Monday, April 6, 2009

Kids and General Conference

With 5 little kids, general conference hasn't really been something I've looked forward to the past few years. Don't get me wrong...I really enjoy general conference...it's trying to get through it withe kids part that was a struggle. This year, we decided to try something new. Here, the first session begins at 6am, so I don't wake the kids up for it. I woke up and got to enjoy the first hour in peace, and then the kids came out around 7 and just kind of sat around and watched the second hour. They didn't make much of a fuss because they were still groggy.

In between sessions we watched home movies. That was a blast! I think that is definetly a tradition keeper!

I don't know where I read it...maybe an ensign or LDS site...but someone wrote an idea about how they buy a bunch of different little candies, put them in bowls, and assign each bowl a different word. Then when the speaker says that word, the kids get to take one candy out of the bowl. We decided to give it a try but with the kids making their own trailmix.

Here's what we bought: goldfish, pretzels, peanuts, rasins, m&m's, white cheeseits, graham cracker fish, kimi balls, and craisins


Then we put them in little bowls with labels: savior/Jesus, Commandments/covenants, Holy Ghost/Spirit, love, family, scriptures/Book of Mormon, faith, bless/blessings.


We also had priesthood and temple on a piece of paper and these words were freebies...they could pick what ever they wanted.

The kids had to call the word out, so we knew that they weren't just grabbing what ever, and that way the other kids would pick up on a word they may have missed. In the beginning, I was really involved and told them the words I heard, but then they got lazy and waited for me to say the word. So, I moved away from them and all I would say is "oops, you just missed a word" but not tell them which word. This really forced them to pay attention.

Of course, it took some adjusting. We had Savior/Jesus Christ by the pretzels, but then their bags were getting full of pretzels, so we switched it with the raisins...much better!

Surprisingly, love and family weren't used very often. I think I'll subsitute one for pray/prayer...and maybe prophet.

So...what I really want to know is, how do YOU survive conference with kids???