Family Sports

When I was a kid, my family would play family football or family basketball.  What that meant was often my dad and I against my brother and my mom.  I never played football for a school or peewee team, but I played with my family.

I coach soccer even though I know nothing about it.  I coach 6-10 year olds and help them work together.  It is fun.  But it is more fun when I text my brother and his family and my family, and possibly others, play soccer as a family.

Here are some reasons to do this.

1.  Instead of dividing up the Christian family into this person to ballet and this kid to karate and this kid to volleyball and this kid to soccer, the whole family plays together.  Sports can be a time of family unity instead of family division.

2.  It is cheaper than paying for the a. gas to go to all the games.  b.  entrance fees to all the games.  c.  registration fees for all of the sports.

3.  You get to play, which is something that will help you in being a healthy person.  Your body is a temple.

4.  Your child sees sports more as a fun activity and less like the be all end all.

5.  The "award" your child gets for playing is called "fun."  What more reward do they need?

6.  The family that plays together stays together.

7.  The research says that family sports and exercise are very good.  See below:

 http://www.commonhealth.virginia.gov/documents/hf/AllTogetherNow.pdf

http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/1061376/the-benefits-of-exercising-as-a-family

http://familyfitness.about.com/od/motivation/a/bonding.htm

The three rules of soccer: Advice for soccer coaches.

***********Disclaimer**********
These are the three rules of soccer for the young kids that I coach.  In some ways these could be the three rules for any sport, even individualistic sports like cross country which I have participated in as much as anyone.  If you are looking for your child to win your particular sport you may be upset and disappointed by these simplistic rules, but the kids I coach can remember them, and if the first two rules help them to actually follow rule three, which is what I have begun to see even in my kindergartners, what an effect it would have on their whole life!

Rule #1:     HAVE FUN.  Do all the things your parents say you cannot do inside: run, yell, jump, etc.

Rule #2:     BE SAFE.  Do not kick people, or their hands or heads.

Rule #3:     PLAY AS A TEAM:  "I will give a double high five to every player who passes the ball to someone on your team."  They started passing the ball to each other.  Training humans to work together toward a goal instead of working toward a goal solo is one of the hardest tasks of a teacher of any group, from preschoolers to middle-agers.

Personality Tests

I have a lot of ideas.  I was going to make up a new personality test, a pop personality test, that decides if you are a mt. dew or a dr. pepper or a stoney tangaweezi/.  With all of the facebook personality tests going around facebook, including lord of the rings (dang I am not aragorn).  So my idea is this - you make up a new personality test.  Just make up like 40 questions, or even 20 and then sort it out.  You say, what kind of personality test.  Here are some you could make up:
1.  Which country were you meant to live in?
2.  Which planet are you?
3.  Which type of font are you?
4.  Which sense is your favorite?
5.  Which country song are you?
If you make one up, send it to me so that I can take it.

Family Freeze Tag

We go to Burris park, which is a wooden park, and play family freeze tag.  This is a good way to get good exercise for the whole family.  I have a fun time climbing up the wooden structures, trying to find paths that others can not take.  My youngest son loves to climb up and down the tire ladder over and over again.  And then sometimes the people who are "it" will pop out of nowhere and you have an all-out sprint on your hands.  Sliding down slides fast and getting up steps or ladders fast is a serious skill in this game, and when you have tagged someone so that they are frozen, you have to make sure that you are not "puppy guarding" them.  Puppy guarding is when you stand right by them for more than 5 seconds.  Maybe you have a park in your town.  Go and play family freeze tag.  It has been a fun family game for us.  Your heart will be pumping.

Bowling with plastic cups

My brother and I used to set up ten plastic cups as pins at the end of the hallway and then bowl with a ball.  It was quite fun.  If you don't have plastic cups you can usually pick them up at a sporting event after everyone else leaves the game and their cups are on the ground.  One time I got 100+ cups that way.  That game may have been one of Harry Carey's last games.

The Name Game

Cut up paper into small-ish sizes about 2 inches by 3 inches.  Give each person ten pieces of paper and a pen and have them write one name on each paper.  Everyone in the group has to have a chance at knowing the person on the paper.  You don't want to make them too easy though.  Then collect all the names, folded once, in a bowl.  Divide the group into two teams and one person from Team A tries to get their team to guess without saying the name.  Go back and forth between Team A and Team B until the bowl is empty.  The team that guessed the most names wins.  You can't think of any names?  I will share some of my favorites with you.

