When my children were young I would sometimes let them bring one toy to play with during family church time but they still weren't very quiet. My son would make action figure sounds, or my daughter would pretend out loud. Sometimes it was embarrassing, and we were always afraid of taking away from the spirit of the meeting.
But President Monson said once in a Stake Conference, "Parents, don't
worry that your children are not quiet during meeting times, we have to
remember that they are big spirits in tiny bodies full of wiggles." We all laughed. But we still wanted to teach our children that they needed to be quiet and reverent at church.
So we went to coloring books or reading books quietly. That worked but never lasted the whole time of the family meeting. Then one day someone behind us let my children play with a quiet toy that they had made. It was awesome and my kids loved it.
Creating a Sunday bag is a good idea that can be helpful in keeping little ones quieter. A couple of treats, mess free, are good starters. Some picture books are good during the passing of the sacrament.
You can create your own sacrament books by finding pictures of the things Jesus did while on this earth. Put them inside a clear page holder and then put them inside a small binder. You could even create a book of nature (animals, flowers, etc) doing the same thing.
Here are some ideas that I have found for making quiet time toys. I hope they are helpful and easy as 1-2-3 to create.
Make a felt play board, the instructions are as easy as 1-2-3:
1) find a small box with a lid.
2) glue a piece of felt to fit the inside of the lid
3) cut out different kinds of felt pieces to create pictures, they store inside the box
Make a seek and find bag:
1) take a zipper pencil bag with a window in it
2) fill it with beads and misc shaped items, shake it up good, after it is zippered
3) make list of the misc items for your children to seek for, while looking through the window, among the beads, make sure you put in enough beads in it to make it a little challenging for the kids to find.
Lace Cards
1) Create a few patterns like the one in the picture and create cut outs from foam squares
2) Use a single hole punch and spread wholes about an inch apart.
3) Get shoe string laces to guide in and out of holes.
This last one is a Popsicle stick puzzle:
1) Paint Popsicle stick several different colors
2) create designs on white paper squares using different colors to match Popsicle sticks.
3) have children try to create the design on the paper using the Popsicle sticks.
Well, those are just a few ideas, there are tons more that are so easy to make and helpful in quiet time needs. Have fun creating!!!
