Print a FREE Gifts of the Holy Spirit Memory Game

We've got another child preparing for Confirmation here, so, in order to help solidify the Gifts of the Holy Ghost in his mind, I whipped up a super simple printable card game that can be played in three different tried-and-true ways.

1. Concentration/Memory
(for 1 or more players)

Lay the cards words down in even rows. Then, turn two cards over to reveal what their words say. If the cards match - for example, “Fear of the Lord…” and “… fills us with a dread of sin”, keep the match, and go again. If they don’t, turn the cards back over and pass onto the next turn. If playing solo, the game ends when you have matched all cards. If playing with more players, whoever has the most card pairs at the end wins.


2. Go Fish

(for 2 or more players; if there are many players, use more sets of cards)

Lay all the cards face down as “fish in a pond”. Then, each player take three cards. Player 1 ask another play, “Do you have ____?” naming what is needed to complete the pair - so, for example, if holding “...fills us with a dread of sin”, Player 1 would ask, “Do you have Fear of the Lord? If the player asked has the card requested, the card is given to Player 1, who lays the match down. If not, the player says, “No. Go fish!”” and Player 1 takes a face down card from the “fish pond”. The next person then takes a turn asking. Play continues until all cards are matched, and the player with the most matches wins.


3. The Slap Game

(for 3 or more players)

Lay the cards that name the Gifts of the Holy Spirit face up so that the words show. Give the corresponding pairs to the caller, who draws one card and makes it a question, for example, “What fills us with a dread of sin?” In response, players compete to be the first to slap the corresponding card, for example “Fear of the Lord”. Whoever slaps the correct card gets to keep it. Then, a new clue is given by the caller. The game ends when all cards have been slapped, and whoever has the most cards at the end gets to be the next caller.

When making the cards, I purposefully went for function over eye appeal in order to save printer ink and so that my son - and anyone who chooses to print a set of cards out - can easily personalize the cards.

If you'd like to download and print your own set of Gifts of the Holy Ghost Matching Cards, click here.

You can find other complimentary printables by scrolling here.

May your child enjoy using these free cards to solidify the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in his or her mind.

Set Goals with Your Family while Playing a Game {A Homeschool Review Crew Trive Review}

 

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

I have to admit: If it were not for the Homeschool Review Crew, I never would have heard of nor tried the goal achievement and team building experience TRIVE by GOZIMUS Enterprises, LLC., a game that aims to promote family relationships, communication,  and achievement, while everyone puts their phones down to converses with, coach, and compete with one another.

Part entertainment, part teamwork, all working towards motivating participants to discover, share, and achieve personal goals through face-to-face conversations, TRIVE is a unique experience.

What Comes in the TRIVE Box?

We were all impressed with the physical quality of the TRIVE materials.

The game comes in an appealing and sturdy box which includes:

• a TRIVE instruction booklet

• 50 Goal Cards

• 50 Review Cards

• 100 Quotable Cards

• a TRIVE Leader Notebook

There is also an Online TRIVE Guide.

All of these work to help a group of 4-6 family and friends connect and achieve through a 3-step TRIVE process.

My family also found that the Quotable Cards make great quick-pick journal and impromptu speech prompts!

What Was Our Experience with TRIVE?

When I hear words like "goals," "teamwork", or "family communication," I think, You're speaking my language. Others here do not, though. Four of five like games though, so I was interested to see how my family would react to TRIVE.

Thus, after I read all the TRIVE instructions, I gathered my family for a TRIVE Discovery Session one night.

 

On the night of our Discovery Session, we each came up with three goals and, then, secretly, put a quick drawing, word, or phrase on a goal card to represent the goal.

From there, we followed the TRIVE directions to play a game where we took turns drawing Quotable cards, read the cards aloud, and guessed who had said each quote. (We had expected many older, traditional quotes, and were surprised by how many current figures were included in the Quotable cards.)

Then, we picked up random goal cards, read these aloud (or showed the sketches on them) and guessed who had penned the goal, and, finally, based upon points and conversation, paired up with coaches.

From there, we headed into the Achievement phase of the TRIVE experience, where - over the next six months- each of us is meant to work on our goals with our coaches encouraging us.  

For the first couple of days after our Discovery Session, some of our family actually began to coach and work towards goals, while others joked about it all. 

Sadly, too soon for my liking, efforts petered out, so I am not sure if it will be worth us continuing onto the Review Session where final discussion, assessment, scoring, etc. is done. For, while I would love to have this work for my family, it is clear that - at present- we just are not a good TRIVE, or group of friends or family members discovering, sharing and achieving personal goals through face-to-face conversations.

In fact, when I asked each member of our TRIVE for their thoughts, my 14-year-old - who tends to like personal goal setting and games, but also likes things to be clear cut, said:

I didn't really like using TRIVE the way it was meant to be used, but I did like to use the cards with the quotes to find journal prompts and impromptu speech quotes. Also, the materials were of good quality. 

The game itself was a little bit boring, because it wasn't really a game and wasn't really a meeting either. It was a fine line that I did not find pleasant. It was a little bit in between.

 

My 16-year-old, who is not a goal-setting and sharing, family time kind of kid right now, said:

I didn't enjoy it so much. I found it kind of pointless, because I don't see why you need something external to set goals with you and why everyone needs to know what your goals are. It's not my style, but people like my mom would like it. It is more organized...all with the family, and all that.

