Sock Wars

It's a cross between pre-k story time at the library and WWW Smackdown, and the kids loved it.

Here are the rules.   

1. Everyone has to start with at least 1 sock on.  One of our leaders brought in his dirty laundry that kids without socks could dig through to find some.  This was a great idea & pretty gross.  Some of the socks were still wet from his sweaty feet.
   
2. Everyone must stay on their butts.
   
3. No kicking or hitting.
   
4. When the music starts, it's a free for all to get everyone else's socks of while your's stay on.
   
5. You can still pull other people's socks off even if both of your's are pulled off.

When we got to 4 or 5 people, we stopped the game and just put them in the middle to play by themselves.  Everyone had a blast except the girl who got the black eye.  But, then again, that's when you know you've got a winner of a game.

2 Nemos & Thanksgiving Dinner

Nemo, the little guy/girl with one person being the face & legs and someone else being the hands has been a huge hit since I was in high school.  Around Thanksgiving time we brought out 2 of them acting as children and had them eating Thanksgiving Dinner with their parents.  We actually did it right at the beginning of Club since it had all the leaders participating and we didn't want to have excess set-up time during Club.


We prayed as a family & started eating.  The 2 children were pretty obnoxious and woudn 't eat their food.  Apparently it was too hard (even the stuffing).  So the mom decided to chew it up for them and spit it in their mouths straight out of Ace Ventura.  Right before she spit the stuff, the dad yells "No, that's disgusting.  We're not from Oviedo. (our rival high school).  I think I've got some old jars of baby food."

Dad pulls out the baby food (Thanksgiving stuff like sweet potatoes, turkey, etc.) and the kids go at it.  To be honest with you, I didn't know how funny the skit would be, but the over-exagerated eating of the baby food was absolutely hysterical.

The skit ends when the two children get into a fight over who gets the one jar of dessert, prunes.  The fight was a great ending, because food was flying everywhere.

Remembering Names

I am terrible at remembering names.  Actually, I think I'm probably pretty good at remembering names, its the faces I have a problem with.  There are tons of names in my head, I just have a difficult time matching those names to each particular face, which is really the most important part of remembering the names.

I can't tell you how many times I've either called a kid the wrong name, forgotten that I've met the kid, or worse yet, been called out by a kid I call "Hey Dude" when he asks me if I know his name.  That's a terrible feeling - for both of us.

Just came across a post by Donald Miller - Why it Hurts When Somebody Forgets Your Name. A Christian Perspective.  He points out that the real reason it hurts when someone forgets our name is because it reminds us of our broken relationship with our creator.

You and I were designed to be friends with God, to be close to Him, to know Him and be known by Him. God gave mankind freedom to walk away, and man did. So now there is a separation. We are separated from the Deity we were supposed to be in relationship with. Without that love, we trade on each others live, which pales in comparison. When my friend saw that I called him by another name, he was reminded of the relationship he was supposed to be in, and reminded how impotent human love can be. He forgave me, but it’s a sad reminder. It’s even sadder because my friend is one of the most loving, other-person centered people I know, and as an introvert, I’m terrible in comparison.

My Club team uses Facebook as an extremely useful tool for many things, but one of the most helpful features is the picture tagging.  There are tons of pictures posted of our Club & Camp trips and most of those pictures have been tagged by our kids.  We encourage our leaders to take some time to use those pictures as a name quiz.

What do you do to help yourself remember names?

Happy Meals in a Blender with a Twist

We've all blended up gross stuff and drank it (or made the new leaders drink it) at club.  I've heard of skits/games where McDonald's Happy Meals are blended up and swallowed, but I just came across a post by Liz where she describes a game that's a little more detailed than that.

There was a nugget meal, cheese burger and the unfortunate fish filet. A student was assigned to each of us and if they correctly guessed the ingredients to the shake, the leader had to chug it. Oh, that Cindy!!! Why did she have to guess nuggets. The fact that the shake smelled exactly like chicken nuggets may have been a dead giveaway. After the successful guessing, we had to chug the contents of our glasses. In case you were wondering fries, chicken nuggets and Sprite don't taste nearly as good as one. It was sick. I was mainly grossed out by the chicken scent. Luckily I didn't have to chug it all. I think I won since the burger guy and fish guy weren't drinking near as much.

That got me thinking.  What about doing food from different restaurants?  Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Burger King, Bob's Sushi Bar.

