27 Mar 2006 07:45 AM

Family Home Evening: General Conference

by Miriam Caldwell | More from this Blogger

     

Family home evening is a great chance to help prepare your children for General Conference. This week I am going to include a few ideas that can help your children to become excited about conference. It is important that you talk to your children about what they can gain by listening to the leaders of the church and applying the counsel to our lives.

Opening and closing with a prayer always sets the right tone for family home evening. Singing is another great way to do this. Two songs that would help with this lesson are "We Thank Thee, Oh God, for a Prophet" Hymnbook p 22, and "Follow the Prophet" Children's Songbook p 110-111.

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One idea that helps young people to pay attention to conference is to teach the children about the leaders of the church. For very young children you might just focus on the First Presidency of the church. You can show them their pictures and tell each of them a little bit about their lives. You can find a lot of this information in old issues of the Friend or on the church's web site under the section Gospel Library.

For the older children, you can cover all of the apostles and the First Presidency. You could assign each of your children one or two people to do research on and then have each of them teach a little of the lesson tonight. Or you could have a matching game in which you match the stories to the person to make it a little fun. Make sure that you use pictures, because this will help your children remember and recognize the apostles.

You might also want to prepare Conference bingo cards during family home evening, if your family plays conference bingo. If you have your children take notes then you might hand out special notebooks, and discuss different ways of taking notes during conference. Make sure your children remember to include things like the date, and who is speaking. It is also a good idea to do a short summary of a sentence or two at the end of the talk.

Of course you should end your family home evening with refreshments. What are some ways that you help to prepare your children for General Conference?

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Miriam is a SAHM mom of three children. She has a daughter who is five, a son who is two and a new baby boy. She loves being a parent and spending time with her children.

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7 comments so far

bluetree (2947) 28 Mar 2006 07:03 AM

I like the idea of having the kids summarize ideas they heard, it's a great way to learn at home or school.

Opa (129) 28 Mar 2006 05:23 PM

I wish we had used the idea of having our kids research an apostle or prophet before conference, that sounds great. All we did was bribe them with treats and play conference bingo.

Miriam Caldwell (7573) 28 Mar 2006 08:40 PM

I think it all depends on the ages of your kids. My four year old is going to get more out of it with the bribing of the treats, but as they get older I think the research helps the leaders become more real and then the message more relevent.

primaryleaderidaho (167) 23 Oct 2007 12:25 AM

I remember my dad used to pay a quarter for every apostle we could name while we sat in the tabernacle waiting for conference. (Only on Saturday, of course!) Now while we are at home between conference sessions our children have contests to see who can match the apostles fastest. There is an online game is at http://www.ldsgreats.com/fun-c-4.html This is fun as a Family Night Game, too! My children and husband usually have a much faster time than me - so I stay humble ;)

primaryleaderidaho (167) 07 Apr 2008 01:57 PM

I'm starting to feel the excitement that comes when I've heard conference, but can't read it yet! I strive to remember and apply conference messages. For family night we'll play a conference quiz game to review - like the one at LDSGreats. Make questions of different difficulty levels so everyone in the family can play. As you make questions for the game you will learn a ton that you might have missed, even if you listened to it all.

Maybe one family night could be used to make up the questions and the next family night to play the game. Purchase a few prizes. For younger children, you can give a small candy, (skittles or something) with each turn, so they don't lose interest.

Miriam Caldwell (7573) 07 Apr 2008 06:00 PM

That's a great idea. It will help to build comprehension when you have them make up the questions. A prize with each turn is a great way to keep younger ones attention.

Thanks for your comments and input. I really appreciate the suggestions.

primaryleaderidaho (167) 08 Apr 2008 10:21 AM

I always have good intentions when it comes to projects , but then I usually end up just buying the ready made quiz game, because time is so tight with both teenagers and toddlers. I'll let you know what my family thinks of the April Conference Quiz Game after we play. We will learn by just discussing the topics, even if we don't answer the questions correctly. Our memories of the messages will come back as we talk together - hopefully ;).

I want to challenge my teenagers to read and discuss one talk with me or their Dad on Sunday and then maybe we can make up some additional questions together. There was an Ensign article I read recently about using questions in lessons - how to develop questions that encourage discussion, thought and application. Good questioning is a fine tuned skill. It would be a good skill for me, as a mother, to work on!

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