General Conference with Kids (Made Easy)

Every six months, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a General Conference at its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is broadcast via television, radio, satellite, and Internet all over the world. The 2-day conference has speakers from the general leadership of the Church, including our President and prophet, Thomas S. Monson. The talks are always instructive and inspiring. I always look forward to the things I will hear and learn about Jesus Christ, the importance of families and my role as a mother, the Restoration of the gospel, the scriptures, faith, charity, and so many other gospel topics.

That being said, when you expect to view eight hours of speakers over two days with four children in the room, you have to do a little planning ahead if you expect peace and quiet, let alone if you want said children to learn something from it.

To prepare for Conference I generally find some printable packets online. Just google "General Conference activities for kids" and you'll find all sorts of things that other people have created. I've been able to find packets tailored to my children's varying ages and abilities. This year Adah was ready to really listen and take notes on some speakers. I gave her papers for each member of the First Presidency along with a good supply of mazes, wordsearches, and coloring pages. Maggie was expected to listen to some talks and draw pictures of stories or key points. Gunnar mostly got coloring pages.

In the past, I have found that the packets are a big hit for the first session of General Conference, but tend to lose their sparkle as the sessions progress. I knew that this time I needed to find some more varied activities with a little more staying power.

Here's the best one we got, courtesy of my friend (and birthday twin) Dawn:

Before General Conference began, I typed up a list of words and phrases that I thought would likely be mentioned during the talks. I chose things like "Plan of Happiness" and "sanctify" along with "Book of Mormon" and "repentance." I tried to choose a few that would likely be repeated many times, but others that we might only hear once or not at all. I wanted to keep my kids on their toes.

As we listened to the speakers, each time a child heard a particular word, they received a token (a glass floral marble) to put in their own container. Once a word had been heard 3 times (sometimes we allowed for more repetition), the paper was taken down; that word was no longer eligible for tokens. At the end of the session, the kids were rewarded with one M&M for each token. Plus I gave them several extra candies just for being so good. To accommodate Gunnar, a non-reader, I used a Conference Bingo page (available via The Friend) that had pictures representing various gospel topics.

This exercise was very effective and helped everyone--parents included--listen better. After the first session we replaced some of the words and even typed up a few more to add to the list. Before the next General Conference in October I plan to have my children come up with a list of words ahead of time, to really get them thinking about what things our leaders may talk to us about. I hope we have as much success with this idea next time.

And, I'll be honest, they weren't completely quiet and perfect for the whole 8 hours. I'm grateful we have a DVR and could pause the TV on occasion to wait for some noisy person to quiet down or some sibling argument to be resolved. Overall, though, it was one of our best General Conferences yet. I really recommend a little creative prep and especially this word-hearing activity.

Or, if all else fails, just strap them down!

Actually, this arrangement was requested by Gunnar. We were in the process of moving carseats around and Gunnar wanted to sit in his "new" carseat. He was working on some Conference coloring pages in front of the TV.