Posts Tagged ‘family’
Spend More Time With Family Playing Cornhole
June 14th, 2010 | 
Author: The nuclear family has changed over the years and continues to adjust and grow and the dynamics that once made families strong can be a bit too easy to let fall by the wayside. It’s important to bring people together and enjoy family time, and this doesn’t include watching television in the family room. While television is nice, it’s also addicting and it doesn’t promote healthy, heartfelt interaction between members of the family unit.
Getting outside and playing games with adults and children is one of the best, and healthiest, ways to spend time with your family. It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as you’re all together and enjoying it. There are numerous sports and activities that families can share including baseball, volleyball, badminton, soccer, and tennis, to name a few. But if you’re looking for something a bit more exciting, and something that everyone can compete at and laugh with, then the cornhole game is the answer for you.
Cornhole for the ages
The cornhole game became popular in the Midwest a couple of decades ago, though its origins are considered murky. Some claim that it started in Cleveland, but there are references to a very similar game dating back to Europe in the fifteenth century. Wherever it originated, cornhole has increased in popularity in recent years.
It’s a simple game that is played with bean bags and two cornhole boards in which the players toss the bean bags with the intention of getting them through a six-inch hole in the board. While the regulation distance for the boards is 27 feet apart from one another, families can determine, on their own, what works best. It is also perfectly normal and natural to allow younger children to stand closer to the cornhole boards since their strength and agility will be less than the adults.
Cornhole doesn’t discriminate
Perhaps the best thing about the cornhole game for families is that it doesn’t discriminate based on age, size, or strength. Certainly ability and practice will make a difference, but it is easy to handicap a member of the family who has either natural talent or simply practices a great deal more than anyone else in the family. For example, you can make Uncle Rob -who plays in cornhole tournaments around the country- stand ten, fifteen, or even twenty feet further back when he throws his tosses. Wherever he has to stand to even the playing field will work.
Cornhole boards are simple to store and setup, which means that anytime is a good time to play cornhole. It doesn’t have to be reserved for special occasions, such as a birthday or anniversary party or even a reunion; cornhole can be played everyday, if a family chooses.
Cornhole is such an easy and versatile game and offers hours of entertainment for the entire family. It goes without saying that family time should be spent laughing, talking, and simply being together. With cornhole, you get the added bonus of being outside with the ones you love.
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Free Activities to Do With Your Family
Spending quality time with your family does not require any money at all. While dinner, movies or sporting events are great entertainment, the cost can damped the fun. I recently took my niece and friend out to the movies and it cost us almost 26.00 for the tickets, and the concession stand was more. Sadly we only got popcorn and drinks because I smuggled in the cheaper candy from the drug store.
Here are some fun and free activities to do with your family.
Game Night. Our family frequently had a game night growing up and those nights are some of my most cherished and funniest memories. We would have friends and family over, and spend hours playing games like Charades, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit, and our later favorite Cranium. If you don’t own any games, you can still play free things like Tag (come on admit it, it’s still awesome), a homemade version of Win, Lose or Draw, Charades, card games, and even internet games as a family. Also try a jigsaw puzzle together, that can be days of free entertainment.
The Library. Your local library is an amazing and completely free resource. Everyone knows you can rent books, but did you know that you can also check out audio books, DVD rentals, art, and even check out free passes to museums and parks. Some libraries are better than others, but most have come a long way.
The libraries in my area have an extensive DVD collection, not just PBS specials, but new releases and popular movies too. They have far fewer copies than your local video rental store, but there are waiting lists and they are completely free. The audio books are great for car rides or floating in the pool or to listen to while you all clean the house. Some facilities have movie night or other special events. My niece and nephews just got to go to story hour and trick or treat and lead a parade around the library. They loved it and it cost nothing.
Libraries have special copies of books for book clubs, this means they have dozens of copies of the same book. Attend the book club at the library or start a family book club. If your children are older you can all pick a book, read it together or separately and then discuss it at the dinner table or before bed.
