Okay, so we're teaching our 21 month old DD to sit still in church and I am trying to supply her with things to occupy her during the sermon that are at least somewhat Biblically themed and do not make noise.

I've used a felt book, a children's story book, plastic animals. Any other good suggestions? Also, if anyone has any good tips for helping kids to sit still in church, that would be great! Thanks!

puppets/finger puppets
crayons and bible coloring books
lift the flap books

My job has just allowed us to start doing this with ds. We're going through the same thing you are! Don't give up...

The suggestions so far are right on. Our previous church had basket of cloth pencil pouches filled with stuff for littles to grab as they came in. It had a small Bible themed coloring pad, finger puppets or small figures, and a few crayons. Another item we've successfully used is pipe cleaners (those flexible fuzzy craft wires). We twist several together to form a cross and then my littles would untwist them and try to remake it on their own. This usually took them a bit of time. We've also found that having some short family devotionals at home a couple of nights per week helps. We usually let one of the kids pick a song to sing, read some scripture, and do a sort of tag-team prayer. We all gather and emphasize that 'church rules' apply. This gave the kids lots of extra practice. Also, if we did need to remove them during a service we sat quietly outside of the door, we didn't head to the nursery or playground. Many moms did this, but I felt like if they knew that leaving church to play was an option, we'd never manage to get them to stay put.

I have all 5 with me as well. My younger 3 are the ones I need some things to occupy their time with our services are at least 2 hours long.

I have 2 things I recently bought them, changing things is key too. A bag with crayons stitch holders on the front of the bag, coloring books and a take along chalk board. Plus books, and their kid bibles. And shh don't tell anyone I let them write in them because they see us highlighting in ours the verses of that day so they think they are like us. For some reason this feels bad to me but its not meant to be disrespectful to the bibles the children are using just loved as I hope God intended.

I have my kids put things in the bag for the service that morning and grab a few things I know will work too. Like Kate we do not use church care or the playground as I want them there with me. We do 2 services a week and the children do really well to my suprise. But also Ruth my younger children have an older sibling to follow, its sometimes a little trickier with the first. Not saying it can't be done either, just its sometimes nice to have that example there.

Sorry long winded there.

We take coloring books, and stuffed animals. My dd is a bit older, she is learning to read and write now, so often I will bring books that she can read to herself, but not too easily, and colored paper that she uses to make love notes or write in her "diary"

One big key that I've found with ours is to only bring a FEW things, two or three. If they know there are more they aren't happy with what they have, but if they go through 2 or 3 things they will settle down and play a lot better. Books with flaps are great, a small photo album with pictures of familiar hings, a piece of yarn(no kidding they will play with it for a long time), paper and colored pencil, small stuffed animal, plastic animals, magnet books (Walmart or the christian bookstore), play necklace, small hand mirror, cup and pillow stuffing or kleenex. We've used all these and they are all quiet. We try to rotate things on a weekly basis, but don't worry too much about it. With dd, she sits better and happier if she is on her own chair than if she is on our laps, she is almost 2, but every child is different. It is good for them to be happy with what you brought or just learn to sit quietly if they don't want it. :-D

Our girls are 5 and 3 1/2 and they stay in church during announcements, prayer/praise concerns, offering, and childrens message. Once childrens message is over they go to our educational/sunday school building for childrens church and sunday school. They have a morning snack and then do their studies. There are some Sundays that they do not go to childrens church. While they are in church in either situation the church has a big basket at the door with a clipboard and a few christian coloring pages with a ziploc bag of crayons. The kids color these and leave them on the clipboard. The pictures are then mailed out to those members who are homebound or in nursing homes and also those who are on our prayer list. We have never had a problem with the kids needing something to do. When they are done coloring they just sit with dh and I and wait till church is over.

I let Bobert pick his own things from an approved 'list' (many things that others listed already).

He does a lot of 'free drawing'.

Other than what has already been mentioned, my kids LOVE to use Etch a Sketch (they make little travel ones) and activity books with a grown up pen or pencil work wonders too!

I thought of another one - lace up cards. Ds got some for his birthday.