Looking for quiet activities to keep young children busy? Here’s 30 of the best Quiet Church Activities for Kids!
As a mom of 4, I’ve been overcoming the challenge of keeping my kids quiet on a Sunday morning for years….and years!
Today, I’m going to share my very best ideas for quiet time activities for younger kids!
Packing a Successful Church Bag
Please note that to pack a successful quiet bag for your child, you need to:
1) Make sure that these activities are only available to your child at church – meaning, they aren’t allowed to play with these items at any other time. This keeps the ideas fresh and fun.
2) Rotate items from time to time. I like to keep a small fabric bin filled with our church toys – so I just grab a few and add them to our church bag each week.
3) This list is huge and is only meant to inspire you. You only need a few items each week. Don’t try to pack ALL of them.
4) You might not have many quiet toys at first. You can build up your supply of quiet church toys by gifting these to your child for a birthday, Christmas, or Easter.
Alright! Let’s dive into these fun quiet activity ideas for church!
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1) Lift-the-Flap Books
Lift the flap books are a great investment!
All 4 of my kids enjoyed looking at books as toddlers and lifting the flaps to reveal the pictures.
If you gather a collection of these, you can rotate them throughout the month so that they always have a fresh quiet book to look at each week.
2) Touch and Feel Board Books
Touch and Feel books are another staple in our diaper bag. Young kids enjoy flipping through the pages touching the various animals or items.
When my kids are young, I usually hold them during church service and turn the pages of the book for them.
I touch the items myself and point at various things on each page to draw their attention and move slowly to the next page.
If they try to turn the page, I let them, but sometimes I will turn the pages backward if they move too fast and miss something I think they will like.
3) Sticker Books
Sticker Books are a great option for your older kids.
If your child is old enough to understand shadows and how to peel stickers up, they will really enjoy this type of book.
You can find sticker books for nearly any popular character or theme.
There’s seasonal books available as well as fun themes like farm, ocean, princesses, and more.
4) Magnetic Dress-up Dolls
My girls always enjoyed taking their magnetic dolls with them to church.
We had several sets, so we would pack a different set each week. I just place the piece in a gallon size plastic bag for easy storage.
5) Magnetic Tins
Another staple in our church bag are these Magnetic Tins.
You can find all kinds of themes and characters – just be aware that most of these contain small pieces so you will want to make sure these are age appropriate for your child.
6) Water Wow Books
Water wows are ALWAYS in our church bag.
We keep the pens filled with water in a plastic baggie to avoid leaks.
I love that Water Wows are reusable and my kids have used our for years!
7) Imagine Ink Books
Another low mess coloring option is an Imagine Ink Book.
Kids use the marker provided to color the pages in the book and magically reveal pictures.
These are not reusable, but they are a fun option to keep things interesting.
8) Color Wonder Coloring books
We LOVE Color Wonder books! These markers allow kids to color with markers without the mess.
The markers only work on the Color Wonder paper, making this a super low mess activity.
9) Coloring Book
Coloring books are a staple! We almost always have one with us.
These are great for your older kids who are really into coloring – or you can give your toddler a try!
Coloring is great for fine motor skills. I will say that coloring is not as engaging for toddlers as it is for older children.
10) Small cars with Roads
This was one of my son’s favorite quiet time activities!
We printed out these free printable roads and then paired them with small cars, trains or tractors. He LOVED this!
11) Bible Stories
As my children have gotten older, they have enjoyed carrying their own Bible with them to church.
We often brought a children’s picture Bible with us for them to flip through and as they get older we have them start reading a children’s Bible story series.
12) Reusable Stickers
These make a face reusable stickers are a load of fun. I love that kids can make the face and then do it all over again next time!
13) Small Dolls or Action Figures
This will depend on the child – if your child can play quietly without talking, it can be fun for them to bring little dolls or figures with them to play with.
14) Magnetic puzzles
These Melissa and Doug magnetic puzzles are perfect for church! We had these in multiple themes and they were are great way to keep my kids busy.
15) Paper Dolls
Paper dolls might seem old fashioned but they are actually a really good option for church.
You can carry a ton of options with you as they are very portable and your child can color them as well.
