We have attended Family Integrated churches for many years now. Before that, we tried to keep our children in the church service as much as possible.
One of the biggest fears of a young mama in a family-integrated church setting (or any time she takes her children to a place where they are expected to be quiet) is the fear of her children making a terrible racket all throughout the service and totally disrupting everyone’s worship time. (Ask me how I know.)
We bring in toys and coloring pages and a million other distractions, but then we wonder if they are soaking up any of the actual teaching that is going on at church. We know we want to worship as a family, but we don’t seem to be very good at it.
A few years ago during a church service, I happened to glance over at another family’s well-behaved children and realized they were all sitting there with some sort of worksheet and a pen, listening quite intently to all that was going on. Curiosity got the better of me and after the service I casually walked over to where they had been sitting to sneak a peek at what had been captivating their interests. The worksheets contained a list of hand-written “church” words and the children were putting tally marks next to each of the words as they heard them in the service.
Brilliance!
I kept telling myself someday I would do that…and I kept forgetting.
Well, I finally got around to it this past week and I want to share them all with you!
As an added bonus, my friend Lauren at Mama’s Learning Corner (who did all the formatting for these listening pages – thanks a million!), has created a younger versions of these worksheets for your non-readers! Click on the link to snag those and then let me know if you use them this weekend and how it goes!
Used these yesterday – worked a treat! Many thanks
Excellent! Thanks for letting me know!
Amy, I’ve tried your listening pages for the past couple of weeks with our 9yo dd and 6yo dd, and they have really enjoyed them! Thank you so much!
Wonderful! And thank you so much for coming back and letting me know!
I’m using them as assignments in my Bible class. Thanks!
Hi Amy,
I am so thankful to have found your blog! We have been using these for weeks, and my kids are enjoying them. Now, if I could only come up with something that would keep my talkative 3 year old son quiet during church!
How do your kids do in church? We don’t go to a FIC, so the other kids get dismissed after worship, and my kids want to go to children’s church so badly. We have been keeping them with us in church for 2 years now, and they are ages 9, 7,7, and 5 (our 3 year old and 1 year old are in nursery). We discuss the sermon, cuddle with them, etc., and have explained why we want them in the service with us, but they are still not very excited about church. We really like the teaching at our church, and the only FIC near us does not even have a staffed nursery. Since my husband’s work schedule has him working several Sundays, I am often alone with the kids in church. Any thoughts or words of wisdom would be most appreciated!
Thanks!
Dyan Croushore
Hello! FIC’s typically do not have nurseries, but I have found that they are so committed to helping families stay together that there will be those who are perfectly willing to help you out with your little ones, especially since you are alone so often. All you need to do is ask and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
I am LOVING these, my boys sit quietly and really listen closely to the sermon so they can fill in their pages. After church we discuss the sermon and they remember much of it thanks to having to listen to intently!
My kids just love these. They help them to be more focused during the preaching and can always tell me what the message is about. I would love it if you could create more of these, they are Wonderful.
Thanks! We are hoping to come out with more soon.
Great idea!
Brillant! Thank you so much!!
These look awesome, thanks for sharing!
I also, do this with grades 6-8 at my church. I have always worried about the older kids at my church during worship service. They all sit together at the front of the church with all the others kids their age and without their parents. They just don’t pay attention. They are day dreaming or drawing, etc. Some of the kids at our church did not grow up there (their parents don’t come, they come alone) and most all of the kids don’t know some of the leaders in our church. So, I ask them questions. If they turn their paper in to me after church I give them a piece of candy, because some of them would not do it. You would not believe the difference in their attentiveness during the worship service. Some of the high schoolers want to do it to.
#1 What deacon led the altar prayer or who sang special music, etc. #2 I will ask what song did we sing for call to worship or what song for praise and worship? #3 What is the scripture for the message? #4 How many times did the Preacher say Jesus? #5 What was the sermon about? #6 How can you apply this message to your life? #7 What color is Ms. Jeannie (she is our music leader) wearing? This question helps them learn people in our church that they don’t ever talk to.
