What is a Family Game Night?

It’s a fun way to spend time together and create a family tradition. Here’s a fun recipe on how to maximize the time you have together:

• Together with your parents, mark your calendars for a night to spend uninterrupted with your family.
• Eat dinner together, clear the dinner and clean off the table.
• Leave the TV off and pull out your family’s favorite board game.
• Put a bowl of snacks on the table.
• Let the games begin!

When picking games for Family Game Night, you should consider:

• The age(s) of all the kid(s) playing.
• Your specific interests.
• What games your parents liked to play as kids.

Learning Bible verses is one of the best things you can do. A lot of times you need to learn them for Sunday School or Vacation Bible School, but sometimes it is good just to learn them on your own.

Maybe your whole family could learn verses together.

Here are five good ways to learn Bible verses.

1) Read the verse aloud making sure that you know what each word means and can pronounce each word.

Do not just read silently. Your brain will actually learn by forming the words and hearing your voice say the words.

After you know how to say each word and know what each word means read the verse 10 times aloud.

2) Say the verse to someone else. Let them look at the Bible but you don’t look. Tell them that if you hesitate or miss a word to let you finish or keep trying until you ask for their help. Sometimes the struggle in our brain is part of the learning process.

3) Get 3″ X 5″ cards (you can buy these at an office supply store or cut your own out of paper). Write each word of the verse on a different card. Shuffle the cards then put them in the right order. It helps to place all the cards on a table where you can slide them around. Then you can easily try different combinations.

4) After you feel like you know the verse pretty well, write the verse. Write it five times.

5) Write the verse on a 3″ X 5″ card and carry it with you so you can practice each day. By the time you get to this step you will know the verse pretty well. By going over it each day you will learn it even better. It won’t be something you just learn for a little while and forget soon but you will really know it.

BONUS: Ok. So far all five tips work for memorizing anything. If you have a science test or have to learn the lines for a play that will work. Here is the most important tip. Pray that God will let you learn the verse and do what it says. Learning Bible verses is different than just learning facts. It changes you and prayer helps that happen.

Would you like to make a clock out of a favorite book? You can make it out a storybook or a cookbook for the kitchen or any kind of book.

This is a project for a grown-up or a grown-up and kid.

I found this on a website call Intructables posted by a member there called “madhaworth”

And here are the complete instructions:

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When God created the world He made everything just right.

Think about these things:

If Earth were just a little closer to the sun we would burn up and water would vaporize

If the earth did not tilt on its axis there would not be seasons and things could not grow.

If there were just a little more of certain gases or a little less of others in our atmosphere we could not breath.

If our soil had just a little more or a little less of some chemicals plants could not grow.

This project (adapted from TryScience.org) will show what would happen if there was just a little more salt in soil. (more…)

We have another fun free online game for you. It’s called Sushi Go-Round and it’s brought to you by Miniclip Games. We want to bring you free online games that you and your friends can enjoy. This happens to be a personal favorite of our very own Meghan from our Totally Delicious Food segment. We hope you enjoy this fun and free sushi game! Sayonara!
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Turn up your computer speakers to hear the review.
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Mary Poppins

Rated G by the MPAA.

Walt Disney (1964)

Jane and Michael Banks are two bored (and a little spoiled) upper crust English kids.

They have their whole world turned upside down by a nonsensical nanny who teaches them (and their whole family) how to have fun.

This movie is a musical and has both comedy and sad parts and lots of imaginative scenes that are wonderful for adults and children alike.

Julie Andrews won a Best Actress Oscar award for her role as Mary Poppins.

The movie combines a good story, songs, and scenes of live action blended with the animation.

You’ll be singing along in no time…”in the most delightful way!”

Mary Poppins is also a series of children’s books written by P.L. Travers and and originally illustrated by Mary Shepard.

The books (like the movie) center on the mysterious and magical Mary Poppins; in a way her name describes what she does, ‘Merry Pop-ins’. She is merry (happy) and is blown by the East wind to Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane in London and into the Banks household to care for their children.