One of the most surprising things I discovered about my library is they have passes you can check out for many different places. My local library when I lived in Connecticut had half off passes to the zoo, free passes to several museums, to an amusement park, and an aquarium. You usually have to pick them up the day you would like them and return them by the next day. Go talk to your head librarian and the children’s librarian and ask them what their library offers. The different departments have different passes. These free passes can save you a lot of money. When my family was in town I rented the zoo passes and half off our admission for 6 of us saved us over $40.00.
You could even take an afternoon and just go to the library together and wander around. I love the feel and smell of the books, it always gets me excited to learn something new. The cost to you $0.
Exercise. Oh yea, I said it. While it may not sound like fun to some people, it really can be a lot of fun. My Dad and step Mom bought us a Nintendo Power Pad when we were children. It’s an electrical pad that lays on the ground like a Twister game. It’s hooked up to a video game and there are games you play such as running races. The pad registers when you pick up your feet and put them down, thus gauging who is running faster. It was competitive and really good fun. I didn’t realize it at the time, but we all played it together for hours and I never realized I was working out. We also would take turns on the exercise bike, rowing machine and treadmill seeing who could last longer, who could ride further or who could get the most rows in a minute.
You can take a bike ride together, go for walks, jog, or buy a Nintendo Wii and Wii fit. A Nintendo Wii is a video game system that gets you moving instead of sitting and playing games. You swing your arms for tennis, you dance around for dance offs, you run, you do a lot of fun activities.
Most of us have exercise equipment sitting around with dust on it, make it a cool family night. It’s always free to go for a walk.
Get Creative. Most households have art supplies sitting around in closets and on shelves. Dig it out and make something cool. My sister started with her 3yr old when he was an infant. She put his hands in paint and made cards for everyone. Then as he got older it got more sophisticated. He finger painted when he was one and she framed them and hung them on the walls. It was such a wonderful way to see his artwork and when he got older he could point to them and know he created it.
My sister, a single mother, has very little extra money, so she gets creative with their projects. Instead of buying expensive stickers, they go for nature walks and find leaves, flowers, sticks and other great finds to glue onto paper.
Don’t underestimate this suggestion thinking it’s just for little kids either. Kids of all ages like to create art, especially when it’s appreciated, framed and put in a special place. My ex boyfriend made fun of me when I said I wanted to paint, he hadn’t seen any of my artwork and thought it was something only artists did. He begrudgingly went with me to the art supply store where I got the largest canvas they had and some inexpensive acrylic paint. I made him help me and together we made this very cool abstract painting that people raved about when they came over to the house. That wasn’t exactly free, but you can find old paintings in the attic or basement and paint over them.
Older kids who are more computer savvy can create cards and art on the computer to be printed and given away. Grandma would prefer a card handmade with love and creativity than a store bought one any day. Use buttons, string, and cord, anything lying around to give your art some 3D wow.
Lights, Camera, Action. Get that digital camera out and have a ball. It’s free to take those photos or video and put on the computer for a good laugh or to reminisce over one day. Play dress up, let each family member take a turn being the photographer and posing everyone. Set the camera up and use the timer to get everyone in the picture.
Try recreating famous paintings in photography, make patterns with your bodies and photograph yourselves. Such as laying with all your heads together or spelling out the family name with your arms and legs. Then print and frame it.
You can make a family videography, taking turns telling your favorite, most touching or funniest family memories to cherish forever. You can also make a how-to or funny video for YouTube. Then on another night play them back and have a good laugh.
Community Events. Check your local paper or webpage (also check the webpages of nearby cities) for events in your area. Many are completely free, including parades, movies, sporting events, and more. Some museums have a free admission day, call and find out when that is and take the whole family.
Getting Family Members to Help
I have recently moved from a rented property which included home insurance to a property without. As I had never searched for home insurance before I didn’t really know where to start. I decided that the best thing to do would be to go online and use a search engine.
