Starting and Ending Family and Parenting Programs
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Collapse ▲Prepared by
Georgia Kight, Currituck County Family & Consumer Educator
and
Members of the CEMP 09 Planning Team
November 1998
Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
North Carolina State University
Starting and Ending Programs
Group Starters / Ice Breakers
Active Learning
Mixers
Forming Teams
Team Building and Affirmation
Brain Teasers
Closure
Group Starters / Ice Breakers
…are activities that are designed to get people involved with your program from the minute they step through the door. By giving your participants something fun to do as they arrive, you can help them become more at ease, and more ready to join in with the rest of your program.
The Ideal Child
Ask parents to brainstorm words to describe the “ideal child.” List these words on an easel page or blank overhead transparency to refer to in later discussion. (Karen DeBord)
Lotions
This ice breaker is particularly popular with moms. While each parent introduces themselves, the leader passes around a bottle of scented hand lotion for each participant to rub on their hands. This is used as a reminder that in order to be effective parents, one must also take care of the needs of self, including relaxation. (Marna Holland)
Poem
Need: Toys, easel paper, books (love You Forever, Abiyeyo, Mama Allama)
Introductions – Each person write a short poem. On the first line write your name. On the second line list 4 words to describe yourself. On the third line use a phrase to tell about some aspect of you. On the fourth line write your name. (Karen DeBord)
Example:
Louise
Energized, busy, over-extended, educator
Who loves her work and her family of 2 kids, hubby, dog, cat, hamster, and bird
Louise
Tools of The Trade
Give each participant a tool for the many roles parents play. For example, a band-aid for being a doctor, an apple for being child’s first teacher, a spatula for being the cook, a key ring for being a chauffeur and so on. This leads to excellent discussions about roles and difficulties with multiple roles. (Marna Holland)
Sock Toss
Roll up athletic socks into a tight ball. For a circle of 20 people, use three pairs of socks. Gather into a circle. Leader tosses socks to the first person and says their name. People may have to inquire about each others names before tossing. That person throws to a different person and so on until each person has caught and thrown the socks. The last person will toss to the group leader. Use the same pattern as the first time and add 2 more pair of socks. There will be laughter and cross tossing with names shouted across the circle and anticipation of their turn. (Karen DeBord)
Tote Bag –
Have a tote bag filled with a variety of items, tape, eraser, toys, birth control (depending on audience), sea shell, pictures or post cards of mountains, beaches or other places, a vacation ticket, pencil, measuring tape, camera, calculator, money, etc. Just use your imagination and add to it.
At the beginning of the session pour the items on a table and ask them to choose an item. After they return to their place, ask them to tell name and any other information you want and why they chose that particular item.
(1) ie- Tape – “I wish I could start over or pause, or record all of the events of life.”
(2) Sea shell- reminds me of beach – good times, vacation, good or bad memories.
(3) Birth Control – I wish I had used birth control to prevent being a parent so early.
(4) Eraser – I wish I could erase everything in my life and start over.
This ice breaker is excellent to get feelings or excite without them really realizing it.
(Lucille Carter)
Name Tags
Equipment
* Sticky name tags for each person
* Markers
To Play
Distribute a name tag to everyone and ask them to draw a picture of something on their name tag that would depict something about them. Stick figures are acceptable.
M&M’s
Pass a bowl of M&M’s around to everyone. Ask everyone to take as many M&M’s as they need (around 5 – 10 depending on how many you purchased), but don’t eat them yet. After the bowl goes around the room to everyone. Ask everyone to introduce themselves and tell the group something about them for each M&M they took from the bowl. It could be their name, age, number of children, their name & ages, hobbies, interests, etc. (Georgia Kight)
Toilet Tissue Pass
Pass around a roll of toilet tissue and ask everyone to take as much as they’ll need. After the roll has been shared with everyone, ask everyone to introduce self and say a positive thing about themselves for each sheet of tissue they have. They could tell about their family. This could also be used to list the different jobs/roles they have in the family or list the positive things about their family members. (Georgia Kight)
Scrambled Valentines
Unscrambling words can be a great group starter for any program. Just change the words to match your theme!
