STAYCATION DAY 1

With Conference this year, the kids are at such great ages.  I wanted to give a little extra nudge to the importance of watching and listening to the messages we hear from the leaders of our church.  The kiddos are both coming up on milestone birthdays of 8 and 12 yrs.  I know they take things to heart, even when I think that’s the furthest from their minds.

So Saturday night, after making our treats, Alyssa and I decided to put together a Conference Fort that Dad had bought all the parts for earlier.  He was at priesthood and then took Tyson to go play Ticket to Ride with his Uncle and cousin.  Alyssa and I did pretty well.  When it was done, we realized it was HUGE.  But the kids loved it!  We named the tent Zarahemla.  Tyson and Alyssa slept in for 3 days straight.

These are a few activities we did to try and enhance Conference excitement.

MORNING SESSION:

Before hand, we gave the kids a trail mix of treats with a poem I found online.  I hadn’t seen it before.  I thought it was darling.  It was the same concept as Christmas mixes, where it talks about the meaning of each treat in the mix.

I gave each of us a bottle of water with a label that I made up on it called “Conference Water.”  The kids were asking for drinks, and I didn’t want them to have additional sugars, so I grabbed water, and was going to put everyone’s names on them, and then I thought…wait a minute…this is so simple.  Great teaching idea.

As we listened to the talks, we sat at the table and made colorful string eggs.  SUCH a mess- but the kids loved them, and they really listened to the talks, it was fun to be able to talk casually while their hands were busy, but their minds were engaged on Conference and family.

AFTERNOON SESSION:

At the beginning of the afternoon session,  we had the kids earn snacks and treats that they could eat for the next few days.  The game was where the kids had a group of words written down, when they listened to the first talk, they were able to pull a penny out of a jar and collect them each time they heard one of their written words.  When the talk was over, the kids got to choose their treats.  They loved this! 

We also did one other thing during another talk, and that was play Conference Jenga.  (all idea’s I got from pinterest, etc.)  Again, such fun ways for the kids to have a little extra something to help them listen to the messages.  These ideas worked well.  Thanks, whoever you are that thought of these!