Anyone who has ever gone to church with us has learned that my toddler likes to sing…loud and a lot! His singing usually continues after the organ and congregation have stopped. The boy loves his music!
When he’s not singing, he is crawling under the pews to visit those fortunate to sit in front or behind us, squeezing past us into the aisle to show off his racing skills as he rushes the stage, or picking up the hymnals in order to either repeatedly throw them against the ground or to smack them against his sister’s head. Any attempts to stop him from any of these behaviors ends in a tantrum. Needless to say, he and I spend a lot of time walking the halls.
Since I’d like to occasionally listen to the speakers, I’ve put together a bag of activities that will hopefully entice him away from the hymnals and the stage.
Sunday mornings are usually pretty hectic getting everyone out the door, so I tend to neglect grabbing things to entertain my kids. The idea with these bags is to have them ready all the time – just grab and go – and to keep them away from the kids during the week so that they enjoy them on Sundays. I ended up making three bags, one for each of my kids, tailoring each one to suit the child. But the basic ingredients are the same. First I started with a simple draw-string bag I picked up at the dollar store. I picked out a different color for each child so they know which bag holds their “stuff”. Then I started working on filling the bags.
Fine Motor Skill Activities
I made these beaded pipe cleaners years ago for my daughter. I simply hot glued one bead at the end of a pipe cleaner cut in half and strung the remaining beads along. These are great for sorting or patterns. Just be careful with young children – especially those who like to stick things in their mouths. I also threw in a couple nuts and bolts from the hardware store which will hopefully help occupy those little hands! My older kids got just plain pipe cleaners in their bags, used to build sculptures or pictures. Sometimes just having something in their hands to twist around helps them focus on the speaker.
Stickers
I also picked out some stickers I had laying around the house and threw them in with a blank book to paste them in. For my toddler, I pulled the surrounding sticker off of the page so that he could easily pull the sticker himself.
Easy Puzzles
I found these Crayola Connect a Word puzzles at Target in their dollar spot. So that I don’t overwhelm my little guy, I only put a few in his bag. The older kids got some puzzles of Bible scenes that I had picked up at a bookstore many years ago.
Dry Erase Pens and Whiteboard
Whenever I pull the white board out during school, my little guy loves to take it from me and do his own drawings. So I know this will be a hit with him. I picked these up at Target in their dollar spot, but I’ve seen them pretty much everywhere right now with the school supplies. I included an eraser to make clean up a snap.
Books and Coloring Books
Lastly, I threw in some Bible-related books for my kids, based on their reading level. And no quiet bag would be complete without a coloring book and crayons. I also threw in a little snack, just in case.
Our first week with these bags went incredibly well. My toddler especially loved the puzzles and the stickers. The bags were a hit with the older kids too. And I finally got to listen to the message.
My toddler does still out-sing us all, but some behaviors just don’t need correction!
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