Our Mass and Adoration Bag: Essentials to Help My Kids Stay Quiet at Church

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How do you keep your children quiet during Mass?!

I keep hearing this question asked desperately over and over again by mom after mom.  It can be so hard to keep your little ones quiet during Mass and Adoration!

Babies and kids naturally want to "sing", copy all other noises they hear, and just give a (hopefully!) joyful shout to the Lord while in a big echo-chamber-like church.  And while that is fine most of the time (it really is!), I also think it's good to help your children to learn how to be quiet and reverent as they grow older.

Over the past year, I've come up with an awesome bag of essentials for when we go to Adoration.  It's my go-to for all the quiet times during church: waiting in line for confession, saying the rosary, Adoration, Mass, and more.

Here are our favorites to keep our little ones' hands and lips reverently busy:

Chews Life Rosary
This is my #1 essential for Mass!  Our youngest loves chewing on his rosary!  This and playing with the beads keeps him pretty quiet all throughout Mass.  (You can see cute photo evidence of this here!)

Chews Life Bracelets
These bracelets are more for my older kids (although our youngest loves his too).  Our 4 year old son has some special needs and "fidget fingers" which he cannot keep still.  When he wears his bracelet, he plays with it gently, caressing the beads, turning it around his wrist.  It gives his fingers something to do...and I like to think he's praying on those beads!

Eucharistic Adoration Coloring Book
This coloring book is so beautifully done!  It is full of symbols for Jesus and the Eucharist - I even learned some new ones!  And it goes through tons of saints and their special connections to the Eucharist - all written out as a prayerful litany at the bottom of each page. 

Free Catholic Coloring Pages for Kids
My three favorite sites to find free Catholic coloring pages are:

Snowflake Clockwork: scroll down to see her free coloring pages.  (She also has many beautiful ones for sale if you click on the tabs at the top of her page.)

Waltzing Matilda: scroll down to see all of her Catholic coloring pages listed by feast day!

Catholic Playground: click on the "Coloring" tab at the top of her page to see all of her options!

One thing my daughter loves to do is then give the picture to another adorer before we leave.  It is so sweet!

Chews Life Necklaces
I love these necklaces!  They're beautiful and they keep your little one occupied.  My 2 year old loves playing with, kissing, and chewing on mine.  If your child is sitting on your lap or you're babywearing, this is perfect!  (As you can see in the pictures below! #allthehearteyes)

Chews Life Rosary Bracelet
Now, this isn't for your kids, but for you!  While at Adoration, you can pray the rosary on your wrist.  You can use the movable charm to keep your place when you have to stop to help your child pick up the rosary or crayons they dropped or calm them down when their sibling takes their favorite book.  (Which is every single time we go to Adoration!)

The blue and beige necklace in the first picture is Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, and the mint and turquoise one is a Miraculous Medal, but Chews Life has a ton of options!  Oh, and the necklace is adjustable too so you can wear it short or long.

My Little Felt Friends Saint Finger Puppets
These cute little saint puppets are soft, quiet, small.  They can easily fit in your pocket or purse.  And if your little one is in a throwing mood, they do not make noise when they make impact with the pew or floor!

You can get little felt saint dolls at My Little Felt Friends's Etsy shop as well! 

Catholic Kids' Books
Of course - books!  These 6 are my kids all-time favorite books to take to Mass and Adoration:

Noah's Ark by Lucy Cousins
It has bright colors and tons of animals that my boys especially love pointing out. 

Stable in Bethlehem: Countdown to Christmas by Joy N. Hulme
Once again, more animals!  This cute book counts down to the Nativity number by number, starting with 12 doves in the stable and ending with 2 parents and 1 Baby.

On Noah's Ark by Jan Brett
Animal books are clearly our go-to!  This one follows Noah's grandson on the ark.  It has beautiful and intricate animal pictures.  There is a lot to look at so it keeps them occupied for a long time.

Saints on the Go by Shining Light Dolls
This is our #1 favorite Catholic book for kids!  It is perfect for boys because every saint has an action and some kind of vehicle (or animal being ridden). 

The Virgin Mary Around The World! A Pilgrimage of Faith by Shining Light Dolls
This is such a sweet book that shows Mary in all different skin tones and nations around the world.

The Alice in Bibleland Series by Alice Joyce Davidson
I had these as a kid!  It's about a little girl named Alice who visits different Bible scenes.  It rhymes and has the sweetest illustrations.  There are 28 books total.  (The Stories of Noah and Jonah are pictured above.)

These are our parent- and kid-approved quiet-time essentials for Church!

What are your favorites for taking your kids to Mass and Adoration?

Please share in the comments below!  Have a beautiful Tuesday, friends!

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You may also like:

How to Pray a Family Rosary:

7 Tips for Real Life Families

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15 Catholic Lenten Resources for My Sisters in Christ

Below I have posted affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on those links.   Please see the disclosure page for more info!


Let's simplify our lives and quiet our souls.  Let's dig into His Word and personal prayer.  Let's prepare our hearts to enter into the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection.  Lent is here.

Lent begins this Ash Wednesday, March 1st!  I've listed a few ideas to help you (and your family) grow closer to Christ this Lenten season.  I hope 1 or 2 of them will give you the spark you need to have a fruitful Lent!

