There was a great article in the Ensign this month about preparing your family for Conference. Jake shared some of these great ideas with us the week for FHE. We tried to implement them and I have to say that after one day of conference sessions behind us I was pleasantly surprised at how well they worked. I have always thought that my children were too young to participate in conference. But I was wrong, and as the article suggested it is never too early to teach your children the importance of conference. So I thought it important to share.
1. Begin the week before to express excitement and gratitude for the opportunity to listen to conference.
2. Explain to your children what will happen.
3. Plan fun treats/food to have during conference. Have a picnic in the family room. We let Luke go to the store with Dad this morning before conference and help pick out our picnic foods.
4. Play games.
* Our primary provided us with bingo cards with pictures of gospel topics on them. Luke really enjoyed listening for the words and waiting for a bingo.
*Other games suggested were to let your children cut up the previous conference Ensign and find then match the pictures to the prophets speaking.
5. Between sessions do something active, especially with little ones. We had a wrestling match.
6. Follow up conference by expressing your testimony to your children and bringing up a few specific points your family can remember.
We were discussing with some friends about how challenging it can be to try to listen and be spiritually fed while your toddlers are tugging on you and squealing as they play etc. I really felt like we were blessed to be spiritually fed, but also able to make conference a family activity. Not just a time to try to keep the kids quiet so we could listen. Because of our preparation Luke said this morning, "Let's watch conference!!" I was so happy to see that he was excited. He was learning the prophets names and he loved listening for the words on his bingo card. Sometimes he caught words I didn't.
I have always loved conference. But today was really great. I am grateful for a living prophet. I am also grateful for a worthy priesthood holder who advised our family and enriched our experience.
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3 comments:
We had the same experience! I let Gabe pick out some candy a few days before, and he and Marissa got a piece every time he heard the word "Jesus." It would look like he was completely off in his own world, but would whip his little head around toward the candy bowl every time it was said! We did the suggestion about cutting up last year's Ensign. We would tell him if a certain speaker was in his pictures, and he would identify which one it was (I thought for sure they would all look like the same bald old grandpas to him, but he was really fast to find the right one!) and glue it on a piece of paper. And, like you, we were still able to listen (mostly), though I know I can go back and read them later and it was more important to me that he couldn't wait for conference (he even wanted to stay up for the afternoon session instead of playing quietly in his room).
I will definitely try this next time around. We tried to arrange nap times around conference so we could watch while Mia slept. That worked until she tried to clean up a messy diaper herself (using a sweater...) and then we spent half of the morning session cleaning up the results and showering her. Yuck. I feel like I probably listened to 1/4 of conference, even though we were trying for all of it. It was a little crazy. Good suggestions for next time!!
You are just so smart - I will for sure do this next time!
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