Category Archives: activities for kids

Cornhole, The Family Bean Bag Game

July 22, 2009activities for kids, cottage, family fun, summerKirsetin

So I mentioned the cornhole game, right? Yeah, I know, that name sort of freaks me out, too. But still, the kids—yes, people, the kids—loved it. Being the fine parents we strive to be, we decided to buy a set for ourselves. When we asked where to find it, our friends (who introduced us to it) let us know that their set was a gift from a friend, who made it for them. And, “No!” they practically shouted, “Don’t dare buy one. Those are no good at all!” Unfortunately, their craftsman-type friend isn’t also our friend, so we were out of luck. “Make one!” they cheered. “Puh-lease,” I thought.

My industrious husband, however, thought it was a fine idea. He got it into his head that this was going to be a great father-son summer project. The boys would look up the dimensions online (warning: don’t Google corn-hole, who knows what you’ll get!), they’d shop for the materials, and away they’d go.

It sort of worked like that. Except the boys didn’t Google the dimensions, my husband did. And the boys didn’t help him shop for materials. I did. And I didn’t get nervous until I read this part of his list:

· thread

· fabric

· whole-kernel feed corn

Then, I got very nervous.

“Honey,” I said sweetly, “What’s the thread for?”

Smiling innocently, he practically chirped, “Oh, I thought you could make the beanbags.”

Now, how long have we been married?

“Has he gone mad?” I wondered. For a moment, it was a real possibility.

Not wanting to cause a horrible accident on the way to Home Depot, I amiably suggested that perhaps a sewing machine would be required for the creation of 8 homemade bean bags. My one lousy needle and thin black thread might not be sufficient, I theorized.

He remained certain I could pull it off.

I left him at Home Depot and quietly went in search of bean bags, which by the grace of God I found – a beautiful, sturdy, machine-made set of 8, just perfect for a family round of cornhole.

Thank you, Lord, for providing those bean bags!

Fun Summer Games for Kids: 9 of My Kids’ Favorites

July 14, 2009activities for kids, nostalgia, summerKirsetin

During the summer at our cottage, we are close technological cousins of the Amish. No landline. No television. No computer for goodness sakes. Wi-fi is a far off dream.

And yet my children survive. One might even argue that they thrive. Forced to find something else to do—I know, horrors!—they resort to good old-fashioned fun. And, surprisingly, when their friends arrive to visit, no one ever seems to notice our stunning lack of technological connectedness. Instead, their friends simply join in the latest game. It results in the kind of running, laughing, negotiating, and yes, even yelling, that’s music to a parents’ ears. It’s a unique kind of joy.

Are you looking for a few ways for your kids to have fun without Sponge Bob, iCarly, or Guitar Hero? Invite some of their friends over and have them try a few of my boys’ favorites:

Ghost in the Graveyard. In this game, which is played at dusk or dark, the kids choose a “base” and a person to be “It,” just like with hide-and-seek. The person who’s “It” closes her eyes and counts to 12 in this manner: “One-o’clock, two-o’clock, three-clock…” all the way to “Midnight,” which as far as I can tell must be yelled with extreme vigor. All of the other kids run and hide. (They don’t hide together; each child has their own hiding spot). Once they choose a hiding spot, they can’t move—no sneaking to a new spot after the person who’s “It” starts looking. When any child who’s hiding sees the person who’s “It,” they yell “Ghost in the Graveyard!” and everyone runs like crazy for base. “It” tags as many of them as possible. Everyone who gets tagged is “It” (together) for the next round.
Sardines. This one’s also in the hide-and seek family, but can be played anytime of day. It’s sort of like reverse hide-and-seek. One person is chosen to hide. Everyone else closes their eyes and counts, together, to 30 (or any agreed-upon number). Then, they yell, “Ready or not, here we come!” and split up to find the Hider. When any seeker finds the person hiding, they quietly join them. The last one to find the group is the Hider the next time.
Hide and Seek Tag. How many hide-and-seek variations are there? Tons, apparently! In this one, one child is “It” and everyone else runs and hides. The person who’s “It” counts to 30 (or any agreed-upon number) and then yells, “Ready or not, here I come!” “It” seeks out the other kids. If she sees them, she tries to tag them. If she’s successful, they become her partner and help find and tag the other kids. If “It” doesn’t tag the child they find, that child can run off and hide again. There’s no “base” in this game. Kids keep running and yelling and tagging until everyone has been tagged. The first person who was tagged is “It” the next time.
Cornhole, the Bean Bag Game. “Corn-what?” you ask. That’s what I asked, anyway, the first time I heard of this game. I’m not sure if it’s a game unique to the Midwest, or if I was just out of the Cornhole loop all my life, but this is a recent discovery for us, courtesy of our good friends, now referred to as the Cornhole Pros. This game is perfectly acceptable to pull out for either kids or grown-ups, and is especially fun on those Sunday afternoons when friends are over for a burger and a beer. If you haven’t heard of it before, click here for the scoop on what it is and how to play.
Croquet. Seriously, you know how to play this, right? You may not have played since you were 12, but I think just about everyone’s played it at least once. If somehow you missed it, you can read the instructions here. This is a good all-family game, and the kids loooove to beat the grown-ups. Get yourself a set.
Bocce ball. Here’s another game I didn’t know about until after the age of 25. I’m fairly certain I was introduced to it at a party when my husband’s Italian relatives dusted off an old set from the garage. The great thing about Bocce is that you can play with almost anyone – young and old alike can be really good or really bad at Bocce. Even even small kids can play (small like 5, not like, 2, unless they’ve got exceptional throwing skills!) The gist is that you throw the little white ball and then everyone tries to get their ball closest to the little white one. How’s that for a generic explanation. Very detailed instructions, here. If you don’t have a set, I highly recommend it for lots of Forced Family Fun.
Ultimate Frisbee. The way my kids play this game, it’s kind of like football with a Frisbee. There are two teams, and each team has an end zone. The point of the game is to get the Frisbee into your endzone and score a point. To start, each team lines up in front of an endzone. The team with the Frisbee yells, “Ultimate!” then throw the Frisbee to the other team. The player who catches it can take up to 2 steps and then must throw it to another teammate, working their way to the endzone. (I think my kids made up this 2-steps part. In “real” Ultimate, I don’t think any steps are allowed. Experts, feel free to weigh in!) The defense (the team who initially threw the Frisbee), can’t hit other players or take the Frisbee directly out of the opponents hands, but they can block throws, knock down the Frisbee, or intercept it. If an incomplete pass is made and the Frisbee hits the ground, the opposing team gets the Frisbee at that spot and heads towards their endzone. The team with the most points wins.
Badminton. Put the net up in your yard & hit the birdie over the net. That’s the gist of it, although there are all sorts of official rules. You can read them, here.
Traditional games: football, basketball, tennis, soccer. All still fun.

