Today Buddy, Miss Boo, and I painted (dried) salt clay sculptures, read several books, and now those two are happily engaged with a cardboard box filled with such of the Husband's tools as seem to hold the least possibility of gouging out eyes and the remnants of a broken phone, an old doorknob, and an adding machine. They are "fixing".
With two little people who are this busy, all before 11am, you can imagine that the contents of a quiet bag might have to be kind of varied.
I did an internet search for "quiet bags" and surprisingly, most of the ideas are from Mormon sources. This, in my opinion, is a bit sad; without further ado, here are the things that I think are the best of the best:
These cloth books. We ordered some, and for the money they are a lot of entertainment, and difficult to make noisy. They are obviously made in China, if that bothers you; I also think they'd be dead easy to make, but we're assuming you have little kids and no time to sit for the hour it would take at the sewing machine. But if you're a grandma, or a ladies' Bible study group who wants to make quiet books, they would be very simple and would require, I think, only some 4-for-a-dollar felt sheets from JoAnn's, some of those little circles of velcro, a bit of interfacing, and some fabric pens. (I wouldn't put the letters in applique like the purchsed books do, unless you really want to.)
This cloth Bible. Helps maintain the point that this is a church quiet bag. Again, I think if you could purchase the felt from JoAnn's (they would probably order it), that this would be easy to make, but I am at such a point in my crafting abilities that I pretty much can only sew when the kids are sleeping. And then I would like to be sleeping.
These markers and paper--the markers won't mark on anything but the paper. A bit too spendy, likely, if a church was putting together complimentary quiet bags, in which case I think you'd want to go with crayons and tiny half-sheet-type coloring books, but good if you've got a little person who thinks markers are WAAAY cooler than crayons (i.e., Miss Boo).
I drew on the 4-for-a-dollar felt sheets from Jo-Anns, cut them out, and made something similar to this felt face guy for $8, only we have 4 base faces to choose from and it doesn't take up so much room. Don't pay $48 for Mr. Fuzzy Felt Face; if I can, with Miss Boo's help, sit with a Sharpie and create something that they find just as fun, then you can too. Keep the bits in a ziploc bag, or sew a felt pouch if you're really feeling creative.
Miss Boo has a tiny dolly that sometimes works in our quiet bag, and Buddy sometimes likes toy cars, but these are going to be judgement calls based on what your kid likes; I wouldn't necessarily include them in a church quiet bag.
You only want three or four things in the bag at once, and you want to have a lot of other things in reserve that you can put in and take out, so they're never sure what's in the bag. For instance:
-Sandpaper cut into shapes like a star, circle, etc., and different lengths of different-colored yarn that they can stick to it.
-Pipe cleaners or leather lacing and large beads in shapes that won't roll (i.e., square, stars, etc.)
-Stickers and a small notebook to stick them in (note: will not work if your kid thinks the pews really need stickers.
-Playing cards you don't feel are sacreligious. I do think that it might be inappropriate to start playing stud poker during the sermon, but Miss Boo's method with her Dora playing cards is to line up six of them then put them back into the box, and then repeat.
-Some people recommend finger puppets, but to me, what fun are puppets if you can't make them talk? If your kid will go for silent finger puppets, by all means get them some. Our finger puppets always have to have noisy adventures.
-Bendaroos are good but sticky--pack wipes.
-A sketchbook and a pencil for you, if you are artistic; I've found this idea from Edith Schaeffer does really work if you happen to have a visual kid. Miss Boo can watch a sermon illustrated; Buddy absolutely cannot and keeps grabbing the pencil. So if you can tag-team with a spouse or a friend, or if you've only got one kid to keep occupied, the idea works better than otherwise. However, it seems like a neat way to transition to listening to a sermon without aids.
Whew. That should be enough to go on with. Of course if you've got little kids you're also going to think of the tiny container of Teddy Grahams (they make less crumbs than goldfish crackers or cheerios), the sippy cup, the wipes, the blanket, the binky, and anything else essential, right? Those go in your diaper bag or purse, not necessarily the quiet bag. I mention them here so that the grammas and the ladies' Bible studies that might be perusing this list can keep in mind that little kids might need to eat and drink at 11:30, even on Sundays, even in the sanctuary.
Cheers,
Breanna
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