team leading / sharing the calling

[lgrafing]

I'm having some family struggles right now and my bishop asked if it would help me to only lead Jr or only lead Sr primary instead of both. I said I actually would be interested in that, but I didn't think it would work because then what do you do for the program? Half the primary didn't work with the leader and now has to sing with them! I see here, though, some of the contributors say they only do one or the other and so I guess it's possible. How do you make it work though? What challenges do you face and how do you address them?

[prettyeyes72]

This is what I did until very recently, I only taught Junior. It was wonderful!!! We have done a couple different things for singing in sacrament meeting. One year I stood on the right side in the aisle and the other chorister stood in the other aisle. We arranged the seating so that most of the Junior were on my side and the Senior kids on the other side. We have also just prepped the kids that there will just be one chorister if one will be gone. Honestly, the kids don't care. We sub for each other when we need to, so they have seen both of us at least once. As long as they have someone to bring them in and cut them off, they just follow the Piano. I haven't found that it hurts the singing at all.
As for how it works, it is really easy, as long at the other chorister does their calling. If they don't show up, you will probably be expected to teach on the fly. When you have a responsible person, however, I didn't run into any problems at all. She taught the songs to the Seniors however she thought best, and I taught to the Juniors however I thought best. As long as they were learning the songs, neither of us cared what the other was doing. We take turns picking songs, and I always keep her informed about what songs Junior is struggling with, so she can make sure that the Senior primary can carry us or we can just create solos for that song. Is there anything specific you are worried about?