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.