I found the experience quite overwhelming as I couldn’t work out what would be best. So many companies over different ‘great offers’ but when it comes down to it I didn’t know what I really needed out of my insurance. I decided to get my mother on board to help me decide what would be best. I always find that a older person on your side can help a lot as they’ve already gone through the same dilemma and have been dealing with the issue for many years.
As soon as my mother came over she knew exactly what I needed and we were signed up and finished. I couldn’t be happier that I now have insurance as the decision was a little difficult.
My house and furniture is now covered and we don’t need to worry at all about if the worst should happen and we get broken into. I now feel save in my house and now that if I do need to claim I wouldn’t have a worry with contacting them.
Anyone who gets into a dilemma with insurance I would recommend asking a family member for help as they have been through the experience and may even know of a company who they have used and you can trust.
How to Come Up With Your Own Family Values
Values serves as a guide for all our actions and decisions. As parents, one of the best gifts for our children is to teach them family values that can guide them in their life’s journey. Like us, our children will go through ups and down and will be exposed to both good and bad values. By holding to a set of core values, they will find it easier to navigate through the rough seas of life.
Children model the people and things that they come into contact with. We must keep a close watch on them. Some of these sources are parents, family members, friends, school, books and media. Remember, if we don’t impart values to our kids, others will. If they assimilate negative values and we do not right them in time, the consequence could be dire.
To help identify your own family values, try the following exercise:
1. Get the family members together to brainstorm what could be ideal family values.
2. Before starting, reinforce that all ideas are welcome, and no one should criticize any ideas.
3. Identify what are existing values in the family
4. Discuss on whether this values should stay or go. Discuss the reasons why.
5. Next identify the values that should be included that are not already included
6. Write this down in a list. Go round the room until there are no more contributions.
7. Group similar values under a single category. For example, kindness and compassion could be classified as love.
8. Strive for a final list that is short, so that your children can remember them easily.
9. Place the values around the house so that it is easier to see them. Write it on a poster and tack it on the wall or frame it up
10. Be flexible to accommodate differences. Interpretation of values may differ between members of the family and everyone should be encourage to discuss when in doubt.
Let Them Know You Care – The Five Love Languages
When showing love to our family, we do fun stuff with them, and share ideas and listen to them. Especially when we are busy, it is hard to make sure that others know we love them. Do you ever feel like the flowers you bought for your wife or the brief but kind words you spoke to son did not quite meet some need they had? That something more was needed to connect you? It might be that you are missing the concept of the five love languages. When you are not speaking in a family member’s love language, they do not feel loved as much by you as when you are telling them you love them in a way that is truly meaningful to them.
Words of affirmation. These people need to hear verbally that you love them and care about them. They also want to hear that you like the way the completed a task this morning, are proud of their work in school or their job. Also be sure to tell them when you like the shirt he or she is wearing, or you like their new hair do. Say a positive, uplifting statement to words of affirmation members every day.
Gift people. A person whose love language is gifts loves to be surprised by a gift at any time of the day. They like little presents and big ones. It does not need to be a special occasion: gift people love presents given for no particular reason (except to show your love, of course!) Some gift loving people like fancy wrappings and ribbons, for others, the gift in a plastic bag is just fine.
Quality time people. As time is our most important asset, it only makes sense that we can display our love towards our family by giving them our time. The single most important thing to quality time people is that you listen to them. Simply take the time to listen intently and sincerely when they are speaking. You should also spend time doing activities the other person enjoys: golfing, fishing, shopping, or whatever else is fun to them.
Touch people. People whose love language is touch always want to be hugged when you greet them. Children always want to hold your hand, even when they are getting older, and often like to be held or rocked before bedtime. They appreciate a spouse scratching their back or rubbing their feet.
Acts of service people. If a person’s love language is acts of service, they will want you to mow the grass, help clean up the house, fix the closet door, make lunch for them, or sew on a button. Any small act like this can be done on a daily basis to make sure these people know you love them.