Conference Prep

Last fall I mentioned how I'd really made an effort to create an enjoyable General Conference weekend. Now, with another conference just around the corner, I thought I would post some details and share what worked. It may seem a little crazy and a bit much, but when you basically have church at home for eight hours total in one weekend, and want to get something out of it, and have four young children, I figure you've got to make an effort.

QUIET ZONE

Instead of watching the broadcast on our living room tv, with the distractions of the kitchen, the kids' bedrooms (toys!), and the backyard all nearby, I decided I wanted to set up something separate and special. We designated the master bedroom as our conference "Quiet Zone" and posted a sign Brendon made up for me. (Download and print your own copy here!)

 

I set up an extra table and chairs in there, and we also put one of the kids' twin mattresses at the foot of our bed for even more comfy seating.

 

This worked so well because we were able to send out anyone who wasn't interested in listening quietly, and we were able to close off the room between sessions, which seemed to keep the mystery alive, so to speak, for the kids all weekend. (In my fall post I mentioned how Alex even cried when we closed off the room.)

CONFERENCE BUCKETS

Gracie styled this photo with her stuffed animals. :)

I bought these little carrier buckets at Hobby Lobby for about $2 each. Then I went to Mardel, the Christian bookstore in town and picked up some $1 coloring and sticker books. I dug into our stash for some new crayons and pencils and then printed a few coloring pages from lds.org. I divided all the goods between the buckets and added one special snack for each of the four sessions. I even bought some of the individually packaged snacks they rarely get, but love...it's the little things. All told I probably spent about $25 for the four buckets and their contents, and it will be even cheaper now that I already have the buckets (which I put away in the top of the closet after conference so they would retain their special status).

Let me tell you: BIGGEST. Hit.

CONFERENCE WALL

I know there are so many cute printable conference packets out there, and I've used them in the past. But honestly, I just don't feel like they work for us. Shayne and Gracie were always so BUSY trying to fill everything out (or color the speaker's tie just right!) that I don't feel like they were able to actually listen and focus on the message.

 

So I decided to forego all packets and instead we hung up these posters with potential talk topics along one wall in our Quiet Zone. Then I printed out little pictures of the First Presidency, the Apostles, and the auxiliary presidencies. I also had several blank ones handy to write the names of any other speakers we didn't have pictures for. We would listen to the talks, and when one of the kids could tell me what the main message was, we attached the speaker's picture to the appropriate topic poster. This worked really well in getting the kids to tune in to the whole message, not just hurriedly copying down sound bites in their packets. They were able to work quietly on the stickers or coloring, while still actively listening for repeated themes and words.

Plus, it was great at the end of Conference to have a visual summary of what we had been taught and even figure out a predominant theme of conference as a whole. (The theme for October Conference was obedience, in case you were wondering!) After conference, we moved our obedience poster to the dining room where it could serve as a reminder to us long after conference weekend.

(Idea originally from here. I made up my own and can't find the document right now, but this link has the same idea with both topic posters and pictures you can print, or check out this blog that shows how she used pictures of gospel topics for her young children, instead of the topic posters.)

CTR DOLLARS

I don't remember where I read about this idea, but I had Brendon design these CTR dollars for us to use as rewards for reverent behavior. We told the kids that if they earned a combined total (all four kids) of twenty CTR dollars, there would be a reward at the end of the second session each day. On Saturday the reward was a family activity. I can't remember specifically what we did, but you could do a family game night, a redbox movie, or a family bike ride or other outdoor activity to get all of their energy out. On Sunday the reward was a special dessert after dinner.

 

(Download and print here!)

Making the earnings a team effort allowed the reward to be a family affair, and allowed the littles to have an off day without missing out on the reward. It also got the kids encouraging each other in reverent behavior rather than feeding off any negative behavior. We gave them dollars for listening quietly, whispering, identifying the speaker's topic, singing along with the congregational hymns, etc.

OTHER STUFF

I had a few puzzles out for the older kids and file folder games for the younger as alternate activities to keep their hands busy but still allow for active listening. I even worked on a puzzle, too, and found it helpful for my own attention span!

I did print the conference bingo game from lds.org to use for the last session, but we really could have done without--total overkill at that point.

We had a special breakfast both days of conference weekend, Monkey Bread on Saturday and "Utah Scones" (fry bread with butter and syrup or powdered sugar) on Sunday. Both just scream Utah Mormon to me, so we thought they would be a funny tradition. But, as I'm sure you can guess, loading them up on a sugary breakfast before expecting them to sit quietly and listen is not the best idea. This time around we'll probably skip one of them and add in some protein.

So there you have it. The makings of a great conference weekend for our family. I'll let you know how it goes again in a month!