This one is pretty easy. I always try to think of things that would be useful to the women in a YSA ward. We especially ave a lot of younger girls who have graduated from high school in the past 1-2 years so most of them still live at home, and their parents are doing these things for them. While I'm not the stereotypical feminist, I believe that women should prepare themselves at all times. I know in the past 5 years I've had to learn some things about being on my own that I didn't really learn living at home. As you can see from the flyer above, these are things I've had to teach myself or had someone teach me (with the exception of the sewing since I've been playing with a needle and thread even when I was a little girl but basic sewing skills are good for anyone.) In my late 20's, the thought occurs to me often that if I never get married, I'm going to have to do a lot of stuff on my own. And these skills are useful even for married women or women preparing to serve a mission as well but since I'm in a YSA ward, we're always thinking about the next step of our lives. Marriage is the next step and ultimately a temple marriage is an end goal for everyone. It is to help us prepare for eternal life.
When I asked people to teach the classes, I gave them a general idea of what I was looking for, suggestions on the direction they could go, and left it up to them to make their own lesson plan. We provided dinner which were dishes made from basic pantry items since YSA usually don't have a full-blown food storage.
My original idea would have worked if we had had more people show up but we only had a handful of people. My original idea was to have different stations the girls could rotate around. I wasn't going to tell them they had to visit every station if they didn't want to. If they wanted to spend half their time learning about money and the other half about cooking, then they could do that. The point of the activity is to teach them something they might not already know how to do. Honestly, 15 minutes per station isn't really enough to teach them a lot but they at least get a taste of it and get their feet wet. They might even discover a new talent or interest they didn't know they had.
As it was, we had a small group so we had the sewing class first, then the car activity, and because the first two took up so much time, we didn't have time to learn about cooking or money management. I was in charge of the cooking class and had a fun and easy dessert prepared that they could make there so they learned a fun recipe :) Going forward, I will find another opportunity to incorporate those basics into future activities because I still believe these are useful skills, and it's fun learning how to do them.
Here are some pictures and overview of what was taught in case you need some ideas on lesson plans:
For the sewing portion, the teacher brought small samples of fabric for us to use. She taught us how to hem, how to sew a seam, and how to sew on a button. I was surprised how many people didn't know how to do this so I'm definitely going to try to have sewing incorporated into more activities even if it's a side activity. I'm not a whiz by any means but I know how to do basic stuff.
Here, the guys taught us how to change the tire on a car (that's my little blue car in the last picture :D). They pointed out where some of the basic things are under the hood like where all your fluids are like oil, transmission, steering, etc. They showed us how to jump your car, and one of the guys showed us basic things he keeps in his car in case he needs them like a toolbox, jumper cables, jacks, a blanket, etc. It was fun having the guys there, and their tips were really helpful!!!
This is the dessert I did which I learned on my mission from my mission president's wife. It's called Cake in a Mug (or in this case, Mug in a Cup). I'm sure you've seen or heard of it but this is the easiest recipe I've found so far:
1 box angel
food cake mix
1 box any
other flavored cake mix
*mix-ins
like candy, nuts, marshmallows, etc.
Combine the
two mixes together. Use 1/3 c. of the dry cake mixes and 3 T. of water into a
mug or cup. Add any mix-ins. Microwave about 1 minute. Eat out of cup and top
with ice cream or cool whip (optional).
I pinned a bunch of easy recipes on Pinterest as well that were classified as "meal upgrades". They were recipes that started out from a box of mac and cheese or a bag of Ramen noodles, and you add things to them to make them meals. See them here.
I made a Snickers salad which is always always always a huge hit!
1 red apple
1 green
apple
1 Snickers
candy bar
1 c. Cool
Whip
12 oz. of
yogurt (strawberry, vanilla, or cherry are best)
Fold yogurt
and Cool Whip. Cut apples and Snickers into bite size pieces and fold into
yogurt mixture.
While we ate dinner, I talked about how to grocery shop by browsing through the grocery ads you get in the mailbox. Then I touched on planning your meals beforehand (for a single person a week is usually a good time frame) so you know what you're going to buy when you shopping instead of just picking out a bunch of random items. I also suggested buying in bulk especially on meat or veggies/fruits so that you can freeze them for later.
I know I probably say this a lot but even though we didn't have a lot of people, it was still a lot of fun. And if you have a big group it would be a big hit! I've done activities for our ward before where the guys break off from the girls and they each learn things about the other. Like since guys are usually really good with cars, the girls learned about cars. Women are generally good at things like cooking and sewing, the guys learned how to sew on a button or basic cooking tips. So this activity could really be adapted to a Young Men and Young Women activity as well. It'd be really great for those preparing to serve a mission! So I hope this has inspired you, and that you have fun with doing your own version of the activity.
