New Kid on the Pew

In our church, kids start going to "big church" with their parents starting in Kindergarten. Last Sunday was promotion Sunday, so it was Clayton's first time to go to service with us. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty anxious about this milestone. 5 year old boys don't exactly have the longest attention spans... ;)

One would think that we would have sat in the balcony on the end of a pew so that we could make an abrupt exit, if necessary. However, we didn't really think that through. We sat in our usual spot on the bottom level in the middle of a pew. Gutsy, for sure. Luckily, Clayton did great! Our Children's Minister gave each of the kids a "New Kid on the Pew" bag of crayons, a notepad, etc. Our Pastor also asked all of the students to stand before he prayed for the upcoming school year. Clayton thought that he was big stuff getting recognized by all of those around us. :)

I had read in Creative Correction (one of my fav parenting books, by the way), about a little game that Lisa Whelchel played with her kids when they were just learning to sit through service. She would hold their hand and give them a word to listen for. Whenever they heard the word, they were supposed to squeeze each other's hand. Whoever squeezed first got a point. We listened for the word "Lord." Clayton squeezed my hand each time and got a big grin on his face that he was always first. ;) It worked great! I actually got to listen to the sermon, and he got to practice paying attention to our Pastor's words. (Melissa, I may need a head's up on a word for next week. Can you sneak a peek at your hubby's notes? Ha!)