Online Family Time
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Tuesday, December 23, 2008
All the members of my immediate-extended family - my parents and my four younger unmarried siblings - are in town for Christmas. Besides baking cookies and all the other preparations we’re doing, we keep busy by playing games together.
Trivial Pursuit is one of our favorites. We’re a trivia-loving family: among the six of us kids there have been several stars of the high-school Quiz Bowl team.
(Not to brag, but yes, one of those stars was me.)
(You might not believe it, but I’ve never even owned a pocket protector!)
And being such trivia-lovers, we were very excited to discover a new website yesterday: Sporcle.com! The concept is simple but addictive, and we’ve already enjoyed quite a bit of family time coming up with the answers to the trivia games. We’ve especially enjoyed naming the U.S. Presidents and states and the books of the Old and New Testaments. It’s surprising how much of a group activity it can be!
If your family are trivia-lovers like us and in need of a diversion, check it out!
Entertainment November/December 2008
Posted by Robyn Lee in Entertainment on Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Awaken the Thrill
Gifts for everyone in your family.
LittleOnes (ages 0-7)
by Tim Drake
The Family That Plays Together …
This delightful book, written by Anne Fredrickson, tells the story of her father-in-law’s family of 18 children, 12 of whom formed an all-brother baseball team in the 1920s that is recognized in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The team included nine players, a batboy, and... READ MORE
Build Your Brain
Posted by Danielle Bean in News on Monday, October 20, 2008
You might have heard of Free Rice before. The online game site made the rounds on the Internet about a year ago with a vocabulary-building game. The game was challenging, addictive, and a great way to improve your vocabulary. The best part was that for every correct answer you gave, the sponsors of the site donated 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Their FAQ page explains how the program works.
For those of you who got bored with the vocabulary game, though ... good news! Free Rice now offers games that quiz you on math, foreign languages, chemistry, grammar, geography and more.
Check it out, get addicted, and earn some rice.
You Pick
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Just me on Monday, October 06, 2008
I really enjoy those games where you discuss hypothetical questions. You know, the ones where you have to choose between Highly Improbable Option A and Highly Improbable Option B, just for fun.
I bet that practical people think these games are ridiculous. I’m not a practical person. And I think the games are less useless than they seem. Sure, it is very unlikely that any of us will ever have to... READ MORE
Rainy Day Fun
Posted by Danielle Bean in Family on Thursday, July 24, 2008
The kids’ board game that these precious pieces of plastic came with calls them cones.
I call them purgatory reducers. They are just the thing for stepping on with bare feet in the morning.
Bonus points for not enhancing your children’s vocabularies with what you shout out when it happens.
Game On!
Posted by Daria Sockey in Mind Games on Friday, July 11, 2008
At an outdoor family party, a crowd of children — even quiet, polite ones — can really dull the edge of one’s scintillating after-dinner wit. The temptation is to herd them all indoors and pop in a DVD. Don’t! Instead, set them up with one of these back yard games. They’ll get plenty of exercise, and will enjoy the beauty of a summer evening. Who knows? You might just want to ditch the grown-up gabfest... READ MORE
