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We have a great dinner game called 'Rose and Thorn' to encourage families to discuss their day and share their feelings. Bonus: The game develops communication skills.



Steps
:

1. Explain the game 'Rose and Thorn' you are going to play with your family. The Rose in the title  is something great that happened in your day, and the Thorn is something upsetting that happened in your day.

2. The first person to speak shares the Rose and the Thorn of their day with everyone. 

3. Continue on until each person has had an opportunity to share their Rose and Thorn.

We hope that this game plants a bed of roses in your home, and helps you avert any pain from the thorns. 


 
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Jo-Anne's youngest child takes the credit for coming up with this fun word game, that can be enjoyed at a family meal, in the car, as a class activity and more. It develops spelling skills and encourages vocabulary building at the same time.


Steps
:

1. The person who goes first, announces the word ending and spelling that everyone must try to match with a word suggestion on their turn, for example -ight (night, right, sight, fight, light, flight).

2. The game proceeds in a clockwise direction with each person stating a word that ends in the suggested ending, in this case -ight.

3. When a participant can no longer think of a word at their turn, she or he is out.

4. The last person to suggest a word is the winner.

5. The spelling is more important than the sound, so weight could also be used for an -ight ending.

Really everyone wins at this game because it can be so much fun.

* Family tested and approved.

 
In Creative IQ (TM): Giving Young Learners the Creative Edge in a Competitive World, there is a delicious recipe for Calzones on page 144 of the A Camping We Will Go! chapter. It calls for one pound of pizza dough to make the process as quick and easy as possible.

However, if you would like to add to the experience by creating your own dough, we found a great one that comes together easily and tastes delicious. In fact, it has been picky eater approved. ;)

See http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Real-Italian-Calzones/Detail.aspx for the dough portion and follow the filling instructions in the book.

Bon Appetit!