In my church it is child care until 4 years old.
We go to Snohomish Community Church (on and off). They have a great children's program and even one in the summer. The VBS is awesome.
I usually have to sit alone in the service because I don't know many people yet and go on and off. My husband can't or won't always go.
Let me know if you want to check it out with me. I think I'm your friend on facebook even though we've never actually met. :) Lori
And no, I"m not stocking you. LOL
It depends on the church, please do shop around so that you find one that is a good fit for the whole family. I was raised unchurched as well and my husband was raised Methodist. We're bringing our children up Unitarian Universalist and attend church in Bellevue. At Eastshore Unitarian there is a 3 & 4 year old class with a 2-year curriculum. My 4 year old goes to that class where he has a gathering activity, circle time, project, snack, etc. My nine year old goes to service for the first part and then goes to his classroom where they just finished studying Passover and Easter. Good luck with your search.
We also go to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We love it, and it is very family friendly for our kids. The Sunday School portion is structured with lessons, crafts, and LOTS of music/singing. There are several locations and various meeting times, but they all follow the same format. If you are interested, you can check it out.
Go to: http://maps.lds.org/ to find the church nearest to you.
We keep our 2.5 year old with us and use the mother's room to the side. We also have an infant.
At our church, the kids over 2 (I think) mostly go to the Sunday school room. It's some structure/stories, but also a bit of free play. You can contact any church you're thinking of attending to ask what their standard is. If it doesn't work for you, ask about doing it the way you want.
We had to request that the toys be removed from the mother's room. Our church was happy to oblige and it's a very good situation for us. My husband, our girls, and I all stay together for church, but we aren't so disruptive as we were when we were in the main sanctuary. Our church is a bit smaller but most seem to have mother's rooms now.
You could go to St. Andrew Orthodox church in Marysville (http://www.standrew-parish.org/Home.html) , or our St. Thomas Orthodox Christian church in Snohomish (http://www.orthodoxsnohomish.com/Home.html) - and have her be in the service with you. In the Orthodox church the children worship along with the parents, take communion with the parents and participate in the full liturgical life of the parish along with the parents. After all, kids learn best by observing us.
If you would like to know more, feel free to contact me through this site, and I'll be happy to let you know more about our 2000 year old faith.
The Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and also the Eastern Orthodox Church, asserts that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles almost 2,000 years ago.
The Orthodox Church traces its development back through the Byzantine or Roman empire, to the earliest church established by St. Paul and the Apostles. We practice the original ancient traditions, and believe in growth without change. In non-doctrinal matters the church had occasionally shared from local Greek, Slavic and Middle Eastern traditions, among others, in turn shaping the cultural development of these nations.
The goal of Orthodox Christians from baptism, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and to continually draw near to God throughout life. This process is called theosis or deification and is a spiritual pilgrimage in which each person strives to become more holy and more "Christ Like" within Jesus Christ.
I am not going to try and sell you on my church or someone elses...LOL but I will say that for a 3yr. old it may be difficult going into a new facility and being around strangers it may be that you can keep them with you at first,or until they can make some friends. It may also be that they'll go into class and never look back to wave bye.
My 3 yr. old sits with us in the foyer of our church during Sacrement meeting so others are not bothered by his talking and stuff. He goes to Primary after this is over, for a couple of hours at most, while I am in adult meetings/classes. Our Church services are from 9:30 until 12:30 on Sunday mornings. Other Churches I have attended will have the kids go to Sunday School then in to Children's Church during the actual Worship services on Sunday mornings. On the other services they may or may not have scheduled activities.
I'm sure all churches are different. At our church sunday school is pretty unstructured for kids that young. They have a story and then do a coloring page or something similar. I agree with the other people who say shop around. I've been to some churches where I felt very uncomfortable leaving my kids in sunday school by themselves, just cause I had a bad feeling about it. But I knew my church was the one for us because I never even worried about it at all. If it would make you feel more comfortable you could ask to sit in on their first couple classes.