I picked up this book by Brian Schulenburg at a church sponsored event. It is an incredibly fun book. It is a Christian based book, but does not have to be used this way if you don’t want to.
Sometimes our kids can be very hard to reach, and nearly impossible to get them to open up. This book helps that. It is designed to be used for teenagers, but Hannah loves to “play” along with it, and often asks if we can do the “pick 3” game.
The book has 500 questions, and each person takes a turn answering what their top three things are for that question. It has become a favorite game for long road trips for us.
Some of the questions are very trivial, and others are more in depth or faith based. Here are some examples in all ranges:
134 – Nail polish colors
182 – Wonders of the World
256 – Pieces of advice you’d give about relationships
328 – Friends’ homes you’d want to live in
383 – Things that bug you about the bible
484 – Activities you wish your church would offer
You can get as silly or as serious as you want. You can add in questions that are not in the book, or some of these questions may lead to some serious discussion. I like that you can quickly slip from funny to serious and back again. You can take the questions in order, pick random questions, or gather a list of questions you think would fit the situation or child.
If you have, or have ever had a difficult to reach child, you know how difficult it can be to have ANY kind of conversation, much less one that is heartfelt.
Playing along allows you to set the tone of the event. If you’re riding in the car and there are several other children, maybe you don’t want to ask the “tough” questions. If there are just two of you, maybe that’s the time to try.
When kids from five years old to fourteen years old enjoy this game, you know you’re onto something. Some questions are over Hannah’s head so we just skip her, but we really encourage her to play along. It is a great family event, and a book I highly encourage buying.
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What a GREAT idea!! I am going to try that with my son. :0)
- Faith
I just talked to Love Muffin. He leads our church youth group, and is interested in possibly incorporating this into the program. Thanks for the tip! it looks like it would be a good springboard for discussion.
Love the idea! Will use it at our dinner table…’top 3′ depending on what’s happening at home. Can’t wait to try it tonight….Hugs, Elaine
We have this one. I LOVE it for working with my kids. It’s fun for all of us – and they don’t realize that we’re actually doing difficult work of relationship building.
The same publisher (not sure about author) makes several “would you rather” books, giving two scenarios and asking you to pick one.
BTW, we picked this up at a church when we went to hear the African Children’s Choir perform. We are not at all affiliated with the church – although we do have a strong religious affiliation elsewhere – and these books have been great for us. So don’t let the basic religious nature turn you off, if that’s an issue for you.