Less than a week away before we
get to participate in General
Conference. I'm excited! This has become an anticipated event
for me and for the most part, I think the rest of my family too.
When the children were younger they would do conference bingo or coloring-type activities as they watched and listened. Doesn't mean the kids were angels, because some of these activities worked only for a short time (even if M&Ms or Skittles were involved for the Bingo markers). Yep, we had our fair share of weeping and wailing, and quite often from my husband and me. It was hard to get everyone to listen and be quiet for that many hours. But we just kept at it each year, conference by conference. Our efforts are beginning to pay off.
I have tried to make conference time enjoyable and memorable for our family, but it does require some preparation. Besides making, copying, or putting together little packets of activities (please see additional website links at the end of this post for more activity ideas), we have always displayed large photos of the Prophets and Apostles on our wall. Which were easily purchased at the Church Distribution Center. Sometimes a child would put sticky notes on the picture after the apostle/prophet spoke - keeping track of who spoke and who was yet to speak. A few times I would jot down little notes on the post-it about what their message was about and later review as a family at Family Home Evening. Displaying the pictures, I feel, is a nice way to get younger children familiar with the names and faces of the apostles. Each of the pictures is in its own page protector. So after conference, the blue adhesive putty is removed from the back and the pictures are all placed back in a 3-ring binder ready for the next conference. Additionally, over the years I have cut out articles about the prophet's and apostles’ personal life, which have appeared in some church magazines, then stored that too in the page protector along with the picture. This has allowed us to learn more about our leaders and to better relate to them and their conference messages. These days, this information is easily available and can be researched on LDS.org. Another entertaining way we've learned the names of the apostles and the order of them being called to serve, is by watching and listening to the Prophet and Apostles Song; not necessarily Church approved, but helpful and fun.
A few years ago, I saw on KSL-TV a fabulous idea a family shared for their General Conference tradition. I loved it! You can view it here and get a better idea of what I'm about to explain. The idea involves food and there is some preparation that goes into it, but it is well worth it, trust me. We assign a certain food item that is to be eaten when each of the apostles speak. For example, when Elder Scott speaks we suck on butter"scot"ch candies. President Monson enjoyed fishing, so we eat gold fish crackers. We drink individual containers of chocolate milk when Elder Anderson speaks, because he grew up on a dairy farm milking cows. And the list goes on. All of the snacks are gathered and placed in a basket, unless it requires refrigeration of course. Attaching a tag to the food item and a similar tag on the apostle picture posted on our wall, has become helpful so everyone knows what the next treat will be. It's a lot about the food, right? But there is a catch, in our home you have to be watching or listening to get the snack. This has become a really fun tradition and it's been great for our entire family to think of snack items to coordinate with each prophet and apostle. It’s great to shake it up, so we don't necessarily do the same food items each time. I mentioned earlier the additional bio information that is added to the prophet and apostle pictures; for researching and finding good food ideas to go along with each apostle, the info has come in very handy. This snack idea is an enjoyable tradition and seems to work great for our family, but if it's too much, I also found a scaled down snack idea another family uses for their conference tradition and you can find it here.
I recently found that the Church has a whole web page on how to prepare ourselves and our families for General Conference. Addressing important topics such as: why we need prophets, or the blessing of General Conference, or how General Conference addresses individual circumstances, preparing children for conference, and more. Great subjects for a Family Night discussion!
Now that our children are older, conference time has become a true joy. Something to rejoice in! I look forward to it and hope my children do too. It’s the tradition I love. General Conference at our home is not only spiritually uplifting, but a lot of fun - pajamas, conference bingo, yummy breakfast, air mattresses and blankets, silly snacks, note taking and just being together as a family listening to living prophets is a joy!
I welcome your comments sharing what you do in your home for General Conference. Below are additional web sites with creative General Conference ideas I have gathered over the years. This is all making me think I should create a Pinterest account, so I can have a General Conference board. :)
A few days after the original posting, I found a few more websites with more General Conference ideas! I am so grateful that there are so many creative people willing to share their ideas and creations. Thank you!!!
http://www.ldsliving.com/story/75387-100-conference-activities-for-kids (This is a link to 53+ ideas)
http://www.simplyfreshdesigns.com/2012/01/quiet-book-apostles-prophets/
https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/teach/general-conference-teach/general-conference-trivia-game/
https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/teach/general-conference-teach/make-your-own-general-conference-review-game/
http://www.ldsliving.com/story/75395-fhe-following-the-prophet
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