Jomo Kenyatta
Steve Prefontaine
Suzie Derkins
Walter Payton
Dwight Gooden
Cameron MacIntosh
Victor Hugo
Bill Russell
Denise Huxtable
Ruby Bridges
Catniss Everdeen
Vigo Mortensen

Speed Scrabble

This is a game that is also learning.  Speed scrabble does not require a board, and you could even make your own pieces out of cardboard.  If you want to play in a language other than English, and you are willing to make your own pieces, the possibilities are limitless.  I think I may go and make myself Hebrew pieces to play Hebrew Speed Scrabble.
How do you play Speed Scrabble?
Everyone gets 7 pieces.
"GO."
When someone makes words with all of their 7 pieces in front of them they say,
"GO." and everyone takes one more piece, to make 8 pieces.

When someone makes words with all of their 8 pieces in front of them they say,
"GO." and everyone takes one more piece, and that makes 9 pieces.
You go on playing that way until you run out of pieces and the person to make something of all the letters says,
"DONE."
Then you count up all your letters how many times they are used and subtract the letters you did not use.
That's how we play it.
Have fun.

Chess

How long has chess been around?  I don't know.  My brother learned chess at the summer camp we went to in Pennsylvania and taught me.  My kids know now.  I just beat my son by getting him down to his king.  In high school a student teacher taught me how to beat someone in three moves.  Chess is funny though, because I really know almost nothing about it.
Do you know how to play chess?
The King can move one space in any direction and is the whole goal of the game for the other pieces to make sure your king does not die but that the other person's king does die.  What strategy will you have?  Will you have a strategy?
The Queen is similar to the king except that even though the whole game does not revolve around her, all the work is done by her while the king sits around.
The knight is different in that it moves one over and two up or down, or vice versa, thus making an interesting way to move.
http://www.chess.com/

Settlers of Catan

When my wife and I were going to be missionaries in Kenya in 2002 we went to a missionary training place called MTI in Colorado.  At MTI we learned a new game called Settlers of Catan.  All I remember about that first game was something about ten points and that it was over before I knew it.  It seemed okay, but I never knew how great a game it would be in my life.  Die Siedler von Catan was brought into this good earth as I was graduating high school by a German named Klaus Teuber.  When you think of smart German people maybe you think of all the smart theologians like Otto Eissfelt, Gerhard von Rad, Martin Luther, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer or musicians such as Bach, or the obvious Albert Einstein.  But Klaus Teuber deserves a second look.  Here are some unwritten Catan rules that you will not find in the rule book.
1.  Double sevens - don't count the seven until you roll it twice.
2.  Announce other people's points, and overstate them, but never mention your points.
3.  Don't get mad and throw pieces all over the place - you will get mad.
4.  Don't trade with Danny - this is not a rule that I endorse at all, but it has been stated.
5.  Try to get a variety of numbers on your first placements - 4,5,6,8,9,10.
6.  Eat popcorn while playing.
7.  Don't let Danny eat all the popcorn - again, this rule is terrible, but it has been said many times.
8.  The winner is the one who makes the best deals - that is the secret.
9.  We built this city, we built this city on ore and wheat - should be sung when building a city.

10.  Don't let Danny sing the Amish Grandma song - again, horrible rule, who is making these up?

Dr. Suess Mafia

When I went to Daystar University I learned a few games, one called SNAPS, which I will maybe write about later, and one called Mafia, which I will write about now.  If you have not played the original Mafia, here is how it goes.  There is a “Narrator” who passes out cards or slips of paper to signify who is who.  You know who you are but you do not know who anyone else is.  The character possibilities are as follows: 

Mafia (more than one)

Citizen (more than one)

Sherriff (only one)

Nurse (only one)

