International Day of Families

Sunday May 15 is International Day of Families. Are you looking for something fun to do with your children, grandchildren or extended family that day?

Why not play games, go geo-caching, catch a movie, grab an ice cream in the park...use your imagination and go on a Genealogy Cemetery Hunt.

It's a great opportunity to talk to your children or granchildren about your family tree.

Family Fun Day!

 Today is our Annual Family Fun Day! I forget how long I've been hosting these, but at least 12 years.

We usually get about 30 family for it which isn't bad considering that every year we lose a few of the older generation. In fact, I am now part of  "the older generation"!

Today our youngest attendee will be my niece's one month old son, and our oldest will be my 90 year old aunt. I can't wait to get a photo of them together.

There's always tons of games and activities - both planned and free choice. Living on 100 acres allows us to put out lots of events that family can play or not as they choose. So we have things like archery, horseshoes, croquet, frisbee, football... some years we even have a golf driving range of sorts. (a few old clubs, a lot of golf balls, stand at the top of a small hill in one of our fields and you've got a driving range)

Every year I organize either a Scavenger Hunt (confined to two acres around the house) or an Amazing Race type event. These photos are from the Amazing Genealogy Race event we had a couple of years ago. That's right - I made sure every event was linked to an actual event that affected one of my ancestors

This year we're having an Eggsalent Adventure Scavenger Hunt with a couple of twists.

If you want to read about some of my former Family Fun Day ideas and activities, just click on Family Fun Day and Family Reunion

And now, I'm off to help hide those eggs!

Games for Our Annual Family Fun Day!

It's that time of year again. As many of my readers know, every year I plan and organize what I call a Family Fun Day. Friends and family are invited to join us for a day of activities, games and chit-chat.

Every year I have a different theme. Here's my genealogy theme that I incorporated in 2012. Games for Annual Family Fun Day

Here's some of my ideas for planning a Family Fun Day (aka Family Reunion) Planning a Family Fun Day aka Family Reunion 

And a few more ideas: Genealogy Games For a Family Reunion: Race Events & Eggs (Part 3)

This year, due to some health issues, I am going a bit more low key. I'm organizing a Scavenger Hunt with a couple of twists thrown in. We have various colours of take-apart plastic eggs and these will be hidden on the property.

The first thing family has to do is find their team partner. Sometimes I use pictures of animals and when the signal is given, each person has to find their matching animal. They can show their picture, yell out the name of their animal or start making that animal's sound.

I try to come up with a different way of finding team members each year and this year I've created math questions! Yep. I created simple math questions (2+2=?, 12/6=? etc) Each person has to solve their math question then look for another person whose answer to THEIR math question is the same! This should be amusing to watch.

As soon as each person finds their partner, they will race to where a line of hula hoops is laid out on the ground. I call this activity the Froggy Jump. Using one hula hoop, each person in turn tosses it ahead and jumps or steps into it. They must lift the hula hoop over their body and toss it ahead, then step into it and so on until they reach the finish line. At the finish line, my husband will be waiting to hand them the instructions for the scavenger hunt.

Teams of two have to find one of each colour PLUS one multi-coloured egg which I made by putting different coloured halves together. The multi-coloured eggs will contain instructions for one event which must be completed before teams race to the finish line with their eggs. The event that teams must complete is to head to the field where our pot-belly pigs are kept.

I have Canadian flags to put out to mark where teams are to go. Once there, they take one scoop of pig food and call our pigs, enticing them with the food. The goal is to count the pigs and believe me it's not an easy task as they don't exactly stand still to be counted! The next part of this event is memory based as teams must remember the total number of pigs until they have collected all their eggs and have run home.

I think this is going to be a lot of fun and plan to take lots of photos. Cross your fingers for sun that day because if it rains we will not be doing any of these fun things.

Christmas Gift Ideas: Outsmart Game For the Family

Recently Olive Tree Genealogy was given a free game called OUTSMART to review.

My husband and I tried it out first and it was a lot of fun. Then we had friends over and the four of us played for several hours! Marketed as a children's game, it definitely appeals to adults too.

Basically you have cards (there are hundreds of them in the game) with questions. We had such questions as "Who are the main characters in Peter Pan?" and "Name the  characters, other than the four main ones, on Seinfield" and "What were the largest grossing movies in 2010" and "What actors have played Batman?" The questions are on varied topics - there were several sports questions and other topics besides sports, movies and t.v. shows.