Equipment
* Pencil and prepared sheet for each player
To Play
Each participant tries to unscramble these Valentine’s Day (or other theme) related words.
l. AYDNC (CANDY)
2. ORLVE (LOVER)
3. EVLNNTAIE (VALENTINE)
4. SOSRE (ROSES)
5. WORSELF (FLOWERS)
6. TTEHWEASRE (SWEETHEART)
7. STARHE (HEARTS)
8. PCDUE (CUPID)
9. SATCCOEOLH (CHOCOLATES)
10. ARMNOCE (ROMANCE)
Penny Pondering
No longer will you take a mere penny for granted! There’s a lot to a penny when you stop to examine it!
Equipment
* Prepared question sheet and pencil for each participant
* Penny for each participant
To Play
As participants arrive, hand each one a pencil, a penny, and the prepared question sheet. On a Lincoln head penny locate the following:
l. A serving of corn (ear)
2. A fruit (date)
3. A type of flower (two lips)
4. A type of hot or cold beverage (“T” or tea)
5. Large body of salt water (“C” or sea)
6. A rabbit (hair)
7. Part of a needle (eye)
8. Part of a stream, as it enters a river (mouth)
9. A messenger is… (one cent, or one sent)
10. A sacred place (temple)
11. Wooden part of railroad tracks (tie)
12. The side of a road (shoulder)
Active Learning
Round Robin
Before the learning session, post easel paper around the room with markers hanging from tape at each poster. Have one question per poster listed and ask participants to rotate around the room visiting each poster and making some contribution. Post enough posters to average 5 – 6 people at each one. Encourage discussions around the questions while at the poster. Highlight responses when they have finished. Questions should be open-ended and may include any questions related to the topic at hand. Suggested questions: What is the role of a parent? What is the role of school in society? Why do we educate our children through a schooling system? What works well to help ___ (insert age of child you are addressing) children learn self-control? What is the most important part of being a parent? (Karen DeBord)
Toys And Play Doh
Gather groupings of toys to put at each table for shared play. This works particularly well for parents learning about preschool child development. Parents get into playing and learn new ways to relate to their child. Ask parents to focus on an aspect of child development while playing then summarize while introducing new points after playtime. Focus point could be “Think about how these toys can be used to teach concepts to children;” or :Think about ways parents can interact with their children through these toys;” or “What aspects of stress in children can these toys help to address?” Good toys to select include legos, blocks, small cars, play doh, stencils, puppets, good books, paint and paper, glerch and goop.
(see Creativity in children fact sheet for recipe). (Karen DeBord)
Baby Blocks
This activity is for parents of infants. Draw large 3-D blocks on construction paper. On each, label with activities the parents would do with the child: talking to baby, cuddling, laughing with, feeding, changing diapers, singing, reading, etc. Have 12-15 blocks. Make 3 headings on construction paper: emotional and social development, intellectual development, physical development. Have participants put the blocks under the correct heading. This works well with flannel board too. Some activities will overlap. (Marna Holland)
Developmental Milestones
Make charts with age ranges listed on them: Newborn – 1 year old, 2-3 years old, 4-5 years old, 6-7 years old, etc. Select ages you will be addressing in learning session. Next make a list of developmental milestones. See http://www.nncc.org under child development for lists. Cut the list into slips of paper. Distribute slips of paper and have parents place the slip with the age category in which this occurs. Have discussion to reach consensus without telling anyone they are totally wrong. Let the group lead the consensus building. This works well for teen parents.
Ear Infections and Brain Development
Hand out cotton balls. Have each person put cotton in their ears and then read them a story. Hearing is distorted by the cotton to make the point of having ear infections treated in young children for proper language development without distortions. (Marna Holland)
Special Needs Children
An adaptation of the exercise above, demonstrate special learning needs by helping the participants be temporarily disabled. Tape record various household sounds to play while someone reads a story (flushing, timer, running feet, voices, blender) to demonstrate interference some children with learning disabilities have in attending to the important points and hearing noise; display an overhead of misspellings to try to get the audience to read it. This demonstrates difficulty in learning to read (dyslexia for example) when it seems simple to us (aftr u mete a gelus pirsen, yu cn lrn mre abut yeref.) Blindfolds and other variations can be added. (Karen DeBord)
The Shoebox
Adapted from the March of Dimes. To illustrate prenatal effects of substance abuse on an infant. Take a shoebox. Place a sheet of paper in it with this message: A shoebox is a very useful thing. If you smoke, you could store 30 packs of cigarettes in it. If you drink you could fit two bottles of liquor in it. But if you use any of these things while you are pregnant, your baby could be born too early and too small In which case, you could fit your baby in this box. This is a powerful message for parents. (Marna Holland)
Trash And Treasure
Wad up a piece of paper with a candy kiss inside. Let it sit in front of you while you begin then later in the session, say “Many of you think this is just a wadded up piece of paper and not worth anything and that it should be thrown away. But before you do, look inside. Look deeper to see if there is deeper use and meaning. This can be symbolic of our children (especially teens in baggy clothes), our spouses or families. (Karen DeBord)
Body Massage
Form a circle and let participants rub the person’s shoulders in front of them. Then reverse. Talk about being comfortable to touch and nurture.
