In his closing remarks of the April 2016 General Conference, Elder Holland acknowledged that the “wonderful feelings” that define General Conference weekend will, likely, yield to more worldly matters in the days to come. We’ll come down from our “conference highs” into the real world of daily life. And we’ll long for the same spiritual tutoring we’ve soaked up during General Conference.
Clearly, the best way to learn from General Conference is to study, ponder, and apply gospel principles daily. There is no substitute for Spirit-led examination and improvement in our lives. That effort is supported when we also bring General Conference into the academics of our homeschools. Here are a few ways to create daily learning experiences for ourselves and our children based on teachings from General Conference.
- Select small quotes from talks, and have children use them as the texts for their daily copy work. (Better yet, have older children read the talks and select the quotes for their younger siblings!)
- Memorize (and “ponderize”) a scripture referenced in a talk. Study and recite the scripture during daily morning devotionals.
- Work as a family to memorize a short fact about each apostle and put it to music (One LDSHE family used the lyrics here as a starting point and wrote their own lyrics for the three newest apostles, after researching their lives.)
- Help children develop public speaking and presentation skills. Print a short story from a Conference talk and tape it to the child’s plate before breakfast. Have the child read the story and be prepared to summarize or retell it–in her own words–at dinner.
As homeschoolers we aren’t limited to a few busy hours after school, squeezed between music and sports practices, in which to influence our family’s gospel learning. We can incorporate the messages of general conference throughout their schoolwork.