One question that had us all chuckling was "What are the top 10 New Year's Resolutions" Oh, and a rather easy-sounding one that turned out to be a challenge, was "What are the most-ordered dishes in a Chinese Food Restaurant"

Each question card notes how many correct answers there are.  One player each turn is the reader and that player takes a question card and inserts it into a sleeve. The sleeve reveals only the top half of the card so that only the question is displayed.

A roll of the dice indicates the maxium number of points (correct answers) each player can score.

An hourglass shaped timer starts the round and each player writes down as many answers as they can think of. When time is up, the first player reads one of his/her answers. Anyone else having that same answer crosses it off and cannot score for it if it is one of the correct answers.

Players continue in turn with their answers. Only the first player to say an answer scores IF that answer is correct.

When all players are done giving their responses to the question, the player who read the question takes it out of its sleeve and reads off the correct answers at the bottom of the card.

We surprised ourselves by doing a lot of laughing and slapping of foreheads as correct answers were read. Our ages ranged from 40 to 68 and we loved it!

I am excited to have our grandchildren play this game with us. It's going to be a lot of fun and a good bonding time. So even though this game isn't genealogy-themed I think it's a great one to give as a Christmas gift to your grandchildren or children. We are going to keep ours here for the grandkids to play with us when they visit.






Remember - any bonding fun family time with your children or grandchildren is an opportunity that we genealogists shouldn't ignore. A night of fun playing a game can lead to talk about ancestors or family or family treasures, and that's always a good thing too.

Manufacturer suggests that OutSmart is for ages 8 and up. You can find the game  at  www.outsmartgame.ca   The OutSmart game is  available at Toys R Us in Canada Ltd. and  other distributors for only $19.99 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this game in exchange for trying it out and writing a review. I was not told what to say and was not paid any money. My opinion is entirely my own.     

 

Family Fun Day in Pouring Rain - Yes it Can Be Done!

Well, our annual Family Fun Day (aka Family Reunion) was this past Saturday. It poured rain almost all day so I had to hold it inside our house. That called for some last minute revisions of games, events and the meal!

But guess what? As horrifying as it first was to figure out how 30 people were going to fit into our home, and be entertained, and fed at tables (I don't like people eating on couches and antique chairs), it worked!

I still had everyone wear an ancestor name tag and find their matching ancestor spouse for a partner for the games. Then I placed the 10 objects on the coffee table and gave a 2 minute time period to study and memorize them. I learned the hard way that 2 minutes is way too long as almost every team got it right at the end. In future I'd give a one minute time limit or more objects.

After they studied the objects we covered them and handed out a 10 question multiple choice quiz. This was funny because the questions were all about my husband and I! So whoever knew us best would score well.

I noticed a lot of cheating going on (One of the grandchildren called it research, not cheating) with folks looking at other people's questions for answers.

After the quiz was done, we had a 10 question oral math round. As a former teacher I should have known better, but I told the teams to yell out their answers and first team with right answer would get one point. Big mistake. Because I made the questions super easy, there were many simultaneous shouts of answers and it became impossible to know who said it first. But it made for a lot of laughter.

And really it wasn't very fair as I taught Math in High School and guess what both my sons are amazing at? Yep - Math. So I kind of figured they'd score well for their teams and they did, with the most points. Good thing my daughter was late arriving or she'd have been a strong contender because she too is a math whiz.

Anyway it was fun but we had a tie between the two teams both my sons were on. I had to come up with a quick tie breaker so I played one song from my iPhone and whoever got the name of the song and the artist would win. I chose Stereo Hearts by Adam Levine and Gym Class Heroes so that made it tricky as they both kept guessing Maroon 5 as the group! Cheating almost won the day as one team tried to Shazam the song using their iPhone for the answer.

Seating for the meal was fine - we brought up portable tables and a card table, and used the mudroom, dining room, living room and entertainment room to set places. No one complained so I think it went well.

All in all a good time was had and the last family member left at 9 pm (it started at 1 pm). And yes I'll do it again next year even though I was exhausted and sore and aching everywhere by the time it was over. But that's okay as I rested up all day on Sunday. I'm already planning the 2013 Family Fun Day.

Games for a Family Fun Day

Well it's that time again. In a month I have my annual Family Fun Day coming up. We always have a team event with prizes and lots of activities to choose from and this year I was having trouble coming up with something new.

