also be sure that you evenly divide the classrooms with kids of all ages and with kids who attend regularly and those who do not. This will make sure that the nurseries are able to operate smoothly.

Another solution is to divide the class in half for lesson time/snack/coloring and play time. Then have the children go to a different slightly smaller classroom for the lesson half of nursery and a larger room for the playtime part of nursery. This may help if you do not have a large room or two large rooms for nursery.

Finally it is essential that a large nursery be properly staffed. As a nursery leader it can be difficult to meet the needs of each child when you have so many children in your nursery. In any nursery there should be at least two leaders at all times. Additionally you may want to add another leader for every four to five children. Nursery leaders should be taking the children to the parents to take care of diaper changes or bathroom breaks.

Related Articles:

Primary Time: Getting Ready for Nursery Class

Primary Time: Nursery Leader

The Church Introduces a New Nursery Manual