Successfully Leading Games & Mixers

Jonathan McKee gives the 7 Deadly Sins of Game Leading over at the Source for Youth Ministry. They are extremely helpful reminders of how important the little things are when you're trying to be excellent.

I prefer to be a little more positive, sort of like Paula Abdul. I've translated these into an optimist's language.

1. Come up with some creative transitions to lead into games. Avoid telling the kids you're gonna play a game.
2. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Stop and think through exactly how the game will go. Anticipate problems.
3. Play along with the kids.
4. Explain how to play in less than 30 seconds. Practice doing this before hand. Try explaining it to the other leaders to see if it makes sense. Control the room. If the kids are talking, make them sit down so you only have to explain it once.
5. Split up teams quickly. Again, think through this ahead of time.
6. Have a personality & have fun. If you don't, get someone else to lead the game.
7. Make sure everyone can be involved either by playing or by seeing what's going on. If you're doing an up front game, try to elevate the people if they're doing something on the floor. Try using a table.

Throw A Baby If You Have One

A few years ago, a married couple on my team had a baby boy. One week the dad, Mike, was holding his son in Club and walked out of the room. Once he got out, he removed the blankets from the baby and wrapped them around a doll.

When it was time for announcements, Mike came back in the room holding the doll the same way he had been holding his son. As he moved across the front of the room he purposely tripped over a girl's legs and tossed the fake baby about 10 feet across the room, while simultaneously acting as any new dad would act had it been a real child. The reaction of the crowd was hysterical, especially the girl he tripped over.

That's why I loved it when I read this post by Chad Swanzy titled "I dropped a newborn baby last night" complete with pictures. Good stuff if you've got a baby around.

My wife is pregnant, and I'm already getting excited about being able to do this again.

Human Pinata

Wrap a leader up in duct tape with the sicky side out. Stick candy all over the tape.

Then using ropes strung around his arms & legs (or a harness if you have one, which every good leader does) hang him from a tree.

One by one, let the kids beat the candy from the leader with a pool noodle.

If you want to do it inside a building, you could do something similar to this picture I got in an e-mail titled "Redneck Timeout".

Candid Camera Club

A friend of mine shared an awesome idea with me recently.

A few years ago, he got some administrators and a coach to help pull one over on some kids. He set up a camera in one of their offices and had them call a kid in and basically scare the crap out of them. You can use your imagination, but one kid was told that all of her college applications had been stolen and another kid was cut from the basketball team.

At just the right time, the administrator/coach points to the camera and says, "You're on Young Life Candid Camera".

Then you show the videos at club that night.

Note: All of it has to be done in one day, or word will spread & the kids will get suspicious.

Rindercella and the Prandsome Hince Skit

If you've ever wanted to learn this, here it is. It's a great way to break the ice before a talk.

Once upon a time in a coreign fountry there was a geautiful birl, whose name was Rindercella. And Rindercella had a mugly other and two sigly usters. Also in this coreign fountry there was a prandsome hince, and the prandsome hince was going to have a bancy fall. Rindercella’s mugly other and her two sigly usters went out and bought dancy fresses for the bancy fall, but poor Rindercella couldn’t go because she had nothing but rirty dags. So on the night of the bancy fall, Rindercella’s mugly other and her two sigly usters put on their dancy fresses and went to the bancy fall. And since poor Rindercella couldn’t go, she cat down and sried. Suddenly, her gairy fodmother appeared before her and touched her with her wagic mond and turned her into a peautiful brincess. Her gairy fodmother gave her a kig boach and hix sorces so Rindercella could go to the bancy fall. So off went Rindercella. When she got to the bancy fall, the prandsome hince met her at the door. He had watched her come up in her kig boach and hix sorses from a widden hindow. Rindercella and the prandsome hince danced all night long, and the prandsome hince lell in fove with Rindercella. When the prandsome hince was just about to quop the prestion, Rindercella heard the moke of stridnight, so she turned, straced down the rairs and when she got to the stottom blep she slopped her dripper. The next day the prandsome hince went all over his coreign fountry looking for the geautiful birl who had slopped her dripper. When he got to Rindercella’s house, he tried it on her mugly other, but it fidn't dit! He tried it on her two sigly usters, but it fidn't dit. And he tried it on Rindercella, and it fid dit! So they were mappily harried and lived appily ever hafter. Ehe Thend!

