toys for church

[boilermakermom]

We need some ideas of toys for DD to keep her quiet during church. She is 4.5. We tend to go on Saturday evening, so there isn't a childrens mass.

All of her favorite toys make noise....

[ourbabygirl]

My DD is also 4, and we don't do 'toys' in church, per se, but what we do bring/ have brought along for her and her 2 yo brother are:

crayons and a mini notepad (also has a little slot for a pen, so we have that);

thin, small books (like board books; some from dollar section at Target, etc.);

small photo book (holds about 30 pictures in the sleeves- you can find these for around $1 at Michael's or in the photo finishing area of Target);

maybe a calculator?

I guess you could do stampers & ink pad, but that would be a bit messy.

DD also likes to follow along in the hymnal(s), since she can read a lot of the words.

We've also done little colorforms-type stuff- there are little scenes you can get where you move around the little vinyl shapes like a playground, classroom, etc.
Stickers and notepad

ETA You could also get little shapes that the kids weave yarn through... forgot what they're called, but you can make them yourself (cut out a big shape & punch holes around the edges/ outline, and they 'sew' a shoestring or piece of yarn through it) or buy them from a company like Melissa & Doug (Amazon has them).
Also those little activity notebooks... DD just got a jungle one as a party favor, & has been doing a lot of the activities- it has pages with tracing, dot-to-dots, color by number, count the spots on the animal, mazes, etc. I want to buy some more for stocking stuffers; gonna try finding them at Michael's or something. The one we have is called "Jungle Fun Fun Pad" by Amscan.

HTH! :)

[Jen841]

I was a bit of a freak and only let my kids take 'church' related things to play with at church.

We had a soft Noah's Ark set, we would take our Little People Nativity Set and related books/children bibles. Crayola Colorwonders were good to have there too, as well as good old crayons.

I never allowed cars - to many sounds from the mouths of my boys!

[KpbS]

We use the Crayola twistable colored pencils in a fabric pouch, a drawing pad notebook, and bring along a children's Bible in a totebag. The Jesus Storybook Bible is a good one for that age.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i am sort of like Jen above and try to limit the things brought to religious/church related things...and definitely no cars, trains or anything bc they make noise and/or my DS makes noise with them. Crayons and stickers entertain my DS a great deal but those were totally out for us to bring to church...bc when crayons roll away or a sticker rips or something my DS would end up getting upset and crying and asking for help...plus DS and DD would often fight over them (plus DD would eat them).

what helped us is the following:
-- a few (like 3 or less) little People from the nativity scene (not too many so they wouldn't get lost)
-- cloth book that my MIL made about the story of christmas, baby Jesus etc - DS was intrigued, as he loves books
-- board book about baby's first Christmas

they also loved singing along to the songs and "reading" along in the songbook

i really need to get more board books from Christian book store (or maybe from amazon?) for this purpose..i love sitting in the pews vs. having to sit in the crying room with my kiddos...if anybody has any recommendations i'd love to hear. we do have a children's bible which is really nice but i think it's more advanced and too delicate for my kids...i need something suitable for 2-3yos (e.g. almost indestructible :)).

eta: i remember in our baptism class for DS, the instructor (who had 4 kids) said that what he did with his younger kids is they each had a small backpack with board books, etc that would they could only use at church..that way the kids every Sunday morning the kids were very excited to get to have their backpack bc the toys/books still had some novelty. i think this helps a lot and we kind of do this for long car trips too (we save certain toys only for car rides, so it's something new that will keep their attention longer)

[swrc00]

I haven't used this for church, because DS still goes to nursery. I have been printing color by letter pictures from the internet. I print a couple at a time and fold them into a pencil pouch with some coloring pencils. They have entertained him now for almost a month. Worth a try.

[mnosky1]

I got some book form the christian store that weren't very cheap (like 10-15 each) but they are like activity bible kind of books, like noahs ark that moves, fuzzy lion, soft tree leaves, shiny sun, Lift the flap, etc. There is one with apostles that counted up to 12 like those butterfly or ladybug books with one more each page. My DD at 18mos-3 didn't really know she had church books (it was more to make me feel good and if she'd yell something about it, she'd yell, Mom, "look at Noah's Ark", or "Jesus is smiling" which sounds better than CInderlella's dress is blue", right?? I also let her have her blankie (nighttime only usually) and a small thing of cheerios which kept her quiet (no small feat) - but wouldn't pull these out unless I had too but she knew they were there unfortunately. At 3, I made her give up the cheerios and blankie though.
We also have a small magna doodle - as long as she doens't make too much noise with it.