Friday, April 2, 2010

General Conference Wall


Surprise, surprise...I make my kids sit through all four sessions of General Conference.
(You weren't surprised, were you?)

I realize that this is asking a lot of toddlers, so to be fair, I do try to come up with like a million ways to keep my 1, 2, and 4-year-olds happy, interested, and occupied during the eight hours of TV viewing. This year, I was just realizing that the kids will have already received a ton of candy from the E.B., so I don't have the promise of candy on my side. I was picturing using this to my advantage...like every time someone says "faith" we all eat a chocolate, but that reminded me too much of a drinking game...so, I moved away from that. :)

And my kids are still a little young for Bingo...but I saw this idea for a General Conference Wall and I tweaked it to make it our own.

Here's how it works: Choose some pictures from the Gospel Art Kit to hang on your General Conference Wall. I chose topics that are fairly likely to be mentioned, such as temples, Jesus, and Book of Mormon, and stories that my children are very familiar with and would recognize if mentioned, such as Samuel the Lamanite and Joseph Smith's First Vision.

I printed off a current set of Apostle cards and laminated them. Now, the children will be encouraged to listen to the speakers and a) recognize who is speaking, and b) listen for the speaker to mention any of the topics on our Wall. If they mention something on our Conference Wall, then the children can tape the Apostle's picture on the appropriate Gospel Art Picture.

As a reward, each Gospel Art Picture has a "prize" attached to it. The prizes consist of coloring pages, quiet games, stickers, General Conference busy work, and other special treats.

It's going to be 80 degrees all weekend here...so I'm sure we'll do our fair share of running around in the yard during "musical breaks" and going out for ice cream in between sessions.

We'll also be blessed to watch Conference again with my parents who are coming to visit.

Enjoy General Conference everyone!
What a blessing it is to listen to a Prophet of the Lord give us direction for our day.
This is truly something to rejoice about!

8 comments:

  1. Good for you! I'll have to try out some of these activities. Thanks!

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  2. Thanks for linking up! Great ideas :o)

    Aubrie @ http://amamab.blogspot.com/

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  3. As usual, you came up with a super great idea!! Thanks a ton! :~)

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  4. I'm looking for ways to keep my 2 1/2-year-old nut busy and maybe help him learn something during Conference--I'm pinning this (found it on pinterest) and I think I'll try it. Thanks for posting!

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  5. Cute idea! I love it! I'm impressed that you're able to get your young children to listen to all the sessions!

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    1. Thanks, it's not always easy, but it's a fun adventure and as each session passes, the kids start to understand exactly where they should be at conference time! :) So I think it's getting easier! :)

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  6. This is a great idea. I love that the kids have to listen and move a bit before they do an activity. I have a bunch of toddler and preschool activities on my blog that will work perfectly for the "prizes." I can't wait to try this with my kiddos because sometimes they just need to move around!

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  7. I started using a conference wall for my 4 and 6 year-old kids last time. I loved it. They were excited about it. And we kept the pictures up to refer back to what the prophet and apostles had taught us during family home evening and everyday discussions. Great tool and simple.

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