I've created Scavenger Hunts, Genealogy Races, Amazing Race Genealogy style and more. But I wanted something new and something a little less work. Finally I've got a plan thanks to a little story my youngest son told me of a Military challenge he participated in! All I have to do was tweak it for my family and add a genealogy twist.

The basic idea is that I'll place 10 to 12 objects on a table in our shed and cover them with a sheet. The objects will have some kind of genealogy aspect to them - perhaps a photo of Great Grandma Simpson, the toast rack she owned, a family bible, etc. I might throw in non-genealogy objects such as a kitchen colander or a shovel - ordinary items you'd find in or around your home.

Family members will be partnered by finding their match to an Ancestor card I'll give each person when they arrive. The object is to race to the shed, study and memorize the objects then participate in 3 games of skill before heading to the last event. At the last event teams will write down what objects they saw in the shed. If they're wrong they go back to the shed and start over.

The 3 games of skill will be simple but will break their concentration, making it harder to retain what they've memorized. The games I've decided on are:

1. Toss a frisbee through a hanging hula hoop. Not as easy as it sounds.

2. Toss a ball into a hula hoop lying on the ground

3. Run to the pig pen and taking one scoop from a pail of food, toss it over the fence to entice the pigs out of their barn. Team members must call out "Piggy piggy oink oink oink" as they toss the food (hubs will be there to monitor the calling). The task is to count all our pigs. 

I am laughing already thinking of my family completing task #3.

Planning a Family Fun Day aka Family Reunion

Are you having a family reunion this year? I have one every summer. We call them Family Fun Days because I want everyone to have fun. Every year I plan a different team activity. 

Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunts are popular. They're the easiest to set up. I have my family work with a partner. They don't choose their own partner, instead I have different ways for them to find one. Sometimes they have ancestor cards and have to find the person who has the matching card. Or they are given pictures of farm animals and have to find their partner match by making the animal sound.

Amazing Genealogy Race
Last year I created a Genealogy themed race. It was a version of the Amazing Race but each activity teams went to was based on a real event that happened to one of our ancestors. This required posters with instructions for each event, as well as hiding clues in plastic eggs, and arranging for referees at each event. It was super fun and hilariously funny but tons of work so I won't do that one again any time soon!

This year I'm debating creating another Scavenger Hunt but this time giving it a genealogy twist. I haven't worked out all the details yet but I've got two months to think about it.

Fun & Games
It's great to have one organized game with a prize for the winner(s) but you also want to let your family just talk and enjoy themselves. My rule of thumb is that the race or the Scavenger Hunt should not take more than an hour, but I aim for 45 minutes.

I put out lots of activities such as hula hoops, foam lawn darts, golf clubs, croquet set, football and so on. We also clean out the horseshoe pit and hubs makes sure the ATV is gassed up and ready to go.

Our ATV holds two small children on the back seat plus hubs driving, and I think it's the favourite part of the day for the grandchildren!

If you're running your Fun Day alone, you need to be super-organized. Here's a few tips that might help.

What do you do for your Family Fun Days?

Family Fun Day - Let the Games Begin!

Family Fun Day was Saturday. It was a record day heat-wise - 32' Celsius and humid with no breeze. Phew. We had lots of water on hand although every family member and friend brought plenty to keep themselves hydrated. We had a turnout of 26 (7 of those were children aged 3 to 9)  as a few who were slated to come had to opt out at the last minute.

I like to let folks mingle for about an hour and then we start the organized games. The events were all genealogy themed and based on an actual event in an ancestor's life. See  Part 1 , Part 2 ,  Part 3 and Part 4 of this series of Genealogy Games for a family reunion. Finally I can tell you about the actual events!

Wampum Central

Found the beads!

Wampum Central.  Based on our Dutch ancestor Cornelis Van Slyke in New Netherland (New York) in 1637. Wampum was used as money instead of paper or coin. Teams had to find two red, two black, one green and one white bead buried in a wading pool full of corn. Then they had to string the beads on to a piece of embroidery thread, add a guinea feather and show Cornelis Van Slyke (played by me) to get their egg and next clue. At this event, the children jumped into the wading pool and were covered in white corn powder by the time they found their beads.


Apple Alimony. Based on my ancestor Albert Andriessen de Noorman who was ordered by the courts in 1680s to pay his ex-wife Geertruy 80 bushels of apples yearly as alimony.  Teams had to take a small plastic basket and fill it with apples from our apple trees then find Geertruy (played by my 87 year old auntie!) for their next egg and clue.