A Kid's First Time At Club

I came across this while looking around the internet & thought it was pretty encouraging. I won't link it, but here's the text.

Last night I went to this thing called Young Life. Basically, it was a big group of kids that got together at somebody's house to play games, sing, and talk about God a little bit. It was so much fun, and I'm really glad Morgan brought me with her. One of the games was dividing into two groups and putting as many clothes pins as possible on one person. Clothes pins on clothes were worth 1 point, and pins on skin were worth 2 points. We ended up winning, but I felt kind of bad for the girl with pins all over her, especially since there were so many on her face-ouch. Then they had 4 kids go up to the front (2 teams of 2) and one person had to chug a 2 liter bottle of Sprite zero while the other person was spinning in a circle. When the person got tired of chugging, they would switch. It was pretty funny to watch, but I'm glad I didn't have to do it. We also sang some old school songs- stuff like Backstreet Boys and Avril Leviegn (sp??). Of course, nobody is really a great singer, so the songs didn't sound so good, but everybody enjoyed it and ended up laughing. I hope that I can maybe go again, because it was so much fun. Everybody there was so nice too. (I wonder if this would be considered making my own excitement in life??)

Sounds like an awesome club (gonna use both those games), but what really stuck out to me was that this girl thought everyone was so nice. Talking to kids at camp, one of the things that always blows them away is how nice everyone is, how welcomed & loved they feel by the leaders, workcrew, & assigned team. It's great to see that we are creating that atmosphere back home in our clubs.

I think it's worth evaluating our clubs to see if we are creating atmospheres where everyone feels good to be there.

A Kid's First Time At Club

I came across this while looking around the internet & thought it was pretty encouraging.  I won't link it, but here's the text.

Last night I went to this thing called Young Life. Basically, it was a big group of kids that got together at somebody's house to play games, sing, and talk about God a little bit. It was so much fun, and I'm really glad Morgan brought me with her. One of the games was dividing into two groups and putting as many clothes pins as possible on one person. Clothes pins on clothes were worth 1 point, and pins on skin were worth 2 points. We ended up winning, but I felt kind of bad for the girl with pins all over her, especially since there were so many on her face-ouch. Then they had 4 kids go up to the front (2 teams of 2) and one person had to chug a 2 liter bottle of Sprite zero while the other person was spinning in a circle. When the person got tired of chugging, they would switch. It was pretty funny to watch, but I'm glad I didn't have to do it. We also sang some old school songs- stuff like Backstreet Boys and Avril Leviegn (sp??). Of course, nobody is really a great singer, so the songs didn't sound so good, but everybody enjoyed it and ended up laughing. I hope that I can maybe go again, because it was so much fun. Everybody there was so nice too. (I wonder if this would be considered making my own excitement in life??)

Sounds like an awesome club (gonna use both those games), but what really stuck out to me was that this girl thought everyone was so nice.  Talking to kids at camp, one of the things that always blows them away is how nice everyone is, how welcomed & loved they feel by the leaders, workcrew, & assigned team.  It's great to see that we are creating that atmosphere back home in our clubs.
I think it's worth evaluating our clubs to see if we are creating atmospheres where everyone feels good to be there.

Fun Things To Do At The Grocery Store

We don't do flyers anymore.  All our Young Life announcements are exclusively paperless.  But, if I did flyers, I would definitely include this fun list.

While in a Grocery Store

• Every time you turn the corner with your shopping cart, yell “Make Way!!!”
• While scratching frantically, ask the manager if he or she has anything for body lice.
• Bring your own buy one get one free tags and put them on random items.
• Get tubes of Preparation H (or other embarrassing items) and as you go past other shoppers just secretly drop it in their cart. Stand near the checkout and watch what they all do.
• Challenge other shoppers to cart races.
• Set up your own little sample table, but just give out plain animal crackers. Be very enthusiastic about them. “YOU”VE gotta try these!”
• When you see a worker pulling items to the front of the shelf, walk by and push some back. Just keep walking.
• If you can find a freezer with room in it (or make your own room) get inside and look out at the shoppers through the glass doors.
• Bring a fake mouse attached to fishing line (50 feet is good) and drag it around behind your cart.
• Insist that the bagger only put one item in each bag.
• When you stop to look at something, turn your cart sideways so nobody can get by.
• Make up your own language and ask people questions in it. Make the questions sound important.
• Wear headphones and sing out loud.

