Today we enjoyed the first three sessions of General Conference. Paul and Jeff are still at the Ice Cream social for all of the priesthood up at the stake center. The guys prepare this fun social after the Priesthood Session twice a year and it is a big hit with the teens. Sometimes the boys and their Dads play basketball afterwards. I’m expecting them home any minute.
I thought I would share some things that we do to make Conference more effective with several different ages of children. We have satellite in our home, and so we stayed home to watch.
Ben is almost four, and any activity with him is always somewhat chaotic. But I did some things to smoothe the way.
I made up Conference Packets for each of the children that included words puzzles, coloring pages, stickers, and a new box of crayons for each. For the older children I purchased church binders years ago that they use to keep all of their stuff in.
Here is a picture of some of the materials:

This little booklet contains pictures of all of the first presidency and the apostles. I bought some Celestial stickers and every time one of these men spoke, a sticker was placed by their name. When the children fill out the whole booklet, they will get a present. I bought all four of the older children New Journals, and Ben gets a coloring book with a new Primary Songbook.
Here is a picture of Jeff writing in his journal while President Monson talks on Television:

I began making these packets out of desperation. When all four of my oldest children were young, we tried to watch conference, but I was continually frustrated by the noise, distractions, and fighting that was going on while Paul and I tried to watch. It was better at the church, but inevitably one of us was in the nursery talking to other parents while the other was in the chapel. When the children were babies, we didn’t even try to attend together as a family. Paul and I just switched off sessions and the other one stayed home with the children.
But after this one conference weekend, when the boys were little and they spent most of the session fighting (Jeff whacked Andy in the head with his Book of Mormon during the closing prayer and I started to cry), I prayed and asked Heavenly Father if there was some way to teach the children to love conference.
I felt guided to seriously prepare for Conference. In fact, I felt that few things in my life were as important as teaching my children to love Conference weekend, and help them learn to love our Prophet and the other General Authorities and Speakers at Conference. So I started with simple packets that contained activities. If the children were good during the first hour, they received a treat during the rest song. If they completed all of the activites in the packets and were “pretty well behaved” they received a wrapped present. I wanted them to feel as excited about Conference as they did about their birthdays.
During the early years they received toys for the present. But lately the presents have simplified down to meaningful gifts of a spiritual nature.
Paul an I also try to keep the weekend free from extra activities, and we spend time at the park, and picnic together on both saturday and sunday.
Here is a link to a little piece I wrote that appeared in the Ensign, the main magazine of our church: (scroll down to read)
“A few years ago I began making conference packets for our school-age children. I would prepare a folder with a variety of conference-related games (see past issues of the April Friend magazine for ideas), and I also made snack bags the children could eat from during the hymn in the middle of the meeting.
Between the sessions on Saturday we go to the park to play and have a picnic, and between the Sunday sessions we go for a family walk. It has been a joy to watch our children learn to love conference.—Jenny Marie Hatch, Louisville Ward, Boulder Colorado Stake”

Ben was “treat focused” during the first session. He must have asked me a hundred times when he could eat his treat. I finally had to threaten him with loss of his present if he didn’t stop bugging me. He stopped for about two seconds, then asked again, and I said, “Ben, do you want me to give your present to Preston (the little boy next door)?”
The look of indignation on his little face was priceless. He settled down to only askimg me every five mintues or so, and I was able to listen to some of the talks. My favorite by far was President Ballard talking about callings and cultural traditions in the church. So timely, and so perfect for our day and age.
As Sherrie Dew said when she was in the leadership of the church….”We no longer have the luxury of spending our energy on anything that does not lead us and our families to Christ. That is the litmus test for Relief Society, as well as for our lives. In the days ahead, a casual commitment to Christ will not carry us through.”
I was so thrilled to hear Brother Ballard so confidently and boldy smash the idols of modern mormonism. It was absolutely refreshing. I’ll blog his talk when it shows up on the churchs web site.
I need to get to bed, we have another great conference to look forward to tomorow.
Jenny Hatch