The kids really enjoy the church sheets and I believe they are learning more by doing them. I change the questions each week, but they are along the same lines.
I love the more specific questions of who did what and such! I truly believe attentiveness is something that has to be taught otherwise we just let our brains go to mush!
I love this. I needed to read this because I’ve been concerned if my children are really getting anything out of church. They color and look at books. This is great and I’m going to try these sheets. Excited!
LOVE this Amy! Would you mind if I included a copy of these in our church newsletter for parents to copy each week for their children? We have LOTS of children present in our family-centered worship (more children than adults, actually).
Cheryl,
You are welcome to use them in any way you see a need! They only thing we ask is that the copyright stay in tact for both my site and Mama’s.
Love this idea! Can’t wait to print mine off!
These are fantastic! What a great solution to the problem of keeping little ones quiet AND engaged during church. Thanks so much!
These are great! Thanks!
What a wonderful–and meaningful!–idea! I’m so excited to try this. My husband has often not wanted to attend Sunday evening services because there was no children’s program and he was so concerned about their behavior. I hope that we can try these to overcome that! Thank you for sharing!
We just recently began attending a family integrated church and I remembered seeing these on your site a while back. So glad they were easy to find again! I would love to know of any other resources or tips you have on FIC. Also, will your family be changing churches now that you’ve moved back to the country?
If you look under the topic Family Integrated Church, you’ll see my other posts on the matter. We won’t be changing churches because we’ve only moved about 4 miles.
Thank you so much for posting these listening pages. We used them today at church and found them very helpful.
Amy, may I begin by saying that your forgetting was a huge blessing to me! I am very new to homeschooling having come into later with my 3 boys. They are in grades 8,7 and 3 this year. January and February have been pretty tough. Seeing the sun shining again is encouraging. I am forgetful. I am so forgetful that I forget to look in my planner! Terrible! But aside from that, this idea is just fantastic. I am going to suggest it to our church’s children’s pastor. The children are in the service for at least half the time and this would be wonderful. Also, there are parents who keep their little ones there throughout. And on some Sundays we just don’t have scheduled classes, nor throughout the month of August to give the Sunday School teachers a break. At the very least, I will use it with my little one. I think that I will try to come with something more involved for my 2 young men.
This is great I have been trying to find ways to keep my girls listening in church for years, but all they want to do it color so I’m going to try this out this weekend, hopefully it will work.
Been wanting to make something like this to facilitate concentration, but have been “too busy.” Thanks a bunch, I truly appreciate it!
You are welcome!
I printed the Listening Pages for non-readers for my kids and made prints for our church as well. I then came over here to print the ones for readers to share with our church. I love this idea. Thank you!!
Love this! What a great idea!
I LOVE THIS idea! I am researching children and church and of things to help children worship better in church! I am hoping to do a 8 week series on children and worship and will certainly incorporate this idea (of course sending them your way!) Now to adapt for us Lutherans!:) Too bad it is Saturday evening…..
I have read your blog quite a few times, I really enjoy you family. As a mom who lost a baby in pregnancy, it is hard to talk about it. That is when I found your site, when I was seeking comfort. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Susann!
Thank you so much! These are great, and will help put the “church bag” together for my younger children…I have a form for the older children to take notes from, already, but this fits the bill for the youngers!
Thank you for this! I was looking for something to supplement our Bible study topic of Kids in Church tonight. This will be perfect!
These sound perfect! My older ones take notes and reflect on the teachings in their lives, (sometimes on their hands in marker…) but I have struggled to find a way to incorporate my younger ones into the service. We have a wonderful sunday school program for ages 4-7ish where the children are taught a simplified version of the lessons, then they return to church for communion, song and more prayer, but I feel they should be getting a bit more out of the time spent in church.