Two weeks ago I posted a
tutorial on how I made my bags for my boys. (Which of course can be used for a million other things besides church bags. I've even used them already for bags when I didn't want to take everything in my purse. haha.)
But for the intended purpose, here are a few of the things I put in them for church, and a few fun ideas that I haven't put together yet. :) I have a LOT of links to some wonderful ideas, so I hope you have as much fun looking as I did. :)
First of all, I printed out
this cute ABC Church Book, from The Idea Door. It was super easy to cut and laminate with my
YourStory
machine. Then I just punched two holes in one side and used the
Loose Leaf 
rings and here's a cute book. :
I think if I were to make one again I would change a couple of the pages to use different words, or maybe different descriptions, but this works and my boys like to look at it. :)
I also made a few manila folder activity folders that I found from
this site well, I can't find it, but I know it's somewhere in the links at the bottom. I'll keep looking and update this when I find it. I like it because you can print them out black and white and color them yourself, or print them pre-colored, which I did and saved a LOT of time. :) How easy are these? Super. Print, laminate, cut, add velcro, tape to the folder, and your done! :)
After a bit of use I think I want to make these different too. I think if I can find more churchy stuff (like more bible oriented ones like Noah's Ark) than I would actually make a fabric book out of flannel. When the boys take the velcro off it's kind of loud, and I think if it were simply stuck to flannel it wouldn't be as loud. Plus they wouldn't have to match it up quite as exactly - which also means they'd have a little more freedom to play with them. Here's how I'd do it. Cut out flannel pieces that are two pages across. Trace the basic outlines onto the flannel and draw over them with a fabric marker. Then use crayon to color the pictures in and iron to set the color (I love that idea! so simple!). Make a fabric pocket on the facing page and label the activity. Sew the pages together and your done! :) (I think it would take a little bit more detail to make sure all the pages end up in the right places, but I think it would work pretty well.) The other thing with these books is that the pockets don't work very well. All of our Noah Ark animals are always falling through. It's impossible to keep the pocket taped on when you're always trying to reach in and get the pieces out. See...
I also added a small handmade book for drawing. This was a practice book when I made all the books for the YW's last year - that's why it's pink and my boys are using it. :) On a couple of pages I drew some simple outline pictures for them to color. But mostly they just scribble right now.
That said, I also have some of these WONDERFUL
Twistables Colored Pencils in there.
I love that they are washable/erasable, and if Jackson has a hold of them, we can just turn them down and I don't have to worry about him coloring on anything! I do really want to get the
Mini Twistables Crayons
though (I didn't know they had those when I bought these). Hunter likes to turn them out too far and then the tips break. I don't think I would have to worry about that with the crayons since they are SO thick!
I do also have another little book I put together. All it is are pictures of Jesus, and a few other pictures that are key to the Gospel, which I laminated, punched holes in and used the rings to hold together. I found these at the Church Distribution Center for very inexpensive, but I know you can also find some of them at Deseret Book. (Both places you can order online if you don't have one nearby).
I really like this, especially while we take the Sacrament, to help them know what we're supposed to be doing while everyone is being so super quiet. :)
Ultimately we're trying to get away from bringing toys or fun stuff to church. We've decided that we want them to learn to be reverent and learn that it's important to be focused on what church is about. The husband is trying to get me to not bring anything, but I think a few things are alright. I think I might actually leave out some of the manilla folders that don't also teach, perhaps come up with some of my own stuff. But until then, here are a few more ideas and places you can go to find great ideas.
And of course when they get old enough to read, we'll add some scriptures in there too. :)
I really like
this first book that is all about Jesus (or there is one that is on the Sacrament) - but my boys aren't old enough to read, so I think this will have to wait. (
http://www.mormonchic.com/mommy/quiet_books.asp) Plus at this link there are more ideas, like the picture book that I made, a fabric quiet book that is pretty general (not churchy), and a photo book of your baby or family.
Links of all my bookmarks....
General Quiet Books:
Churchy Stuff (LDS and general Christian links):
The actual pdf files of ideas and things to download:
A few random links I had in my bookmarks that I know have some great stuff, but nothing specific in these links, just a lot more links:
If you have links to other websites or posts, or something of your own that you've made that fits here, leave it in the comments and I'll add it to my lists! :)
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