Featured post by Amy from Learning By Design
Toddlers and preschoolers aren’t well-known for their abilities to be quiet or still. Most of the time this is fine; they learn through moving, touching, asking and doing. Yet in church, being relatively quiet and still may be more appropriate.
Maybe last week your little one crawled under the pew and proceeded to take all the tissues and spare change out of your purse.
Don’t be discouraged! Just because your little one isn’t inclined to sit still yet doesn’t mean you need to hang out in the nursery during the sermon or skip church all together.
If you browse through Pinterest you can find beautiful felt books and other elaborate projects for keeping little hands busy in church, but maybe you don’t have the time to put something like that together. Or maybe, like me, you’re just not that crafty.
Thankfully, there is an alternative to fancy Pinterest projects, scattered tissues, and spare change.
You can put together a busy bag (or a collection of them) to have a new one for every week of the month with household objects and a few items you can pick up at a dollar store.
These little items are just right for keeping in a zippered pencil case, cosmetic bag, or small backpack.
I recently put together a bag for my 3-year-old son. He, like most his age, is ALWAYS on the move. So far the activities I included have been a big hit and kept him relatively quiet and busy! They’re perfect for church, long car rides, or staying occupied at a restaurant.
Here’s what I included in our busy bag:
- Finger puppets
- Little prayer books
- Mini notebook
- Mini drawing board
- Clothespin color match card
- This card was easy to make by just coloring sections of card stock. I laminated it using a self-seal photo laminating sleeve. Then I just colored clothespins to match.
- Letter find sensory bag
- We had a fun time making the letter sensory bag. It was super simple with just some hair gel, food coloring a little water and small letter beads. It’s perfect for letter recognition and keeping hands busy squishing. Be sure if you make this one to tape all the sides and the top with clear packing tape. The last thing you want is a squishy hair gel mess to deal with!
- Felt threading on a ribbon
- This DIY activity was also super simple. I just cut some felt scraps into squares with a hole in the middle to thread on the ribbon.
We’re so glad we put together these busy bag activities! Some of them require a little assistance, but I can help without being disruptive. I usually keep the bag near me and hand my son one activity at a time. I love that he is working on his attention focusing skills and fine motor skills at the same time!
I hope you’ll be inspired by these ideas to come up with a busy bag of your own to keep little hands busy during church with no Pinterest fancy crafts or spare change necessary!
– Amy, Learning By Design
Amy is a former teacher turned stay-at-home mom and writer. She loves sharing what she knows about family, play and early learning. When she’s not playing with her family you can find her organizing or decorating her home, reading a good self-help book, and occasionally pretending she knows how to cook but she usually leaves that to her awesome husband! She shares more ideas on her site, www.learningbydesign-wi.com.
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