There are a few other games my kids also enjoy, but they aren’t favorites, so I didn’t list them above. Jarts (aka Lawn Darts) is one. We play with the newer version with the blunted ends, not the kind my brother and I tried to kill each other with. Ladderball is another, although I suspect they’d like this better if we had a more sturdy set. Ours is the plastic version with many, many pieces, some of which have mysteriously gone missing.

How about your kids? Do they have some favorite outdoor games you could share? Are these some of their favorites, too? Let me know what they like or we’re missing and I’ll share the ideas with other moms in a future post!

Inexpensive Family Fun: 5 Frugal Ideas

June 30, 2009activities for kids, family, financesKirsetin

Do recent economic woes have you wondering what to do with the kids this summer? Here are 5 ideas to help you forgo expensive camps and memberships and indulge in some old-fashioned, inexpensive, family fun.

1. Pack a Picnic. For the same amount of money it would cost you to eat at home, in the same humdrum kitchen, at the same humdrum hour, you can pack it all up in a basket and head out the door for a new adventure. Grab your basket and set out for the nearest beach, lake, or stream. Doing so also means free (or inexpensive) water fun – easy hours of entertainment for kids of all ages. If the cost of gas and/or distance of a body of water makes this idea prohibitive, forgo the water and find a nearby park. The simple change of mealtime venue is a surefire way to lift everyone’s spirits.
Hit the Nature Trails. Grab your hiking boots or tennis shoes, pack some water and a camera, and head for the Great Outdoors. Not since Thoreau wrote Walden has anyone come close to describing the wonder of communing with nature. And though few of us will ever forsake civilization for the woods for as long as he did, his words help us understand the depth of this beauty. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” We can help our kids develop a love for the outdoors by getting them out of the house and into the woods early and often. Let them lead a hike, explore the trails, discover new worlds: this is learning and living at its finest.
Kitchen Concoctions. This idea isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s not my favorite, either, but the kids love it. Gather up some slightly stale marshmallows, old graham crackers, fruit, whipped cream, sugar, salt, vinegar and other inexpensive, or unlikely to be used soon, foods. Then let the kids mix and create to their hearts content. They can concoct some disgusting stuff, let me tell you, but they loooove this “game.” Just don’t hand them the vanilla. That takes frugal out of the equation.
Kick, Serve, or Shoot a Ball. Research study after research study laments the growing obesity problem of America’s youth. Go against the grain and get out there and play sports with your kids. Take an hour—or a half an hour—to shoot baskets, kick goals, or volley at the net. You don’t need a fancy club membership. Most towns have free public tennis courts and basketball courts; plenty of schools have soccer fields that sit empty all summer long. Grab a few of your kids’ friends and get a game going. You’ll thank me later, I promise.
Read A Book. Everyone knows that libraries lend books for free, but not everyone goes. Go! Choose a book you can read aloud to your kids and spend some time each day transported to another world together. A few suggestions: The Tale of Despereaux (Kate DiCamillo), A Cricket in Times Square (George Selden), The Magician’s Nephew (C. S. Lewis), Half Magic (Edward Eager).

These changing economic times don’t mean less family fun, but they might mean a bit more work on our part, as parents. The farm where we picked strawberries this year puts it like this:

You pick, you pay. We pick, you pay more.

I love that line. That’s life, right? When we do the legwork, we pay less.

What’s true for berry pickers is true for family entertainment: it’s more work to pack a picnic than to drive through McDonald’s, but it’s less expensive and, in the end, it’s better for all of us and a lot more fun. So break out the bread, folks, and get packing.

photo credits: Crystl, KitAy