Eileen Vollick Flight School. Based on our cousin's achievement of becoming the first woman in Canada to get a pilot's licence in 1917. Teams had to toss frisbees (which I decorated with photos of Eileen in her flight uniform and plane) through a swinging hula hoop.

The Deer

The Shooters

Deer Run. Based on our Mohawk ancestors Ots-Toch and her son It-sy-cho-sa-quach-ka (his non native name was Jacques Van Slyke). We set out nerf guns and a nerf bow and arrow as well as small brightly coloured rubber balls. Teams had to stand behind the coloured ropes and watch for deer (played by my husband who hid behind a shed and scampered out to dart and weave and taunt the shooters). A direct hit by any weapon on the table earned them their next egg and clue. A great favourite with adults and children alike!

  Steve Peer Niagara Falls Tightrope Walk. Based on my great grandfather's cousin who walked Niagara Falls on a tightrope. Teams had to walk across 3 planks raised about 6 inches from the ground.

Carrying the Babies

Obstacle Tires

Mary Vollick's Escape From New York. Based on my Loyalist ancestor's wife flight from New York during the American Revolution. American patriots turned her and her 10 small children out of their home, burned the house to the ground then marched her into the woods several miles and left her there. She managed to get all of her children to safety in Montreal Canada. Teams had to carry 10 stuffed animals to safety through an obstacle course. The catch was that only one team member could carry the stuffed animals but the entire team had to complete the course.

Tee for Two. A golf maze based on Scottish ancestors. I set out croquet wickets and buried small cups in the ground. Teams had to use a tiny children's golf set to get their golf ball from the starting point, through the wickets and into the cup at the end.
  

Grenade Event

Grenade Event

WW2 Grenade Training. Based on my dad's service in WW2. Teams wore toy helmets and tossed toy grenades into a hula hoop on the ground. The children loved this game!
  
Ancestor Match. A puzzle game. I printed off 24 head and shoulder shots of ancestors and baby photos of some of those attending Family Fun Day, then printed out 26 names. Teams had to match names to photos.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and after we had all cooled down, we had our corn roast with barbeque chicken and hot dogs plus salads and desserts. Then the children went frog hunting at one of our smaller ponds and ended their day with ATV rides with my husband. Lots of fun and I can hardly wait til next year to do it again.

Ten Tips for a Successful Family Reunion

Your Family Reunion day has arrived. You're hosting it. Are you ready? Or are you starting to panic? I host Family Reunions (we call them Family Fun Days) every year and I've learned a lot from my earlier mistakes.

Here are ten tips and guidelines that might help you survive.  Just remember that the key is organization! And everyone attending wants to have fun. So relax but stay organized.

1. Create a guest list, send out invites well ahead of the actual date of your reunion and keep track of who is coming and who isn't. Contact guests a week ahead to remind them.

2. Plan your food and decide who is bringing what - is it a potluck? Are you providing everything? Be specific in your invitations so that guests know what is expected of them.

3. Plan your activities and games. Keep  children in mind. Perhaps you want to provide games and goody bags specifically for  youngsters. 

4.  Create a Timeline for your Family Reunion.  Set a start and end time, then assign blocks of time to certain activities such as eating, organized games, free time, cleanup etc. These are flexible but as the host or hostess you need to keep things moving so you need a timeline.

Let's  say your Family Reunion is going to run from 1 to 6 pm.  Your timeline might look like this:

11 am set up games and activities outside
12 noon Pop and water in coolers, chips and nibbles out on patio
1 pm Guests arrive. Potluck food goes in fridges
1-2 pm Guests mingle, look at family charts and play games if they want
2 pm - 3 pm Scavenger Hunt (an organized activity)
3 pm - start the fire for the corn roast, get family members to help shuck corn
3:30 pm start barbeque
4 pm Supper (corn, hot dogs, hamburgers)
4:30 Coffee and tea
5 pm Cleanup
6 pm Guests leave

Your timeline can be as detailed or as basic as you want but having one will help keep you on track.

5. Create a master plan for your reunion. This is the list of all games, activities and food you are providing. I also like to have sketches of where things go.

For example for our Family Fun Day this year I'm organizing an Ancestor Race and there are several events that have to be set up that morning. So I made a rough sketch of our house and property with the location of each event shown.  I also have pails labelled with the name of the event and filled with whatever items are needed for that event. That will make it easy for whoever might be helping me set the events up to grab a pail, check my sketch, and get things ready without asking me questions.

