Gen Conf Sugar Cube Temples!

Hey friends!

For the last several years, I've collected (and created) some easy craft ideas that help keep my babes quiet and reverent during General Conference. I thought it might be nice to share some of them with you all as we approach the April sessions - just in case you need help containing the craziness of children during conference, too 🧡 

My kids love Conference - and my hope is that as they get older, they'll transition from excitement over treats and crafts to excitement over feeling the spirit. (I'll check in in about a decade and let you know how it works out for us...)

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a professional blogger - I'm a very busy Mom of six. You're going to have to forgive my lack of amazing professional pics here, folks. Please see my very unprofessional home video of this specific craft at the end of the post haha. You're welcome!

I'll be posting as many of our crafts as I can before conference rolls around in a couple of weeks - starting wiiiiith...::drum rolllll:::

Sugar Cube Temples

This is my kids' fav craft we do at Gen Conf time. Is it because they love engineering their very own temples because they are so very righteous? Or is it because they love having a delicious supply of sugar cubes in their bedroom room for the six months following GC when they get to build another one..? The world may never know...

In any case, they love it and it keeps them quietly entertained and engaged for at least a few talks.

Supplies needed:

-sugar cubes! (duh)  // You can get them in the baking aisle at any grocery store. I usually get each kid two boxes. You can get more or less depending on how big you feel like building them.

-glue! // I've found that Elmer's glue works the best - but BEWARE...sugar cubes dissolve if they get too wet! see below for more info... we've tried Modge Podge, hot glue, glue sticks, etc...white craft glue works best!

-a surface to build on! // We've used everything from paper plates to cardboard boxes to foam board. 

-decorations! // The first couple of years we did this, we kept it very simple with no extra decorations - just sugar cubes on paper plates. The kids love this craft so much, though, that we've gotten more and more creative with it lately - see below for more. 

Directions:

1. Plan out how large you want your temple to be. Grab your building surface and decide how many cubes you're going to use for the perimeter. For younger kids, I've found that marking a square or rectangle out on your building surface with a pencil helps them from building wonky/unstable walls. They can just follow your outline!

2. Pour glue into a bowl or onto a plate and dip! Lightly dip each sugar cube square into the glue and place it on your building surface. *LIGHTLY DIP is the key phrase here...if you submerge your entire sugar cube in glue it will slowly dissolve! Ack! We tried using paintbrushes to paint the glue on one year and it worked for a minute, but inevitably the kids got tired of it and went back to dunking. Just do whatever works for you!

3. Stack your cubes! You must hold the sugar cubes for a few seconds after you place them beside/on top of each other so they bond together - it might take a minute to find your best sugar/glue ratio for making them stick. The good news is that your learning curve will be accompanied by sticky and sweet mistakes! (...even if they get a little glue in their mouths with the sugar,  Elmer's is nontoxic, right?? haha...it's fine...) 

*My younger kids don't add a roof - they're just not coordinated enough to manage the drying times or build high enough walls. So their temples look more like forts, but it's cool. They'll be stoked if you're stoked! My older kids leave spaces for windows and doors, build steeples and separate rectangles of sugar cubes to add (after they've dried) as roofs!  

                                    For parents of super little kids, you're done! That's it!
                                         OR for parents looking to keep things simple? DONE! The end!

For everyone else:

4. Make it beautiful! As we've grown to love this craft, we've added the following to our process:

-paint: before we tried any of the other ideas listed below, we got out some paint and painted grass and flowers around our temples on the paper plates we built them on. It's a fun way to finish off the project. You could also START the project by painting the grounds, too! That would probably be even easier!

-mini landscaping: you can buy a pack of trees, bushes, flowers and rocks on Amazon. DM or comment here for the link and I'll find you the ones I buy! We stick them on using hot glue.

-modeling clay angel Moroni toppers: this part helps the craft absorb more time and adds a new tactile component. Just when my kids are getting sick of sticking sugar cubes together, it's time to bust out the modeling clay and they're reengaged in a snap.

-fake grass: I purchased a roll of fake grass last conference and I wish I had been filming their faced when I brought it out haha. They were SO EXCITED that their temples were going to look like they were actually ON temple grounds! They loved it.

-let your kids pick their fav temple and print out a picture for them to use as they build! I have dreams of doing this craft still when my kids are bigger (traditions are my favorite!), and I imagine making it competitive (timed temple building) or turning it into a guessing game (whoever can guess which temple the others made wins a prize) or whatever!