We love General Conference in our house (each April and October, our family listens to General Conference, which is an opportunity to hear from our church's leaders and our prophet). The past couple of years I have really tried to make a special effort in making conference a fun family tradition we all look forward to.
It starts out a couple of days before conference. I make a few conference baskets for my visiting teaching families and one for our family. It has all kinds of treats and goodies along with printed out activities, games, pens, folders, note-taking, coloring ideas for conference. Pinterest is a great way to find some great activity packets to print out. My favorite packets this year was from here and here. Ashby and Dalton loved the conference crowns you could make on page 3. Also lds.org has loads of pintables for conference too. (We love the conference squares game). Once the kids see the basket it gets them so excited for conference.
This year we did something a little bit different. It was actually and idea Ashby got from the March Friend Magazine in the Bulletin section (you can see the full article here). The idea was to create a conference concession stand. I used the items from our basket and labeled them with different amounts. The children were able to earn conference coins by being ready on time, cleaning the breakfast table, and being kind. During the first session of conference, they earn coins by listening to speakers and completing quiet conference activities. Before the second session, the conference concession stand opens, and they can purchase goodies with the coins they earned. This was a hit! Ashby and Dalton loved it. Next year I might make it a little more fancy with signs and set it all out on a big table or something. This is a really fun idea. We loved it.
Ashby and Dalton posing with all their goodies they bought from the conference concession stand!
Another fun idea we tried again this year is from one of my favorite blogs here(simple kierste). This one is a lot of fun too. The kids loved it!! I love it because it really keeps them listening during all the talks. This year I tried to fill the buckets with some healthier options and not just treats!!
So this is how the game works. Find some buckets around the house (I found the tin ones at the dollar section at Target), then decide on the words you want the kids to listen for during Conference-- temple, family, faith, scriptures, and love--then I added one word to the front of each bucket with stickers (or vinyl if you want). For really little ones, you could add a picture in addition to or instead of the words. Next: fill each bucket with the kids' favorite candy or other snacks (we used cheerios, animal crackers, m&ms, reeses peices, and skittles).
Then, during conference, I line the buckets up somewhere, and anytime they hear one of the words on the bucket, the children keep track by tally marks during the talk of all the words; then at the end of the talk they count up the tally marks and get that number of treats/snacks from the buckets. 
Another all-time favorite conference activity is Conference Squares(or Bingo). lds.org has 7 different copies of the papers so the whole family can play! Here’s how it works if you have never tried it. Listen carefully to general conference, and when a speaker talks about one of the topics on your paper, cover that square with a marker (such as a bean, button, or piece of candy). See if you can cover five squares in a row. Then see if you can cover all of the squares. I love this one because it really makes you listen to the words they are saying. It also helps you focus on the topic of the talks or theme of a lot of the conference talks. 
1 comment:
I want to be you when I grow up!
Post a Comment