16) Look and Find books
My kids love Look and Find books.
You can find lots of different books with items to seek – including Where’s Waldo, the I Spy series, or the Disney Seek and Find books.
17) Do-a-Dot Sticker pages
My friend Audrey over at Two Pink Peonies has a ton of free printable dot marker pages. You’ll find something for every season!
We like to pair these pages with dot stickers making a fun and low mess church activity.
18) Wiki Sticks
Wikki Stixs are a fun addition to your busy bags.
Kids can twist these little wax sticks into various shapes. What fun!
19) Puffy Stickers
Melissa and Doug Puffy Stickers have always been a staple for my family when I had small children.
Kids can build a scene with the puffy reusable stickers again and again.
20) Polly Pocket
If your child loves Polly Pocket, don’t forget to pack one for church!
These little doll playsets are perfect for your preschoolers.
21) Lacing Cards
Working on fine motor skills?
Lacing cards can keep a child busy for quite a while!
22) Create a Face Sticker Pad
Another great quiet time option are these Create a Face Sticker pads.
Be sure to pick a small version that fits perfectly inside your diaper bag!
23) Etch a Sketch
These cute mini Etch a Sketch boards are one of the best quiet toys for church.
They are a lot of fun!
24) Water Doodle Board
We’ve gotten years and years of use out of our water doodle board.
These boards are very much like Water Wows, except they are open ended.
So your child can draw anything they like with a water pen….or just color the entire board like my toddlers!
25) Busy Books
Busy books are great ideas for church.
You can find tons of options out there that will help teach your child ABCs, numbers, colors, shapes, and more!
26) Finger Puppets
Finger puppets are another classic idea for toddlers.
Little ones will enjoy putting the puppets on their hands to put on a show.
27) Connect the Dots pages
If you have kids that are beginning to work on number recognition, connect the dots pages can be a lot of fun!
Kids love to reveal the pictures by connecting the dots. You can find tons of free connect the dots pages here on my blog including Dot to Dots for Valentine’s Day, Christmas Connect the Dots, and more!
28) Color by Number pages
Another fun idea for preschoolers are color by number pages.
Kids will enjoy using the color code to color the picture.
You can find tons of free color by number pages here on my blog including Valentine’s Day Color by Numbers, Thanksgiving Color by numbers and more!
29) A Favorite Toy
Nothing beats a favorite toy!
If your child has a favorite quiet toy, this can be a great option.
My son has definitely spent an entire worship service playing with his favorite set of tractors.
30) Snacks
Snacks are always a very good idea! Just make sure to pack items that are low mess, quiet, and don’t really have much of a scent.
My go-to snacks are fruit snacks and raisins (as long as your child is old enough for these).
These are my favorite church snacks mostly because they are quiet, take a while to eat 1 by 1, and they don’t really fill up your child and ruin their appetite for lunch.
If you have toddlers or younger children try baby puff snacks, Mum Mums, or Cheerios.
I also always pack a quiet sippy cup of water as well. I don’t recommend milk or juice as these can make a significant mess if they leak or spill.
Things to avoid
Here’s some guidance on what to avoid bringing.
Kids get addicted to screens really fast. If you hand over your phone or a tablet…even once….your child will not want to do anything else. They will ask for it again and again every single week. Never make it an option and they will not ask.
Pick items with minimal mess. Just say no to putty, playdough, messy snacks, etc.
Stay away from items that make noise like jingly car keys, noisy toys, and magnetic toys that make a loud clack when they connect. Kids are never going to be completely quiet, and that’s ok…..but it’s best if we set them up for success with quiet toys.
Alright! I hope this has been helpful and I hope you have found some good ideas for your church bag!
More Church Activities
Looking for more Church activities?
There’s a free printable Queen Esther Coloring Page here. Perfect for teaching children about this brave woman of the Bible.
You can find a free printable David and Goliath Coloring sheet here. Great for learning about how God is with us.
There’s also some fun ideas for teaching your child the Books of the Bible here. You’ll find games, printables and more!
If you’d like to save these Quiet Church Activity ideas for later, be sure to save the image below to your Parenting Board on Pinterest.