After passing out the cards, the Narrator then collects them and then says, “Everybody go to sleep,” and everyone closes their eyes.  “Mafia wake up” and all the Mafia characters open their eyes, thus allowing them to see who all the Mafia are.  “Mafia kill someone” and then the Mafia point to someone (they must agree) and the Narrator remembers who was killed.  “Mafia go to sleep” and the Mafia close their eyes.  “Sherriff wake up” and the Sherriff opens her/his eyes.  “Sherriff, accuse someone.”  At this point the Sherriff points to someone, and if that person is a Mafia, the Narrator shakes her/his head yes, and if that person is not Mafia, the Narrator shakes her/his head no (So the Sherriff knows whether one person is guilty or innocent).  “Sherriff go to sleep” and the Sherriff closes her/his eyes.  “Nurse wake up,” and the Nurse opens his/her eyes.  “Heal someone,” and the Nurse points to someone to heal, and if that person was the person that “night” that the Mafia killed, it will only be an attempted murder.  The Nurse can also heal himself/herself.  “Nurse go to sleep,” and the Nurse closes his/her eyes.  “Everyone wake up” and everyone opens their eyes (notice the normal citizens do not wake up until now).  “There was a murder last night.  John Doe was killed.”  Or if the Nurse healed the person who was killed, “There was an attempted murder last night.”  The narrator does not say who the attempted murder was on.

Then the game begins with accusing someone and firsting and seconding them to make them stand trial.  The citizens, sherriff and nurse included was to kill the Mafia during the day.  But if the Mafia are good at lying, it can be hard to figure out who is telling the truth, and who is Mafia.

That is the normal, boring-ish way to play the game.  I made up a new way, called Dr. Suess Mafia, in which there are other characters, like Darth Vader Mafia, who can choose whether or not to turn to the good side toward the end of the game.  Also, brown noser, has to say something nice about the person the Narrator picks.  Sleepy Mafia does not always wake up, and the Smurf gets to do all kinds of things.  There is also Die-Hard who has to be killed more than once, etc, etc.  Really there is no limit to how many characters you can be.  Cat in the Hat is a character who can go both ways, being Mafia and Citizen.  I made up some cards for Dr. Suess Mafia and gave a few sets out, but very few, like two or so.  But you can make up your own Dr. Suess Mafia.  The trouble with Mafia is that it is based on lying and being able to tell if someone else is lying, which sometimes can be no fun, sometimes can be fun, and sometimes be too much fun.   

SolarQuest

When it comes to board games, this is the best board game ever.  Don't get me wrong, Settlers of Catan is fun.  Maybe there are others that are fun too.  I truly cannot do justice to talking about this game because the definitive review of SolarQuest is and will always be found at http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/325766/solar-quest-an-awesome-review-of-an-awesome-game
Just in case this review was too much for you - too much awesomeness that it, here are my top 10 reasons why you should play SolarQuest right now.
10.  It goes well with Little Debbie Swiss cake rolls and generic red pop (and who doesn't like those things?)
9.  You get to buy real estate on a more than global scale.
8.  Money is not in the up and down markets of dollars, yen, euro, and gold, but is in Federons.
7.  There are a lot of funny sounding moons - a lot a lot.
6.  Unlike most games than last one to two hours, this game lasts until you get really really tired (12 hours+).
5.  You get to shoot lasers at other players.
4.  Red Shift.
3.  It is more than space monopoly (re-read the review).
2.  You learn all about the Solar System you live in.
1.  World Traveler?  - try out of this world traveler.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/325766/solar-quest-an-awesome-review-of-an-awesome-game

Commando Balls

My brother went to Philaselphia with KingdomWorks when he was in college in the 1990s.  He came back with a game that would revolutionize our lives.  There are other games that we like, such as Settler's of Catan, Solarquest, and Mafia.  There may be games that you like such as World of Warcraft, Doom, Monopoly, or Risk.  I don't know what you like, you do.  But one game stands above all other games.  And it is not a game that you can buy in the stores.  It is a game that is taught.  No other game is so much fun.  My wife and I played this game on our first date.  My brother proposed to his wife during the game (she said yes).  What is the game you ask? 
Commando Balls.  J.E. coined the name, and before she named it I think it was just "the game."  How do you play?  Turn all the lights off.  Go to one room with the lights on and door shut.  Draw names.  The one who draws "Killer"  goes out into the darkness and hides with 8 aluminum foil balls (the size of small marbles).  The others are all cops, and after a minute or so go out in search of the killer.  If killed, they must silently drop their ammo (they get 5 foil balls) and go back to the beginning room, without a sound.  How do you get killed, you ask?  By getting hit by a foil ball.  So the killer wants to kill all the cops, and each cop wants to be the one to kill the killer.  But there is a catch.  Not all cops are good.  There is one bad cop, a cop who can kill not only the killer, but also other cops as well.  Once the killer is killed, or all ther cops are killed, the fun starts again after you pick up 53 foil balls in the house.