Raindrops
Sit in a circle. Have participants close their eyes and listen to the sounds and to follow what you do. Begin with snapping fingers, then sliding hands back and forth, clapping, tapping all 10 fingers together, then repeat. Listen to the noise a group can make TOGETHER.
The Cost of Formula
Display a bottle of ready to drink formula (1 quart). Obtain the per ounce recommendations (from WIC) for infant feeding the first year of life. Have the class figure out the cost of formula for a year (not including baby food). This figure came to approximately $850.00 and made quite an impression on the audience about economics as well as the economy of breast-feeding. (Marna Holland)
Fish Bowl
Form 2 circles of chairs; one inner and one outer circle. Ask inner circle an open-ended question. they respond without outer circle interjecting. then they switch seats. Outer circle observes discussion and practices listening then has their turn. this is a good exercise to help parents of teens learn to listen to the arguments before forming a judgement or interrupting. (Karen DeBord)
On Being Positive
Give each person 15 slips of paper. Have them write characteristics about themselves. Pass around a trash can and have them toss slips that are negative into the trash can. Save the positive. Divide into dyads (2s) to discuss how they can build on these strengths. Variation — do the same for characteristics of their children. (Karen DeBord)
Mix And Match Information Cards
Develop matching pairs of questions and answers. These can be demographics, characteristics of parents, characteristics of children, etc. Have parents mill around and match cards to each other by finding their partner. Use partners as dyads for separate activity.
Marble Box
A method to survey the group and not single out a person. Have a small box (ie. cigar box) and put another smaller box inside and glue in place. Buy about 10 different colors of marbles or beads (they’re cheaper) and have enough of each color for the number of people in the group.
Steps
1. Ask the question you would like to have the answer to, eg., I believe it is OK to have children before you are out of high school.
Ask the group to vote: Yes – blue marble No – red marble
2. Pass the box to a person.
3. They look in the larger box and choose a marble and place it in the smaller box. It can be passed under the chin or in your lap for privacy.
4. When it has been passed to everyone and they have voted by using the marbles. The instructor opens the box to count marbles and get the results.
This is an excellent time to talk about results, make a point or teach a lesson, etc. Good if you can have local, county, state, national figures or whatever you want to compare the group with. No one ever knows how the other person voted. Once you use it in a group a few times, they will be wanting to ask questions of the group and yet not disclose personal feelings, actions, etc. (Lucille Carter)
Mixers
are activities designed to help your group members get to know one another, and to begin interacting in a non-threatening way.
Name Toss
Names. We’ve all got one. They are a part of who we are. By getting to know someone’s name, you tell that person you care about them. Even if you have to ask me my name a dozen times, I’m glad you care enough to want to know it! Here’s a simple game to help your group get to know one another’s names.
Equipment – One tennis-type ball ( or more, optional)
Formation – Have the group and leaders stand in a circle, about arm’s-length apart, facing the center.
To Play – The leader starts with the ball, states her name, then tosses the ball to the person to her left ( or right). That person says his name, and continues the ball along its way around the circle. Each person in turn says her name, until the ball returns to the leader. Hopefully, everyone has remembered at least one other person’s name. If not, pass the ball around again!
The game really gets rolling when the leader calls the name of someone in the circle, and lofts the ball to him. That person catches it, calls out someone else’s name, and tosses the ball on to her. On the game goes, with group members learning each others’ names as they go!`
Variations
After the group has tossed names around for a few minutes, add a second ball to the action. If your group is up to the challenge (or simply enjoys the chaos), add even more balls!
