The "Vigor and Vim" Song

Yikes!! It has been a few weeks since I posted.

Last week I taught the kids "Hum Your Favorite Hymn" (or as my 5-year-old calls it, "the vigor and vim song"). I found this idea on Sugar Doodle: Hum Your Favorite Hymn Visual Aid, which I loved and quickly adapted to my simplicity requirement.

If I had had the time or inclination I really love the way she did it, but to simplify it I drew a large picture of a face on the chalkboard (in senior Primary I had some kids come up and draw it for me) and then just stuck the pictures up with a magnet on the face's forehead as we sang. Super easy and really fun. For the first line ("if on occasion you have found your language is in question"), I wrote each word out and had the kids repeat after me one by one, since it's sort of a confusing line. We talked about what it means (e.g., "if sometimes you say something or think something that isn't so great") and went over each word individually. The rest of the song was pretty easy to teach with the image ideas from the Sugar Doodle link.

The kids especially liked the purple hippo, pink elephant thing, and in fact I printed out pictures of a purple hippo and a pink elephant and put those up on the face too, which they thought was funny. They also quite enjoyed the phrase "vigor and vim." By the end of singing time they all had the entire verse mastered.

I have mentioned to my kids many, many times that the songs they learn in Primary will help them throughout their lives. President Packer has said on a few occasions, including one of our stake conferences a few years ago, that a favorite hymn can be like a "delete key" in our brains. I have used this tool throughout my own life. For me, it is not necessarily my "favorite" hymn, but the first lines of "A Child's Prayer" always come to me when I need comfort or help. "Heavenly Father, are you really there?" It has been such a blessing in my life and I love to remind my Primary kids that they can use that tool as well. It's as simple as choosing a song and turning to it whenever things get haywire up there in our brains.