Preparing Kids for General Conference

Around the time Jake was one I started wondering what I could do to help him enjoy general conference. Needless to say, I was wondering a little early. At that point in time conference consisted of hauling out enough toys to give us a couple consecutive minutes to listen to a talk before being dragged off to the next toddler adventure.

Now we work hard to make general conference enjoyable, and I think we succeed. Earlier this year I made a little game of general conference memory that we play every week at family night for 5 weeks leading up to conference

I copied mug shots from lds.org of the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles and pasted them into a plain document. I printed the document twice. Then I cut out the photos and taped them to the front of 30 index cards. I wrote the names underneath the pictures.

Because our kids are still young, we divide into teams and take turns trying to find the pairs. Then we review some of the talks from the previous conference or share stories or details from their lives. We feel pretty darn good about ourselves when our kids can recognize some of the general authorities in the following months. 

It so happened that Abby was on the winning team for two weeks in a row last spring, so Cameron convinced Jake that Abby was the secret weapon to winning. It is super cute to hear a 4-year-old begging his 2-year-old sister to be on his team. 

No matter which team wins, I think the game serves its purpose: the kids look forward to conference and learn a few things along the way.