If your group is so large you have to divide it into several circles, ask several people from each group to move to another circle. This will help everyone get to know more people. Be sure you review names every time someone new joins your group.
Pet Peeve Pass
Equipment – A tennis ball or foam ball
Formation – Have your group sit in a tight circle.
To Play – In turn, a player says his name, then shares with the group one of his pet peeves: that is, something that really bothers him. It is amazing how many frustrations we have in common, from missing a parking meter, to choosing the “wrong” line to wait in, or having the power go out when you are about to set a new world record on a video game.
Mystery Mingler
Equipment – Several small tokens per Mystery Mingler, as many small “prizes” as you have tokens, a prearranged “Mystery Mingler” or more, depending on the size of your group.
Preparation – Estimate the number of participants, and the supply of small prizes you have available, such as lollipops, packs of gum, or new pencils. (With 20 people, you might have one Mystery Mingler pass out 5 tokens.) Before everyone arrives, select one person (or more, if your group will be large) to be the Mystery Mingler for this game. Slip him the small tokens, and in a hushed voice explain the details of their devious mission: they are to slip a token into the hand of every 10th person they shake hands with.
To Play – With your group together en masse, explain that there is a Mysterious Mingler in their midst. This unknown celebrity is extremely eccentric, and generous. To meet this person, everyone must mingle around, shaking hands with everyone else, exchanging pleasantries and polite conversation. If anyone should find a small token in his hand, simply hold on to it, and continue along as if nothing had happened. Allow the group to begin their mingling. After several minutes of socializing, ask anyone who has a token to come forward. (If there are not as many people stepping forward as there were tokens to be given out, let the mingling continue.) Once all the tokens have been accounted for, reveal the Mystery Mingler to a round of enthusiastic applause! Then invite those holding tokens to exchange them for their prizes.
Allow Me to Introduce to You…
To Play – Ask your group members to pair up with someone they have just met, or someone that they do not know well. Have pairs position themselves around the room, so they can talk together comfortably. Each person is to find out a little about the other person, so they can introduce them to the rest of the group. Suggested topics of conversation could include: name, home town, year in school, hobbies, sports, favorite subjects, favorite animals, and the like. After giving each partner 3 to 4 minutes to talk, bring the group back together, and have them sit in a circle. In turn, each person stands and introduces their partner to the group.
This is an especially effective get-=to-know-you activity for groups who will be meeting together repeatedly, such as series of classes. It helps speed the process of finding people with similar interests within the group. Every person is unique and interesting. And after this activity, you’ll have things to talk about with each other.
I Say, It’s a Beautiful Day!
Formation – Seat in a circle
To Play – The leader begins by turning to the person sitting next to her, and says loudly, “I, Annette, say, “It’s a beautiful day!” That person then turns to the person on the other side of him, and says loudly enough for everyone to hear, “Annette told me, Roger, that ‘It’s a beautiful day!'” The message is passed around the circle, with each person adding his or her name to the list as it moves along. Since the objective of this game is to learn each other’;s names, it is OK to help a fellow player out by prompting her on a forgotten name. Once everyone has had a turn, you might want to challenge someone to give everyone’s name. Then move on to another activity, and enjoy the beautiful day!
Newspaper Delivery
Equipment – Large stack of newspapers for each team, approximately 50 feet of rope.
Formation – Divide your group in two. Place half of the group on each side of the rope, which has been strung across the middle of the playing area, at a height of 4 feet.
To Play – Give each team a sizable stack of old newspapers. On “Go,” team members begin crumpling up sheets of newspaper, and “deliver’ them over the rope to the opposite team. Simultaneously, the opposing team is doing their best to “deliver” their newspapers, as well as returning any that may have been sent over by the other team.
After three or four minutes, call for a cease fire. The team with the least amount of crumpled up newspaper on their side is declared the winner. Follow up this game with a Paper Bag Stuff. See which team can stuff their newspaper wads into paper bags faster. Then recycle them! (Georgia Kight)
Newspaper Puzzler
Equipment – A sheet of newspaper for each team, from which shapes have been cut. Save the cutouts. Make 5 or 6 cutouts per page. Use similar designs for all the sheets. For example, cut out several stars, hearts, or snowflake designs from each sheet. (This is most easily done by making a fold in the paper, and cutting out as one would Valentine’s hearts.) Make a few extra cutout pieces from other newspaper sheets.
