Top Tips for General Conference with Kids

What is the LDS General Conference?

Twice a year, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (AKA Mormons) gather together for what’s called General Conference.

Members gather from all over the world. When conference weekend rolls around, they gather in church houses, around televisions and computers, and in the Conference Center Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.

For 10 hours (spaced between five sessions) members get to listen to men of God, including a modern-day prophet, the first presidency, and other LDS church leaders, speak and pass on God’s message.

To members of The Church of Jesus Christ, this bi-annual gathering is a very important time. Naturally, parents want their kids to be involved as much as possible.

However, sitting and listening for such a long time is hard for any adult. Kids’ attention spans are definitely going to wander and be stretched to the limits.

So what’s a parent to do? How can parents help their kids sit still and pay attention during this sacred and special time?

General Conference Activity Ideas

A simple Google or Pinterest search for General Conference activity ideas will reveal lots of results.

Some of these ideas include printable conference coloring pages or conference journals of all kinds.

Conference activity packets are also plentiful. Some are simple and free, while others are more inclusive and cost a little bit of money. Some even require orders to be placed months in advance!

You can also find printable General Conference activities such as ‘General Conference Bingo,’ ‘Book of Mormon I Spy,’ or ‘Color the Prophet’s Tie’ just waiting to be enjoyed by your children.

These are all fine and dandy. Some of these ideas are super cute and really fun. But unfortunately, General Conference printable coloring and activity pages don’t always work for every family. We were one of these families.

The Problem with Printable General Conference Activity Pages

When I give my kids General Conference printable coloring pages or activity pages, they don’t sit quietly and enjoy them like most kids do. My kids actually get louder and more rambunctious when I give them activity pages.

They’ll talk to their siblings about the color they want to use. Or they’ll talk to their siblings about the random things that pop into their heads while they’re coloring.

When we tell them to be quiet and stop talking to each other, they start talking to themselves. Seriously. My kids have such active imaginations they’ll narrate a whole storyline to themselves without even realizing they’re making any noise at all.

Don’t get me wrong – this is a wonderful problem to have! But I really wanted my kids to be able to sit quietly throughout General Conference weekend so that they could get as much out of the talks as possible.

So I ask again. What’s a parent to do?

My Very Best, Tried and True (and Somewhat Simple) General Conference With Kids Tip

For those who aren’t familiar with my family or this blog, I have seven kids. (I also homeschool these seven kids but that’s not the topic of today’s article.)

As you might imagine, our house can get pretty chaotic and very LOUD. It’s wonderful and I love it. But I needed a way to keep these LOUD kids quiet for an entire weekend.

I can’t even remember where I originally found this idea. Maybe it was on Pinterest. Or maybe it was in a Facebook group. Who knows?

But I found this tip and I gave it a try. And I never looked back.

It worked so perfectly! And this tip continues to work again and again, year after year, no matter how many kids we add to the mix and no matter their ages!

We’ve been using this tip very happily for more than 7 years now.

Seriously. It’s that good.

So what’s the tip? How do I keep 7 kids happy and quiet during General Conference?  Without resorting to a counterproductive General Conference packet?

How To Keep Kids Happy and Quiet During General Conference

It’s simple! Let me explain what we do.

A few days leading up to General Conference weekend, we take the kids candy shopping.

If your family has an aversion to candy (which is fine!) feel free to get another treat or snack! Chips, popcorn, pretzels, and berries would work really well too!

We let the kids pick out a variety of snacks. We usually end up with 3 or 4 different options. This keeps the kids from getting bored of too much of the same treat.

The trick is making sure whatever you get is bite-sized!

Trust me on this. You want something even the littlest family member can pop in their mouth without getting sticky and messy.

For this upcoming General Conference, we bought candy corn, skittles, and MNM’s. In the past, we have bought those tiny chewy sweet-tart balls and used chocolate chips and marshmallows.

When the weekend of General Conference rolls around, we get out our treats and goodies.

Some years we dumped everything into one bowl. This presented with a number of problems.

First of all, some candies do not mix well with others. Our treats were becoming contaminated. No fun.

Second, we had the problem of the kids taking forever to choose a piece of candy. This caused frustration all around.

So now we just pick one bag of candy to open for each session and use a different bag for the next session.

This works much better.

So what is the candy for, you ask? How does candy keep the kids actually paying attention to General Conference?

How to Get Kids to REALLY Listen to General Conference

This is my very favorite of all the conference activities for kids I’ve tried.  And my whole family agrees.

Before each session, we have each kid pick one word. Any word they want. We write these words down on a piece of paper.

Throughout that session, the kids listen for these words. When a speaker or a song mentions a word on the list, the kids get to pick one piece of candy.

We sometimes try to encourage church-related rules. We did this especially when the kids were younger. But as the kids get older, they become familiar with words that are regularly used.

And really, there’s no limit to the topics that can be discussed during General Conference!

Examples of Words We’ve Used in the Past

We’ve used words such as

• Amen
• Jesus Christ
• Primary
• Love
• Family
• Temple
• Missionary

But feel free to use any word you want!

Fine-Tuned Rules:

• The kids cannot get a candy for words used during prayers. We used to allow prayers to count, but we had too many kids shouting ‘I heard a word!!!’ during prayer. So we fixed that real quick!
• The kids can only capitalize on one word at a time. If a speaker says a word and the kids grab a piece of candy, and then the speaker says another word right after, the kids still only get one piece of candy. The candy must be completely chewed and swallowed before they can start listening for new words. This prevents older kids from stockpiling a mountain of treats, and this also prevents chipmunk cheeks.
• With a little bit of grace for the littlest of kids, each kid must hear the word on their own. If you weren’t paying attention and your sibling was, they get a treat and you don’t.
• Some families do a variation of this only using conference cash instead, and then the kids get to cash in their conference cash after the sessions.  They get cash for paying attention, hearing words, and being quiet, and then at the end of the session, they take their conference cash to a ‘store’ set up by mom and dad and get to buy treats and trinkets there.
  

Depending on the age of your kids, you can either use the same list for the entire weekend, or swap out words with each new session. The choice is yours! Do whatever works best for your family situation.

We swap words with each session so the kids have to get creative with words they think will be used often. This also keeps kids on their toes and keeps them listening more intently to the speakers instead of just becoming conditioned to hear the same few words over and over.

We have used this method with great results for several years now. I love that the kids are working hard to listen intently. It’s been fun to hear the kids comment on what the speakers are talking about because they’re listening so well!

I know this is a lot of candy in a short amount of time. But for our family, the giant sugar rush is worth it to get everybody willing to listen for the whole 10 hours.

So there you have it! My tried and true, very best tips for General Conference with kids.

What are your General Conference ideas for watching with kids? Comment below! I’d love to hear!

Watch General Conference

Use these links to watch General Conference.

• BYUTV
• Churchofjesuschrist.org (used to be LDS.org)
• Other Digital Listening Options

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My Very Best, Tried and True General Conference With Kids Tip