General conference Ideas

A dear friend sent me some General Conference ideas and it asks for suggestions. Thus I need to blog them so I can link up. :) The good thing is that now I can have all the ideas and links in one easy to find spot! HERE (Her blog had a TON of cute ideas.)

Just a few from me. (None of which are original - all are stolen.)

During conference get out one of those 72 hour kits - and check them over. (This would make you do it every 6 months so nothing goes bad.) Let the kiddos eat the fruit leathers, trail mix, granola bars . . . whatever . . . that are going to be expired before next conference. A GREAT way to rotate your 72 hour kit. (Which by the way I heard was changed to a 96 hour kit after Katrina - it was determined that 96 hours of food would be wonderful.

(And - I like to use Mountain house Freeze dried Meals in my 72 (96) hour kit because they are good for 5 - 7 years - just make sure to bring extra water. :) and they were at my Costco this month. . . of course I use regular food too - but it is nice not to have to replace EVERything every 6 - 12 months. . .)

We use the conference Bingo and the kiddos get cheerios for the morning session for markers and skittles or m&m's for the second session. It keeps their attention for a few talks!

I personally like to have something for MY hands to do too. Keeps me focused. I have done afghans and hand quilted baby quilts in the past but now live in Arizona. . . :) So I used to sit and color little people objects for my FHE packets. My hubby grounded me from doing anymore when he learned I have 130 packets/lessons done.

But now I am doing some for a single sister I V.T. in the ward. :) So I am happy to have a project this conference. If you would like some Family Home Evening packets - shoot me a comment saying so. I have a few on a site online you can down load them from. They are not all done by me. . . but they are pretty good.

NOT a conference idea - but I participated/lead a Family Home Evening Packet Exchange. I loved it! It's a MUST :) if you have little kids. Basically you get about 10 people together who want to do it. (We had RULES that just basically said there needs to be laminated (or something like) little things for the kiddos to manipulate for the story or lesson or game. Things needed to be in sheet protectors and we sent the files to a site to keep them so if we wanted to make them as gifts for other people we could just print off and color.)

You do 10 of the SAME packet. You all report your Topic so there are not repeats. (Sometimes we did themes like holidays, articles of faith, scripture stories. . . )

You meet together in two months and exchange - you walk away with 10 DIFFERENT packets. With things YOU would have never thought about doing because they aren't YOU. :) ie one did a packet with David & Goliath complete with a picture of Goliath with an "X" on his noggin, that you took a spoon and flung marshmallows at to "take him down." How fun is that?

My kids love them. When I am lazy (most mondays) I just ask them to pick out and FHE packet from the tote. Whola I LOOK like the coolest mom with major prep. work. :) The kids LOVE the lamination things and the different ideas that the many people bring to the table.

I also use them for primary lessons when they match up. And when my kids are older I plan on THEM teaching the younger ones from the packets :)

If you would like any more info on the FHE packets. Or even the site where 27 ready to print packets are stored . . . let me know!