Formation – Divide your group into teams of 5 or 6. Have them line up relay style. Scatter the cutouts from ALL of the newspapers (and a few extra cutouts) in an area approximately 30 feet from the starting line.
To Play – Give one person from each team a sheet of newspaper with cutout holes. On “Go,” other team members run up to the area where the cutouts are scattered. They may each bring back only one, which they hand to the holder of the newspaper. This person checks to see if the piece fits. If it does, great. If not, the person who brought it must take it back to the pile, and select another piece.
The first team to successfully complete their newspaper puzzle wins! (Georgia Kight)
“Do This” Mixer
Formation – To begin, have your group stand in a circle. Once directions are given, they will scatter.
To Play – Every person whispers to the person to her right a command, which they are to carry out with three different people. For example, a person may be requested to untie and retie three people’s shoes, or propose to three different people, or sing them a song, give back-rubs, or simply shake their hands and introduce themselves. A bit of bedlam to begin your program can be loads of fun!
The Yarn Game
Equipment – Two equal size balls of yarn (one each of two different colors), cut into 6″ pieces.
Formation – Split your group in half, assemble both teams on one end of the room, and assign each group a color. At the far end of the room, scatter the pieces of yarn, mingling the two colors.
To Play – The rules are simple: you have 3 minutes to gather your team’s color yarn pieces, and tie them together to make as long a strand of yarn as you can. Ready? Go!
At the end of three minutes, have all players stop tying. Stretch out the strands of yarn, and see which is the longer.
Forming Teams
Sometimes you need to get your participants more comfortable working as a team. Here are a few ideas to get them thinking about their group as a team.
Line up
Ask your participants to line up according to their birth date January through December. Then number off 1 – 6 for 6 groups, 1-4 for four groups, etc. Variation: When participants line up ask them to do so without talking.
You could even start off easy by just asking them to line up according to shortest to tallest or youngest to oldest.
Ideas For Choosing Teams
* Line up your group tallest to shortest. Then count off by the number of teams you want to have (1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3).
* Line up the group guy/gal/guy/gal. Have the group count off by fours. The 1’s and 2’s become one team, and the 3’s and 4’s another.
* Divide up the group according to birth months (January, February, and March together: April, May, and June: and so on.).
* Group them according to the color of shirts/clothes, favorite color, etc.
* You might want to “randomly” divide the team yourself, by handing out team indicators yourself. This would allow you to even out the teams in terms of physical ability or some other characteristic. Team indicators could include:
– Different flavored pieces of gum.
– Candy pieces wrapped in different colored foil.
– Balloons of as many different colors as you want teams.
– Strips of flagging tape or ribbon to use as headbands or armbands.
Team Building and Affirmation
The objective is to encourage group interaction and interdependency. Team builders are activities in which everyone’s participation is required to accomplish the task at hand.
Through The Hoop
Equipment – A Hula-Hoop, Stack of newspapers
Formation – Line your group up single file, shoulder to shoulder, an arm’s length apart. Give each player a sheet or two of newspaper.
To Play – Roll the Hula-Hoop in front of the long line of players. As it goes by, players throw a crumpled up wad of newspaper at it, attempting to throw one through the hoop. Score a point for each successful shot. Tally the points, and see if your group can do better the next time!
Spaghetti Structures
Equipment – One 8 ounce box of thick spaghetti per team, 25 wooden toothpicks per team, 50 small gumdrops per team
Formation – Divide your group into teams of 3 or 4 each. Scatter these teams around the room, either on the floor, or at tables or desks.
To Play – Give each team a box of spaghetti, toothpicks, and gumdrops. Tell them they have 10 minutes to build as high as structure as they can. they may use only the materials given, and the structure must be freestanding.
At the end of 10 minutes, have everyone go around and look at al the structures. then come together and discuss what happened. Ask how they decided on how to build their structures. Did they work together well? What was frustrating about the project? What did they learn?
Simple Household Items
Equipment – A variety of simple household items, easel paper, marker
Formation – Divide into teams of 4 each.
