Busy Bag Essentials for Your Family Service
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
With the end of the year approaching fast, you’re probably looking at a few family services coming up. I’ve already written about how to have a great family service here. But in this post, I’m going to focus on one essential item for any family service, regardless of the time of year.
Busy bags.
These are bags of goodies you give to kids as they enter the adult family service. They can be filled with all kinds of things to keep kids busy. In a perfect world our kids will sit quietly and listen. But, if your kids are used to loud, high energy services, they’re going to get bored fast. Your service will be full of squirming little kids who want more than a guy standing on the stage. Many times, a parent's only solution is to surrender their phone.. At least someone gets something out of the service.
We all want our kids to engage, and your busy bags can help kids do that. But what do you put in them? I’ve used these bags for years and read a few Facebook posts here to find out what most churches are putting in them.
1. Note Sheet
Of all the things you can put in the bag, this may be the most essential. I got mine from Etsy here. But I’m sure there are a lot of great ones out there. This note sheet is more than words and lines on a paper. Rather they are coloring and activity sheet as well. They’re designed in a kid friendly way that encourages kids to engage.
During the slow reopening of COVID, we were forced to be in family services for months. As a result, I used busy bags a lot. As the novelty started wearing off, I changed to other sheets, but the core strategy remained.
To take it to the next level, you could encourage kids to bring you filled out one at the end of service for a prize. Nothing big. A small toy or candy will suffice. Kids will be motivated to get the prize and be engaged throughout the service.
Win-win.
2. Crayons
Unless you want your chairs/pews covered in pen marks, you need to provide crayons as well. I usually get mine from Oriental Trading or Amazon. They’re cheap, but I only need them to work for an hour. Your older kids won’t be as engaged with the crayons as the younger ones, but at least they have something to write with. It’s worth the investment.
3. Small toy
Kids want to move, so including something for them to do will help a lot. I’ve seen several churches include a small fidget toy or some other cheap toy for kids to play with.
If you’re a church that has family services every week, this can get expensive quickly. I suggest only including toys from time to time. They'll be more appreciated, and you’re not having to come up with something new every few weeks. You don’t want your busy bag to be the church version of a happy meal.
If you don’t want to go with the small toy option, I’ve seen other churches put in pipe cleaners or an additional activity sheet. These sheets have word searches, crossword puzzles, connect the dots and other activities. It’s an extra bonus if you can get the passages the pastor is using that week, so the activities support the message. Creating things like this can be a pain, so use a site (like this one) to create your own. Or buy some from my ministry partner Deeper Kidmin. They have a ton of activities for the kids to do.
4. Candy
If there’s one thing kids love, it’s candy. Generally, when I give away candy, I stick with fruity/chewy, aka Skittles or Starburst. There’s less chance of choking or nut contamination. There are other considerations like gluten or Red 40, but if you try to make everyone happy, you’ll lose. The vast majority of kids can eat these candies, and you don’t have to worry about safety.
If your family service is happening around a holiday like Christmas, you can change the candy out for something that matches the season. For Christmas, I’ll use a candy cane or Easter, I’ll use jelly beans. (They kind of look like eggs).
5. Keep them stocked
Even if you’re not doing a family service anytime soon, it’s still a good idea to have generic busy bags stocked. It doesn’t matter how good your kidmin is, there will always be kids in your service. So have them in an easy place to find. You can ask your hospitality team to pass them out when they see kids in the service. It’ll go a long way to show you care.
And who knows? Maybe that kid will start attending your service and you can reach them on their level. Either way they’re getting something out of the service.
Busy bags are a great addition to your ministry, especially your children’s ministry. Don’t be the curmudgeon that demands kids sit and listen. Some parents will have that expectation for their kids while others won’t. Giving them the choice shows you care and are prepared for their arrival. The more you show you love their kids, the far more likely they are to come back again and again. And you may just see their entire families’ lives change forever. And that’s what it’s all about.