I would be surprised if there is any Primary in the Church that does not struggle with reverence. The reality is that these little children have bodies that want to and need to move and be active. Learning and mastering reverence is, therefore, a marathon and not a sprint!
I have seen a lot of ideas, tips, and tricks used in the various primaries I have had the pleasure of working with over the last 14 years. I have only seen one thing that consistently works: Primary 5.
The basic idea is that when the children are getting loud and forgetting to be reverent, whoever is up front will say "Primary 5" and slowly begin counting down from "5". The children will know that this means it is time to settle down, relax their bodies, and quiet their mouths. The key to this technique is making sure the children understand it. Here is what each number of the "5" mean:
1- Quiet hands in our laps
2- Mouths are closed
3- Feet/Legs are still
4- Ears are listening
5- Eyes are looking at whoever is teaching/talking
To introduce and teach the idea to the children you could use:
- a posterboard with the outline of a hand and pictures representing each body part on the different fingers
- a glove with minituare representations of each body part on each finger (Mr. Potato Head parts work great for this)
- Brother Potato Head (Junior Primary always loves when he comes to visit!)
- Helper Hand (pictured above)
Surprisingly, the children respond really well to this technique and do not require any reward to be attached to their obedience. I have seen primaries reward the children by putting a handful of candy into a jar each time they followed the "Primary 5". When the jar was full, the candy was distributed. Although the children loved this, they did not respond any differently to the call of "Primary 5" when the incentive was discontinued. My conclusion is that the children can respond to the expectations made for them without an external reward.