There was a 40th anniversary DVD release of the film in 2004.

Whenever your family goes swimming it is a lot of fun but being safe is the most important thing.

The American Red Cross offers these tips to stay safe.

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Fun wordsearch puzzle for younger players. All the words in this word puzzle are Bible words.

This printable puzzle is free to use for your own family fun and you can use it for church, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School or anywhere else that you want to. A lot of people use it for Sunday School curriculum because it works well for early readers.

Great for early readers and pre-readers.

This is written by Curt Gunz and his family. Have fun with it.

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The Game of Tic Tac Toe — Good News, Bad News and Great News

Good news: If you play Tic-Tac-Toe the correct way, you can’t lose.

Bad News: If your opponent also knows what they are doing, you can’t win at Tic-Tac-Toe.

So, if both players are playing with the best strategy, you will always end in a tie. There may be a game won here or there because one of you just messes up a little but no one is going to be WAY better than you.

But here is the very good news…Very few people actually know Tic-Tac-Toe strategy. Most beginners just react to what the other player does.

Do not be a reactionary player.

Reactionary players just try to block their opponents three in a row, or try to take any three in a row just because they think they can they can. (Usually they can’t).

An experienced player knows the best starting moves. In almost all games, the player who goes first wins far more than the player who goes second.

Here is the first trick to winning: Always go first, and start by playing one of the 4 corners or the center square. (Usually you take turns going first so you still have a chance to win half of the games; the ones where it is your turn to move first.)

If you start by going in the center and your opponent goes in a corner your next move should be in the opposite corner.

When you don’t go first and your opponent chooses one of the corners, choose the center square.

If they choose the center square, choose one of the corners.

After that, always be trying to play so that you have two ways to make three-in-a-row. If you have two paths to three-in-a-row your opponent can only block one so you win with the other three-in-a-row.

Most Tic-Tac-Toe players who are novices (that means beginners) make random moves, or they are reactionary players who block their opponent’s three in a row, or take any three in a row that they can.

A computer programmed to play its best is never loses because it calculates all the possible moves ahead of time, so it never makes a mistake. A human can beat another human though, by using the odds to their advantage and then capitalizing on the other player’s mistakes.

Here Is How You Win (or at worst tie) EVERY game you play

1) Always try to go first, and start by playing one of the 4 corners or the center square.

2) If the other player goes first and chooses one of the corners, choose the center square. If they choose the center square, choose one of the corners.

3) After that, do whatever you think is best to win.

Bonus Observation: An interesting side note is that if you play a normal game of tic-tac-toe with someone else and let him/her go first, they almost always start by drawing an X instead of an O. I don’t know why that is but watch and you’ll see that it is true.

The U.S. Fire Administration for Kids

Each year in the United States an estimated 2,800 children age 14 or younger are injured and 850 killed in residential fires. Of these children, over 40 percent are under the age of five, 70 percent are under the age of 10. Because the majority of fire casualties occur in children under the age of 10, the U.S. Fire Administration for Kids is targeted towards that age group. And we want to help them in their goal of preventing injuries and death to children due to fire.

ChurchFun.com wants to help by presenting their great information here for our readers.

The goals of U.S. Fire Administration Kids are to:

1. Increase the level of individual concern and awareness of children’s vulnerability to fire.
2. Educate and inform the U.S. population about how personal responsibility and action is key to preventing fires and fire-related casualties.
3. Provide a timely, coordinated and easy-to-access source of information about how individuals can prevent fires and fire-related casualties.

This post will give you short lessons about fire escape planning, smoke alarms and general home fire safety. It is recommended that an adult guide children through the lessons.

Each lesson is followed by a brief five-question quiz to test children’s knowledge of the subject after they have worked through the lesson.

Finally, through a 10-question quiz, children will have the opportunity to earn a Jr. Fire Marshal certificate signed by the Assistant Administrator, U.S. Fire Administration.

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