Sons 1st primary/church expereriuence Please help.

[Heckya]

My son is going to primary for the first time on Sunday with his cousin. What can I do to help him prepare and be quiet/respectful....without threatening his life. J/K

Also what ages go to nursery? Thanks again.

[jadams_4040]

Originally Posted by Heckya

My son is going to primary for the first time on Sunday with his cousin. What can I do to help him prepare and be quiet/respectful....without threatening his life. J/K

Also what ages go to nursery? Thanks again.

Without threating his life? i dont think there is anything you can do.

seriously though, he will be allright, maybe something as to remember he is to be in heavenly fathers house and being reverant is what heavenly father would like us all to do. but then after he sees the other kids,all reasoning will simply fly out the window! {so i would suggest to let the teacher know to keep the window closed!}.

Have fun!

[susieSA]

18months - 3 years go to Nursery.

How old is your son?
I am sure if he is with his cousin he will be just fine

[Heckya]

My son is five, but I have two other children ages 2 1/2 and 1 year. I have a friend who reccommends I don't go to church until my youngest is 18 months because it's such a hassel taking them to RS and you don't learn anything anyway. Plus I'm a little worried about my 2 1/2 year old. We are working on him learning to be nice, but he just doesn't find it worth his time.

[susieSA]

You can still go to church with your 1 year old... Just take a few of his favourite toys with & let him sit on the carpet playing with them... My little one is 1 year.

Your 5 year old should be just fine with his cousin as the example to him...

And for your 2 1/2 year old... Maybe just see how it goes his first time in Nursery.
Nursery is just like any other class... The main difference being that they have play time, music time, lesson time & snack time... Not sure how different it will be where you are compared to where I was in Nursery. I think he will love it.. .Might be a little hard for him to get into it his first few times...
What I suggest (which has worked very well for some children I taught in Nursery) would be to go with him to Nursery his first time... Just so that he can see that it isn't a bad, terrible place & that you will come back to fetch him etc.. And when you see that he has settled in you can try to sneak out

[Gwen]

i think there are a couple of threads here about how to get your kid to comfortably go to nursery. i wouldn't avoid chruch cause you had to take a child with you to rs. around here there are ususally other sisters that are more experianced in the gospel and wouldn't mind the distraction of helping you out (if your child is ok with it) so that you can hear the lesson. some sundays if i weren't nursing i wouldn't have held my baby the whole 3 hours. lol almost all have been there (little ones in tow) and won't be rude or upset while your child learns. i personally think that is where most of the chruch behavior is learned, if you wait till a certian age then they miss all that time learning from you what is expected at chruch.

if your nursery age child will let you leave and isn't being so mean that the teachers will need to come and get you (biting, hitting, etc) sometimes it's better to not be there. my kids are always different (usually better) for others than myself. my being there actually makes it worse, if i go the teachers are free to set the rules they have and the kids don't think they can get away with manipulating mommy. they learn what is and isn't ok with that person.

[WillowTheWhisp]

We have sisters in RS with little children. Other sisters help them out. Sometimes the Mum leaves the room if the little one gets too noisy, sometimes another sister takes the little one out for a while to give the Mum a break and a chance to enjoy the lesson.. There are no hard and fast rules about what can and will happen - but you can probably guarantee that most of the sisters in RS will have been in a similar position and it's quite normal to have small children in there with their Mums.

[the_jason]

Originally Posted by Heckya

I have a friend who reccommends I don't go to church until my youngest is 18 months because it's such a hassel taking them to RS and you don't learn anything anyway.

That's bull. You should attend church with your kids. It's important to teach them about reverence before you go. One of the best ways to be reverent is by folding their arms. If they fold their arms, the chances of them being irreverent is decreased. I've never bought in to the idea of not taking kids to church until they are a certain age. Sure it's hard, but if you don't teach them when they are young they'll never learn. Take your kids to church. You need to go for your own sake as well.

[Gwen]

i can understand where the mother who would make the suggestion to wait until nursery age is comming from. i've been there, wondering why on earth do i even bother. it is a lot of work. however, having been there, i also know the cost benifit of it. it's worth it in the long run. if i didn't attend church till my youngest was 18months i wouldn't have been to chruch for yrs. that definately isn't the best course for my spirituality.

one thing i think is wonderful is where possible i've seen more and more babies going to priesthood rather than rs.

[Heckya]

I think my friends suggestion is simply because I haven't been to church in 10+ years...what's another 5 months. And I don't think my hubby could handle my daughter at church. She is on the go. She makes my boys look like doormats!

Anyhow, thanks for all of the tips. I think it will be about two months before I attend. We are in the process of relocating and I am staying with my mom while my husband is getting training at his new job. I'd like to start at one ward and stick with it, plus my mom wouldn't be happy if I started attending church while at her house. She is quite happy that the church doesn't know where she is. In the meantime, I think my oldest will go with his cousin occassionally.