Well, General Conference is just around the corner and it is time to get the creative juices going, print off some activities, and gear our children up (and ourselves) for the 8 hour spiritual feast (or 10 hours if you are a Preisthood holder).

In October we pulled our small kitchen table into the living room and let the fun roll.  We had my little boy doing things from painting prayers rocks, to coloring the ties of the apostles and prophets, to playing with playdough, to playing general conference bingo.  I had activites selected for different topics, prayer rocks were done while someone spoke abour prayer.  Playdough was done while someone spoke about love and we tried to shape it into hearts. Etc.  It was a successful experience last time around.  He was entertained and yet he listened.  I remember him shouting out "he just talked about Jesus", or missionaries, or anything that was on the bingo sheet.  We even left the table there for our meals and our 3 year old, at the time, loved the fun change.  It could get a little more interesting this time around since our 1 year old only has one nap now.  Last time she went down around 10 and 2 and it was perfect so we shall see how this time rolls. 

If nothing else our table is ready for its job.  When I told my son that General Conference was almost here he got super excited and said something like, "so we get to bring the table in here and do tons of fun stuff".  I hope I can pull something together that will hold that excitement and keep him listening and learning throughout the whole 8 hours.

What do you do to keep your kids and yourself glued to the TV and supping up every last morsel of general conference goodness?  What General Conference traditions do you have?

Here are a few links that may help in your preparations:

• Sugardoodle.net has a ton of packets that they have created ranging from packets for Nursery aged kids to Adults (there are 7 different packets).
• You also may want to check out the regular General Conference page on Sugardoodle for activities, ideas, and printables that fit any conference session.
• On lds.org there is also a page that has printables as well as activities to do in this upcoming week to prepare your children for conference.  Ranging from a printable bingo game to online apostle matching games.
• Deseret Book also has a packet that you can download.
• Mormon Share also has various ideas and printables.
• There is a nice article at Mormon Times that shares 10 ideas for a meaningful conference for children.
• About.com has a ton of activities and games.
• There also some fun ideas over at The Idea Door.

I really could go on and on.  The internet is just full of ideas, activies, and printables for this exciting event.  Please share your preparations or traditions.
Continue reading at the original source →