Human Christmas Trees

This is an annual tradition for our club.

1. Have plenty of Christmas Tree decorations - lights, tinsle, whatever. Glass bulbs break when they fall on tile, so be careful.
2. Bring up 3 kids to be trees and 2 kids to decorate each of the trees (that's 9 all together).
3. Play upbeat Christmas music while they decorate.
4. Plug all the lights in when the decorating is finished. A surge protector & extension cord usually come in handy.
5. Have the rest of the group judge the trees by applause.
6. The winning tree has to stand there for at least 15 minutes, if not the remainder of club, as the Young Life Christmas Tree.
7. If you want to be really cruel, get the big colored lights that get really, really hot.

Izzy Dizzy - New Club Character

A few weeks ago at club planning, we were filling in our semester spreadsheet and were thinking of mixers.
All the old ideas came out.  Knight/Mount/Carry, Tape Shapes, etc.  One of our leaders said we needed some new ideas, so we sat in silence and thought about it.
Then, it hit us.  What if we just put a new spin on the old games.  And Izzy Dizzy was born.
We've had her in club twice and she's a huge hit.  Here's how it works.

1. 2 Leaders introduce a mixer to the kids and get ready to play.
2. Just before we begin to play, one of the leaders says that we do this game every year and it's boring.
3. Then her music starts.  We're using "You Spin Me Right Round" (I think that's what it's called).
4. Izzy comes out with tie dye shirt, propeller hat, and whatever else she can that spins.
5. She tells us her name is Izzy Dizzy and she comes to club to make games fun (something like that) and ends with "off the fashizzy".
6. She then tells us we need to put a new spin on things.
7. We ask her what kind of new thing we can do with this boring game & she looks at us like we're plain dumb.
8. "No." she says.  "You just put a spin on it."
9. Then she demonstrates how to spin properly and we play the game.
10. Kids are required to spin until they have to do whatever they have to do for the game.

It's fun, because everyone bumps into each other and everyone's dizzy.

More Than I Knew

I've visited Help for YL Leaders NOW on several occasions, but I don't think I ever realized the value of what Sean has posted there.

He has an entire category of club plans in Word format along with the posts that describe the Club. This is an excellent resource.

I've been looking over a bunch of them and these are a few of my favorites.

• Tick Tac Toe Club
• Mustache Club
• Turkey Club

And this post is about getting the most out of the blog. Such good stuff.

Turkey Bowling

Our annual tradition for this week's club is Turkey Bowling.

I'm sure there are several variations and things that work better than how we do it, but here's how we set it up and play.

1. Do it before club starts.
2. Use a large frozen turkey.
3. Set up 10, half-full 2 liter bottles on a sidewalk.
4. If you have plactic to lay down, use it. We've done it without, but the turkey will fall apart after a while.
5. Just have kids go one after another, bowling the turkey.

The Psychologist Skit

We just did this skit on Monday. It is my favorite to do and had the kids cracking up.

Mr. Tolson is knocking at the door on the door of Dr. Roberts, the in-house psychologist.

Dr. Roberts: Mr. Tolson

Mr. Tolson: Are you Dr. Roberts?

Dr. Roberts: Yes, come in. Please have a seat. Sorry to have to call you down here on such short notice, but your company asked me to give you a creativity test.

Mr. Tolson: I’ve never taken one of those before.

Dr. Roberts: Well, they’re pretty easy. Actually, they can be fun. Would you like a beverage?

Marshmallow Baseball

Here's a great game for everyone to be involved in, especially during the play-offs.

What you need:

1. Marshmallows
2. Wiffleball Bat
3. 2 Bases (we use pillows)

How to play:

1. Set up one base as a home plate and the other base straight ahead of home plate at the other end of the room.
2. Have the kids make an open area between the bases for the players to run.
3. Call up 3 girls to hit.
4. Have a leader pitch marshmallows underhand.
5. After the girl hits, she runs to the base and then back to home.
6. Guys try to throw the marshmallow to the catcher before the runner gets back home.
7. Girls in the crowd try to keep the guys from getting the marshmallow to the catcher.
8. After 3 girls have hit, call 3 guys up to do the same thing.
9. If they're having fun, keep playing.

Some extra fun: When the game was over, everyone was eating marshmallows. We tried to sing the entire next song with marshmallows in our mouths, without swallowing. We looked like a bunch of rabid dogs and sounded terrible.