6. Make a TO DO list for the week before your reunion. This is where you will note what foods you need to buy, what food prep you have to do (if any) and when, when you are going to tidy and clean your bathrooms and have extra toilet paper and hand towels ready, and all other miscellaneous tasks that might get forgotten or left to the last minute.

Example: My TO DO list for the week prior to my family reunion might look like this:

Monday: Grocery Shopping
Tuesday: Find coffee urn, plastic plates and all other reunion items. Set out buckets with Scavenger Hunt or Race items ready to be hidden outside
Wednesday: Clean and tidy house. Clean all patio furniture. Put Ancestor Charts up for family to see
Thursday: Make hamburger patties. Get bathrooms ready (extra soap, towels and toilet paper out)
Friday: Buy 60 cobs of corn from local farmer. Set out game items (frisbees, football, croquet, etc).
Saturday morning: Hide Scavenger Hunt or Race items outside. Put up posters

7. Keep the little details in mind. For example are you having name tags? If yes, you need pens for your guests to fill those name tags out. Hosting a reunion is hectic and the last thing you need is to be running around hunting for pens or some other item you suddenly realize is needed.

8.  Make a detailed shopping list. What food items do you need? What about plates and cutlery? Write it all down. For example I will need hot dogs,  buns, pop, bottled water, chips, pretzels, relish, mustard, ketchup, serviettes (napkins), plastic cutlery, butter for corn,  coffee and coffee cream. I usually write out everything I need for the reunion then tick it off if I have it on hand.

9.  Organize your games. Let's say you are having a Scavenger Hunt. What items do you need for it? Write them down! You'll need bags for family to put their items in as they find them. You'll need clues so bettter get those written and printed off. Do you need to hide items? Make a note of what you are going to hide and how many and where.

10. Last but not least, have a backup plan in case of rain. Our Family Reunions seem to always get rained out. I learned the hard way that I need a plan for what to do with 35 or more people trying to fit into my house and how to set up the buffet meal that I planned to have outside until it started raining. Perhaps you will want to rent a tent in case of rain. Or maybe you have a big family room and can easily accommodate all your family if rain forces everyone inside.

I'm pretty organized for this year's Family Fun Day (one week from today!) but I'm sure something will go wrong. It always does but that's part of the fun!

Genealogy Games For a Family Reunion: Part 1

Summer's the time for family reunions. We have one every year or two at our home in the country and a Scavenger Hunt is a big part of the family fun day. But this year I'm doing something quite different. I'm creating a race - The Amazing Egg Race (this is the working title, we may change it) - which features 8 genealogy related events.

Hubs and I started brainstorming for this race about 3 months ago. Gradually it evolved into eight different events, each one based on an actual true event or life circumstance for one of my ancestors. For example, one of my cousins, a man named Stephen Peer, walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls in 1887, then later fell to his death - whether accident, suicide or murder is not known.

Poster with Flyer & Event Rules

So one of the events that teams must complete is the "Steve Peer Niagara Falls Tightrope Walk". The event will consist of a long narrow board raised about 4 to 6 inches from the ground, along which all team members must walk from one end to the other.

I don't want to give away too much information here in Olive Tree Genealogy blog, as some of my family actually read the blog! But I am creating posters on bristleboard and flyers for each event. The posters with rules and instructions for the specific event will be placed at the event location and laminated flyers taped to the poster.

Flyer for Steve Peer TIghtrope Walk

8.5 x 11 inch Flyers provide details of the specific ancestor - their births and deaths, and accomplishment that the race event is based on. I've also added pictures to hopefully generate more interest. 

An event "referee" wearing a name tag with that ancestor's name, will monitor the specific event. As each team completes an event, the team is given a coloured plastic egg. Inside the egg is their next clue which takes them to the next event. Simple!

But of course there are some surprises along the way. For instance, teams must reach the final ancestor pit stop with 9 coloured eggs and some other items which I can't mention here or it will give too much away. Let's just say that by the time teams reach one of the last events on the race, they'll be hard-pressed to figure out how they are going to complete it and manage to carry all their items and eggs to the finish line.

In future parts of this series about Genealogy Games for Family Reunions, I'll explain how teams are assembled (Spoiler: Think Ancestor Cards...), more of the events, prizes, and how to plan and organize your own Genealogy Family Fun Day.