My Young Women President emailed me the basic activity idea from a blog post, and the Mia Maid class presidency and I briefly discussed a version we liked for our ward. *Full disclosure? I created/enhanced the majority of the activity because most of the Mia Maid class presidency was busy with homework and their involvement in extra curricular activities.
I'm sharing our fun activity here because the night was a great success. Yay! I thought maybe someone else would like to try it in their ward, too? *If you choose to do this fun activity and share it online, please link back to this blog post. My heart thanks you. :)
Young Women Mother–Daughter Activity
The first thing I did was email the mothers a list of questions so we could play the game "That's My Mom!" Here are the questions—a few were provided by a counselor in the Mia Maid class presidency and I came up with the rest:
- What was your first job?
- What's on the top of your bucket list?
- Where were you married?
- What's your favorite food or treat?
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- What's your favorite Primary song?
- Describe your perfect day:
- Have you ever traveled outside of the USA? If yes, what was your favorite place? If no, where would your dream destination be?
- Is your favorite way to dress: casual; professional; Sunday-best; athletic; or formal?
- How old were you when you gained a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church?
- What is your least favorite household job to do?
- If you were called to serve a mission in the future, where would you like to serve?
- What/where is the farthest temple you've attended?
- Where's your favorite place to read a book or take a nap?
- What are you most passionate about?
The mothers emailed me their answers ahead of time. I printed off their answers, highlighted their names and put them in a folder.
I had the other members of our Young Women Presidency, and our longest-serving Mia Maid adviser, contact their/our class members (Laurels, Mia Maids and Beehives) before our activity. I wanted the girls to be prepared to tell what they love most about their mothers—in front of everyone at our activity.
Our refreshment/treat contributions were provided by our Mia Maid advisers, our YW Secretary, one of our Mia Maids (and her mom, of course!), and me (I brought the gluten free treats). It wasn't fancy, but everything was yummy! I'm so very grateful for their preparation and generosity...for sharing is caring! ;) Oh, the fake roses are mine and the other plants are our Mia Maid adviser's.
Here are the four Primary songs I chose for everyone to sing at the beginning of our activity:
I printed the songs out at home and made a few pink copies at our church's library right before the activity. I didn't make too many copies because most people just use their technology devices, but I wanted some on-hand just in case.
Here is the program I created for the night. I printed it on pink paper (thus, the colors didn't show up) with four handouts per page to save paper. (By the way, I only included a © sign on the handouts shown here. I didn't print them out that way for the activity.)
Below is the game sign I created for our "That's My Mom!" game. I emailed it to Alphagraphics and had them print it on card stock. I couldn't believe the difference in quality from my YW President's color printer vs. Alphagraphics' card stock printer (is that even a name?!). Even though it was pricier to have them printed professionally, Alphagraphics' quality was a noticeable improvement over the home-color-printer version. It was totally worth every penny! :) (And no, Alphagraphics isn't paying me to say that. Ha ha.)
I bought these lovely, large fake hydrangeas and peony, tied them with ribbon, and used them for our mother–daughter photo shoot. The girls held their sign (see above) and their moms held the flowers.
Our Mia Maid class president conducted the meeting. She had just sent her beloved older sister off to the MTC that very day, so I was impressed she attended and held it together enough to conduct! I was also impressed that her mother wasn't a puddle on the floor! (I'm only half-way joking...I can't imagine how much I will cry when my children leave on a mission!!)
Our singing portion of the night went well. I had one of our Mia Maids play two of the Primary songs (her choice) and I played the other two (the songs she wasn't comfortable playing). I especially loved having mothers and daughters singing those beloved Primary songs together, it made my heart happy! :)
It was so lovely hearing each young woman express her love and appreciation for her mother! They were all such thoughtful girls—a few of them made me tear-up a little! Oh, but there were a two young women (sisters) in particular who totally made the rest of us laugh out loud with their admiration of their super-mom...who birthed and continues to care for her eight children! Without going into detail, you can imagine what she puts up with! I can't believe there is a single soul who isn't in awe of this woman. As her daughters said, she is truly a saint. :)
My daughter made my heart smile to no end when she stood up in front of everyone and said, "What I love most about my mom is she is like the perkiest person I know! She's always trying to make me smile and be happy, and I just love her so much!" Yes, I will remember that happy moment forever! :)
For our "That's My Mom!" game, I asked one of our Laurel advisers, one of our Mia Maid advisers, and our YW secretary help out. They each took turns reading one of the mom's answers at a time. After each question was read, the young women raised their card if they thought the answer belonged to their mom. I told the girls to keep track of the answers they got right, and score one point for each answer.
The leaders rotated through each mother's questionnaire over and over until every mom was covered at least four or five times. FYI, 16 mothers participated. Toward the end of our game, I could tell some of the young women were losing interest, so I ended it with the next round of question reading. I think we played the game for about 25–30 minutes.
The highest scores the girls received were five points, the average being three or four points. I told our young women that the prize they won is a great big hug from their mother! Ha ha. I know, I'm so tricky...and possibly mean??! ;) But I just didn't think we needed to have an actual winner for the night because the girls' greatest treasure of the evening should have been their mothers! :)
Then we opened up the evening for the enjoying of refreshments, chatting and our photo booth! I also suggested that the daughters take home their mom's questionnaire—to get to know them even better. I'm happy there were only a couple questionnaires that weren't taken home. That means most daughters wanted to continue connecting with their mothers! Mission accomplished!! :) Or, it means the young women already know their mothers so well they don't need to read the questionnaire!
Our Mia Maid adviser—and resident photographer—took photos of the mothers and daughters who wanted to participate. Every mother–daughter photo was so so cute! :) We used our Relief Society room's curtains as the backdrop and they worked perfectly! (I still need to print off those photos for everyone—May has been a busy month! Also, I thought about sharing a photo of my daughter and me, but I'm still a nut about my children's online privacy, so I refrained. That said, if you follow my private Instagram account I posted our photo the day after our YW activity.)
Clean-up was a breeze because a few lovely young women and leaders stayed and helped! Later that night, as I reflected on our mother–daughter activity, I was just a bundle of smiles! I was greatly relieved everyone participated and seemed to have a good time...well, I just assumed everyone had as much fun as I did! Ha ha.
Hey, I strongly believe that it's your own fault if you don't have a good time in life! After all, our attitudes belong to each of us, individually! No other person has any control over what we choose to think and feel! :)
The best news is, I received quite a bit of positive feedback from parents expressing their appreciation and happiness for our mother–daughter activity. I'm so grateful I helped facilitate a positive bonding experience between mothers and their teenage daughters!