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| Drinking her Nesquik |
There are two things we have done to help her pay better attention:
1. Letting her have Nesquik when we get home from church. Some might call this bribery, but she knows if she misbehaves, she will not get the Nesquik. Sunday is the only day of the week that she is able to drink the Nesquik. She was thrilled to get it today.
2. Telling her to raise her hand if she hears a certain word. Today, Drew told her to raise her hand if she heard the word "laugh" and "Abraham". Charis raised her hand so many times. The first few times, I thought, "Oh no. What will people think about her raising her hand?" Then I told myself, "Who cares what people think. She is paying attention to the sermon." We started doing this during family worship and found it helps her pay attention to what is being said. Tonight, she was able to tell us, in a brief sentence, what was said in the sermon.
What do you do to help your children sit through church?
Our daughter (7) loves drwaing pictures from Bible stories during the sermon. We find the weeks we don't let her, she doesn't listen, but when we do, she can tell us about a lot from the sermon. It seems counterintuitive, but I have to say my university lecture notes are chock-full of doodle and drawings. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the ideas :) we have 4 boys and getting them to sit still and listen through church is a struggle. We have our older boys (8 & 10) keep a church journal, our 5 yo we have coloring activities that are Christ based, and for our 2 yo we have a few toys and have him sit in our lap. some weeks it works well and other weeks it is a struggle.
ReplyDeleteThat's excellent! One thing my Mom did when we were young was that we always sat up front so that we could see better. Sometimes I forget with my own son how much more challenging it is to pay attention when all you can see is the back of the person in front of you!!
ReplyDeletewe had trouble with this also. We also used bribery.
ReplyDeleteSitting still during church is difficult for children of all ages. Our daughter is 2 and we are definitely not at a place where she would be expected to sit through a sermon yet.
ReplyDeleteThis is something we definitely work on with our lil's, too. Glad we're not alone. :)
ReplyDeleteI love your idea to have her raise her hand during church when she hears certain words. For young readers it helps to make a small list of words and have them put a tally mark next to the word every time they hear it. Then at the end have them count the tally marks for each word and see which word was used most.
ReplyDeleteDistraction and focus techniques seems to work well with our 2.5 year old. I like how you guys gave her something to focus on and hopefully while she's listening for then key word, she's also picking up a few good lessons and stories.
ReplyDeleteWe have been working with our son since he was a year old, and he's doing pretty well as he knows what's expected of him.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute idea for getting a child to pay attention in church, by raising her hand while listening for certain words, Amen it works and I love the idea, much better then going through a pack of lifesavers..LOL
ReplyDeleteThat is a really good idea! It's very difficult for my two year old to get through church, but I think he usually does pretty well. It's during a hard time for him because thats usually his lunch then naptime.
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