To Play – Give each group one household item and ask them to list as many uses for this item as they can think of and write the list on the sheet of easel paper. Remind them to be creative and stretch their imagination. Realize that there are more than 1 use for items.(Georgia Kight)
Bumper Stickers
Equipment – Plain white self-adhesive paper, cut into 4″ x 12″ strips, enough for one each, plus extras, variety of colored permanent markers, scrap paper for developing designs and for protecting the table from permanent marks, pencils for sketching designs
To Play – Lay out the materials on a table, and give the participants 5 minutes to design a bumper sticker that communicates something about themselves. You may opt to have them begin their bumper stickers with “I (Heart Symbol)…”
After participants have finished their creations, sit in a circle, and allow each person to show their bumper stickers, and explain what they are trying to communicate about themselves.
Self Sculptures
Equipment – Modeling clay, enough for each person to have a hockey puck size piece.
To Play – Sit your group in a circle, and hand each person a piece of clay. Give them 3 to 5 minutes to form the clay into something that represents one aspect of themselves. In turn, allow players to share what their sculpture is, and what it represents about themselves. (Georgia Kight)
Nutty Questionnaire
Equipment – Pencil and prepared sheet of paper per participant
Formation – Randomly seated, or seated at tables.
To Play – Distribute pencils and prepared sheets to all participants. See how many “nuts” they can identify from the list below.
l. A part of a room nut? (Walnut)
2. A green vegetable nut? (Peanut)
3. What nut is beside the sea? (Beechnut)
4. An uncooked bread nut? (Doughnut)
5. A nut from a dairy product? (Butternut)
6. A nut with a girls’ name? (Hazelnut)
7. A storage container nut? (Chestnut)
8. A crunchy cereal? (Grapenuts)
9. A hot drink? (Cocoanut)
10. A brief, concise statement? (Nutshell)
11. A spicy nut? (Nutmeg)
12. A bird? (Nuthatch)
13. A ballet? (Nutcracker)
14. Craziness? (Nutty)
15. An evergreen nut? (Pine nut)
CLOSURE
Poem or Reading (See Appendix)
Retype with a border to give to each person at the end of the learning session.
* I believe in children
* Some children are
* I learned it all in Kindergarten
* Unity
End with Excerpt from a Good Children’s Book
Seuss, Oh the Places You will go
The wise woman and her secret
Quotes
“Parenthood remains the greatest single preserve of the amateur “. (Alvin Toffler)
“Children are the people who will carry on what you have started”.
“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future”. (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
“To teach is to learn twice over”. (Joseph Joubert)
Your Children are not your Children
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through but not from you.
And though they are with you, yet they do not belong to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies, but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward not tarries with yesterday.
Quote from Leo Bascaglia – (Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet)
Summary Thoughts
I tried to teach my child with books
He only gave me puzzled looks
I tried to teach my child with words
They passed him by often unheard
Despairingly I turned aside
“How shall I teach this child?” I cried
Into my hand, he put the key
“Come, he said, play with me.” — Anonymous
Child of All Nations
I saw a beautiful child today,
representing our future generation
with other little friends
from the corners of every nation.
Skin of mahogany, hair corn-rowed,
God chose each child
and placed him here.
To teach him the principles of life,
with a prayer and a smile,
our awesome task begins.
Our failures bring fear and strife.
On our knees, we ask forgiveness,
ask for guidance, say amen.
Little trusting eyes and face so innocent
mirrored there, love enough to fill the deepest sea.
Our loving concern
must encompass children everywhere,
We, Your people must answer their plea.
For a world of peace and people who care.
by Dorothy Shaw Melton
Paper Bag Summary
Place several symbolic items in a paper bag to present to each person symbolizing their role. Some items to include are: sponge (absorb a lot of frustration and can wring it out to start fresh), candy (sweet when there is sour), toothpick (pick and choose arguments), gum (for a breath of fresh air), bandaid (for hurt feelings, to repair disputes), paperclip (to hold things together), matches (to keep a light burning — communication), tissues (to wipe the tears of joy or grief), cotton balls (put one in each ear to block the sibling arguments or hurtful words), button (your lip when necessary), lifesaver (spurt of energy). (NEAFCS )
Reference
The Game Finder A Leader’s Guide to Great Activities by Annette C. Moore. Venture Publishing, Inc. State College, PA.
Thanks to the Family & Consumer Education Agents and Human Development Specialists for their contributions.