Just One Mom Trying

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

General Conference Activity Bags: Part 2

As promised, here is Part 2 of General Conference Activity Bags. If you missed Part 1, click HERE.

Dot sticker printables. I came across a great blog that had these fun dot sticker printables, especially made for conference. You can find them HERE at Moms Have Questions Too blog. I love this idea!

Here are a couple of other printables that I really liked:

Family Tree. Kids can either write in the names of their family members or draw pictures of the people on this cute Family Tree. Click HERE for the printable.

Self-portrait. Kids can draw their face on this printable. There is also a boy version. Click HERE (girl) and HERE (boy) to access these cute printables.

Primary Colors: dot sticker activity or string a cereal necklace using the primary colors.

Create conference binoculars, glasses, spy glass, or goggles.

General Conference Memory Game. I saved some pictures from LDS.org and created my own set of memory cards.

Write a note to someone special.

Decorate a Scripture Power bookmark. I created my own but used clipart from THIS blog and from Sugardoodle. Very cute clipart. (People are so talented!)

File folder games. I created a couple of file folder games using a Sunday Savers book and an article from the September 2005 Friend magazine PDF, pages 12 & 13.

Have a picnic lunch in front of the TV.

(I'm getting fancy and got some special bags for lunch this time.)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

General Conference Activity Bags: Part 1

Emily 1:44 PM 4 Comments

The spring session of General Conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be held April 6-7 2013. We are already excited and looking forward to hearing from our beloved prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and other leaders of the Church.

In preparation for this year's General Conference I've been putting together some activity bags for my daughters. They are pretty young still but they can do activities and listen while we try to listen too. My inspiration is not original. I saw the idea of activity bags on Sugardoodle and just tweaked some of the activities to meet the needs/ages of my daughters.

Here's what I have gathered and prepared so far:

Who's the Speaker?

At the beginning of each talk, my daughters pick the picture of the speaker and place him at the pulpit. As they listen, they pick from a bunch of pictures that represent the theme of the talk and place them near the speaker. Inspired by THIS blog.

Family Stick Puppets

I made copies from the nursery manual "Behold Your Little Ones" (Lesson 11 "I Love My Family")

Money Banks

Decorate tithing, savings and spending money jars made from empty frosting jars

Puzzle

Conference Bingo

Printed from LDS Handouts. Include some yummy treats or candy as Bingo markers.

Silent Pictionary

Children can draw the gospel words from the list or draw pictures that represent the speaker's message.

Dot-to-Dot

Include a fun pencil.

Coloring Pages

These pages are available to print from LDS.org

Dry Erase The Friend magazine activity pages

We made this notebook from past issues of The Friend magazine and included dry erase pens and an old sock as an eraser. This notebook is always in our church bag.

Mold the message

Mold the gospel words from the list or mold pictures that represent the speaker's message.

Color-by-Number

This page came from an actual Color-by-Number activity book that I had purchased. You can print a page of the baptism of Jesus and another of two missionaries from LDS.org. Click HERE to print. They are found on pages 2 & 3.

I Am a Child of God origami crown

Follow the folding instructions to create a paper crown. Glue sequins to the crown for jewels.

Remember that you are a daughter or son of a King. (Also goes with the Primary theme for this year.)

Build a temple

Build a temple using wooden blocks. You can either build your own or replicate existing temples using the pictures as your blueprints.

This is what I have so far. I plan on putting together a few more activities and will post those as soon as I have them ready.

Also, if you have any other ideas, please feel free to leave a comment. I'm always looking for new activities for this and future conferences.

# church # General Conference

Friday, February 15, 2013

Positive Attention Rewards

Emily 12:57 PM 1 Comments

I have a sweet little 4-year old can behave well at times and get into trouble at times. She's a normal toddler. When she gets into trouble, she gets disciplined and loses privileges and such. However, when she behaves well and helps out, she normally gets a couple of words of praise and that's it. The scale of discipline and praise isn't quite balanced.

As I thought about it, I wanted to reward my daughter with something that let her know that she was appreciated and valued for her help and good behavior. However, I did not want to give her treats, toys, stickers, etc. I wanted the rewards to be special.

I came up with some "Positive Attention Rewards." They are basically rewards that require the parent (me and/or my husband) to give positive attention to the child. That's what all children want. They just want some attention.

I put the following rewards on craft sticks and put them in a little jar. At the end of the day, my daughter gets to choose a reward for her good behavior and help during the day. These are some of my daughter's favorite activities. Some of these activities we do during the day anyway, but they are extra special at night because 1) my daughter doesn't really look forward to bedtime, and 2) daddy is home to join in on the fun.

Positive Attention Rewards

schedule a play date with a friend
love notes from mom & dad
play a game with mom & dad
go on a short walk and visit a neighbor
10 minutes of art before bedtime
extra story at bedtime
extra song at bedtime
stay up extra 10 minutes
dance party
10 minutes of computer games
free choice activity (game, craft, paint nails, etc.)
10 minutes of cuddles at bedtime
massage (she likes arm and feet massages)
pick what's for breakfast, lunch or dinner
laundry basket ride (child sits in laundry basket and mom or dad pulls child on carpet, like an indoor sled)
wrestle with mommy and daddy

What I have noticed lately is that my daughter really wants these rewards at night so she is working harder to behave better during the day. I also want her to get these rewards so I'm trying my best to look at the big picture and let the little things go. It has also brought a fun feeling into our home because we are happier at night when we get to play together as a family before bedtime.

If you have other suggestions for rewards, please leave a comment. I'm always looking for new rewards to add to the jar.

# family # parenting