Getting Ready for General Conference

This is the first conference where I actually have a game plan for the kids.  Probably a year ago now, I printed off some of those color pages for C (who was then only 4) in hopes it would occupy him, knowing full well he doesn’t like to color…and well, of course it didn’t.  This year I was on the hunt for ideas that did not involve coloring, and that would also grasp the attention of my 2yo as well. 

Here in Hawaii we are lucky (or unlucky) that conference starts at 6am…though my children are usually up bright and early, it still buys us some time for the morning sessions before everyone is up and at ‘em. 

So of course I hit up pinterest for some great ideas!

My goal this year is to have some sort of breakfast prepared the night before and baking in the oven to be eaten at the conclusion of the morning sessions (8am).  I’m thinking this blueberry french toast bake, I pinned it here.  Now that takes care of ONE morning. 

In regards to keeping the little ones busy, I have combined a variety of ideas that I have found on pinterest and other blogs. 

First off I have hung a row of church related pictures on the wall by our TV. 

This will be used for this activity – Conference Wall, which I pinned here.

I am combing this activity that I pinned here, Each bag will be labeled with a picture of an apostle, the bag will contain and activity and an extra picture.  They must match the extra picture to the picture on the wall that matches the topic the speaker is talking about. 

We are moving the little kids table into our living room so they can sit and do their activities in the room while watching conference. 

So…what’s in the bags?
I’m still working on them, but this is what I have planned so far (listed in no particular order):
1.  mini M&Ms
2.  mini containers of playdough
3.  Juice boxes
4.  M&M cookies
5.  Little panda cookies
6.  Popcorn kernels (to pop) with a popcorn bowel
7.  Cookie dough (to make fresh baked cookies)
8.  Jesus Puzzles (pinned)
9.  Book of Mormon Match up cards (pinned)
10.  Temple Matching cards (pinned)
11.  Apostle matching cards (pinned)
12.  Conference Jenga (pinned)
13.  Build a Temple, activity taken from The Friend magazine…I would like to mount it to some duplos or wooden blocks, but we don’t have any.

And I may throw a few extra in there, since they  usually have some other speakers, like The General Primary President, or someone else. 

I also went through the friend magazines and cut out the search puzzles, and the last page with the picture and scripture on it…for quiet books for sacrament!  I’ll put them in coversheets in a binder, so they can be reused again and again.

For Family Home Evening this week we talked about Prophets, we sang Follow the Prophet, talked about who the prophet was today and talked about General Conference and why it’s important for us to watch it.  I introduced the basics of their activities, so they have something to look forward to this weekend!

I’ll post how it goes after this weekend!  Happy Conference everyone!

For those of you that are not LDS – twice a year we have large meetings which include all of the church membership worldwide, it is held in Salt Lake City and is broadcast throughout the world in many different languages.  This is when we hear from our church leaders.  We believe that there is a living prophet on earth today, and our church is set up like Christ’s church was in the bible.  There is a prophet (or president of the church) and 12 apostles.  Conference is when we are able to hear from them, and receive instruction.  Feel free to tune in, many places broadcast it on their local cable channels, you can also watch it or listen to it at www.lds.org.