For you, my sister in Christ:

The Five Minute Sacrifice

Blessed Is She's "Put On Love" Printable Lenten Prayer Journal

Lent: You're Doing It Wrong

Daily Devotions for Catholic Women

Scripture Based Adult Coloring Pages for Lent

SoulCore (Contemplative Stretching Workout) to the Stations of the Cross (Free for a Limited Time)

Quotes to Help You Journey Through Lent

Going to Confession 

Lenten Home Decor

+ Ash Wednesday 2016 with my 3

For you and your family:

How to Pray a Family Rosary: 7 Tips for Real Life Families

DIY Prayer Sticks

Lent Sacrifices for Kids (Free Printable)

Jesus Tree: Lenten Scripture Activity (Free Printable)

Stations of the Cross Easter Eggs

Meatless Meals Recipes Round-Up

Today, take some time to sit quietly and pray about what you will do and/or sacrifice.  Pray over some of the ideas above or others that are stirring in your heart.  How is God calling you to Himself this Lent? 

If you'd like to share what you're doing / giving up this Lent, please share in the comments to give us more ideas!

You're in my prayers, friend!  May you have a truly blessed and holy Lent!

God bless,

One more thing I want to say:

Thank you so much for your response to my post last week about our 4 year old son's special needs diagnosis.  So many of you reached out to me with support and prayers.  (I will be replying to you all soon!)  I can't tell you how much it means to us!  Thank you!

Check out all of the Lent printables here


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Feast Day Celebrations: St. Francis of Assisi

We love learning about the saints with our kids!  Celebrating their feast days with food, activities, and fun are a great way to teach the kids about these holy men and women's beautiful lives for Christ.   

And October 4th is St. Francis of Assisi's feast day!

Francis was born in 1181 in Assisi, Italy to a cloth merchant.  He lived a life of luxury and loved to spend money.  One day as a young man heading off to war, everything changed.  He was taken captive and became ill.  He was imprisoned for over a year and during this time he realized that the glory of battle was nothing compared to the glory of Christ.

After returning home, he visited an old, dilapidated church.  He heard Jesus on the Crucifix say to him, "Francis, go and repair my house, which you see is falling down."  He quickly went about doing this in any way he could (which got him in a lot of trouble with his family).  He rebuilt the physical church but came to realize that it was not just the physical church that Jesus asked him to help rebuild.  He was called to care for the spiritual well being of the people of His Church.

Over the next several years, he began living an austere life, following Matthew 10 as an example.  He took care of lepers, was a true friend of animals, preached repentance and the Gospel, was a writer and stigmatist (he was given the Wounds of the Crucified Christ), and lived in complete simplicity and poverty.  His way of life began to spread and many men joined him then and still do today.

I have completely glossed over this incredible saint's life - he is amazing and this blog post would be way too long if I included everything!  So I hope you'll read more about St. Francis of Assisi here or here.

Ok, on to the celebration of his holy life! 

Here are some fun and simple ideas to celebrate the feast day of St. Francis with your family:

St. Francis and Franciscan brothers have a very different hairstyle, which is called a tonsure.  Franciscans have tonsures as a sign of religious devotion and humility.  So we'll be eating tonsures today in the form of donuts!

Below I have posted affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on that link. Please see the disclosure page for more info!

To learn a little about the life of St. Francis of Assisi, we'll watch our CCC of America animated movie Francis: The Knight of Assisi.  It is a really fun one, especially for little boys.  I think it really shows the adventure of living a life for Christ.

We'll also read The Song of St. Francis by Tomie dePaola.  We just love his books, especially the ones on the saints.  They are so colorful and beautifully written!

Moving on to some fun little activities!  Here are two that we're going to do: this coloring page...

...and this St. Francis Peace Prayer activity.

Another important aspect of St. Francis's life was his love for animals!

He was a true friend of animals - he had a tremendous love for all of God's creation in nature.  There are many stories of how he loved and was able to talk to animals.  It's very common practice in and around his feast day for there to be a blessing of animals and pets.

Well, we don't have any pets, so we are going to say the blessing for our stuffed animals instead!

Some other fun ideas for celebrating St. Francis's love of animals:

Go to the zoo, take a hike in the woods, or wear clothes with animals on them (even Mickey counts!).

And make bird seed cakes - these were so fun to make with the kids!

Bird Seed Cakes
(adapted from Living My Life on Purpose)

Ingredients and Materials:

3 cups bird seed
1 cup boiling water
2 packets unflavored gelatin
Muffin tin or mold
Yarn or string
Straws (cut into 2-3 inch pieces)

Directions:

1.  Boil 1 cup of water.

2.  Add packets of gelatin slowly and stir until (mostly) dissolved.

3.  Add bird seed and stir until seed is covered.  It will be pretty wet.

4.  Spoon bird seed mixture evenly into your greased mold or muffin tin.  (I used cooking spray to grease the pan.)

5.  Place a straw an inch down from the top.  Let the cakes set overnight.

6.  When the bird seed cakes are hardened the following day, pull out the straw and string yarn through the hole.  Tie the yarn and then it's ready to hang up for our feathered friends!

Notes:  A donut mold would be perfect for this!  Then you wouldn't need the straws and you could just string your yarn through the donut hole!

Also, I made these bird seed cakes for the first time yesterday - so I'll let you know how they hold up!

We have really loved learning more about the lives of the saints this year through celebrating their lives as a family.  Their words and actions point directly to Christ!

Happy Feast of St. Francis of Assisi!  Like this amazing saint, may we live lives of generosity and simplicity and may we always build up His Church in the world and within our own home in everything we say and do.
 

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This print of St. Francis's Peace Prayer will be on sale for 50% off all week at my shop in honor of his feast day!

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