My husband, who willingly gave TRIVE a chance, but found it lacked the motivational factor that would work for him and some of our children said:

It was okay, but has not really been achieving its goal. I have not coached or been coached much. 

My youngest, however, who is just 11 - so young for this experience which is geared for those 15 years old and up - did like it. He said:

It was a fun way to set goals. I liked using the card points to pick coaches.

As for me, I think TRIVE has potential and would love to try it again with a different group of people - perhaps some of my friends.

I signed up for the optional TRIVE emails that offer tips and such, and enjoy reading what they have to say. I also think that TRIVE could:

• effectively act as a framework for discovering, defining, sharing, and achieving personal goals.

• encourage meaningful dialogue.

• guide willing participants in the importance of coaching and how to be a great coach.

• motivate the right personality types to overcome obstacles such as procrastination, self-doubt, and fear.

• encourage commitment to tasks.

• focus one on the value of discipline to a process.

and more.

What TRIVE Tweaks Would I Like to See? 

Undoubtedly, the mixed reviews my family gave for TRIVE were due, in large part, to the temperament and habits of different people here and not the quality of TRIVE materials. However, I do think that two tweaks to how TRIVE is presented would help families like mine benefit more from the experience: 

(1) Encourage varied goal setting periods. 

For a family like mine, with some members who don't like goal-setting and others who need more of a push to form new habits, I think the six-month timeframe for the TRIVE experience is too long. I think we would have found the activity more successful with a much shorter initial TRIVE cycle.

(2)  Allow TRIVE coaches an option for access to a website with links to each TRIVE Guide portions.

Signing up for optional emails is all well and good, but emails get lost in overcorwded inboxes and also, the automatic pacing of the emails prevents families from flexibly speeding up the TRIVE cycle as suggested above. So, I would love to see the ability to have immediate web access to all of the Guide once the Guide access code is inputted online.

Would We Recommend TRIVE?

While several in my family would not likely recommend TRIVE, I would - for families and groups of friends that like structure and wish to get together to talk, set goals, and coach one another. The product materials are well made, the concept interesting, and the goal of getting people to put phones down and start talking face-to-face a wonderful one.

Some Homeschool Review Crew families truly loved TRIVE. Head on over to read their reviews to see if your family, like theirs, will find TRIVE an awesome goal achievement and family communication experience.

4 Favorite Books to Help with Saint Pictionary at Your All Saints Day Party

All Saints Day is nearing, so I have been busy deciding what games, activities, and eats to revisit at our (almost) annual All Saints Day party.

This week, I've been thinking about how fun our 2019 group All Saints Pictionary game was for young and old alike. So, before I go dig through our saint books to find my favorite four to set aside for playing this game again this year, I thought I would share the titles with you.  That way, if you'd like to order or get ahold of them before your own All Saints Day party, you can.

{Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.}

1. For Female Saints

Girl Saints for Little Ones by Kimberly Fries has big, colorful images, large-font, and brief text. It also includes some ideas for symbols in it. Thus, it made a perfect book for opening to a random page to give Pictionary illustrators ideas for a aint if they could not come up with any themselves.

2. For Male Saints

Boy Saints for Little Ones by Kimberly Fries (which I have previously reviewed) is just as ideal for all the same reasons. Of course, as the title indicates, it has male saints in it.

3. For Quick Facts and Ideas

Encyclopedia of Peg Doll Saints by Maggie Jetty (which I have previously reviewed) lists ample random facts about saints on each page in call out boxes which makes gleaning ideas for quick sketching easy.

4. A Classic!

Picture Book of Saints by Lawrence G. Lvasik is a classic chidlren's saint book which has an imag,e short biogrpahy, and prayer per page. With m,any aints in it, this one was the book most of the older chidlren who played chose to use for their sketching inspiration.

How to Play

To play All Saints Pictionary, I called a group of chidolren and adults around a white baord easel with a stack of saint books next to it.

I asked one child to come up, open to random page of a picture book, then, using the image or ideas on the page- and, somtimes, an additional whispered idea from me - the child sketched the saint, symbols of the saint, stories about the saint, or what the saint was patron to get others to guess the saint.

Whoever guessed correctly, chose a prize and took the next turn.

More Ideas

If you'd likemore ideas for your All Saints Day party, click through to find prior posts on costumes, games, and eats, and enjoy archives of older All Saints Day posts, too!

Saints in Heaven, pray for us.

5 Favorite All Saints Day Games

October is upon us, which means All Saints Day is just around the corner. 

As I look forward to this year's All Saints Day party, I asked my children what their favorite All Saints Day party game or activity was throughout the years and thought about what others ones I should bring back this year.

I share them here in case you, too, are looking forward to an All Saints Day party and want some ideas.

1. Throw Satan Out of Heaven

My youngest child said, "the one where we through things off a ladder". He means our St. Michael game, which happens to be one of the first saint games we ever made and one we have played many times throughout the years.

It's super simple to play: just cover a ladder or stepstool with a blueish cloth to be "heaven", then have kiss toss a snake (Satan) toy as far as they can into "brambles" below.

Everyone at our parties has always enjoyed this game! You can find a free pritnable for it here.

2. Balance St. Thomas Aquinas' Books

My daughter said "the one where we balance books", which has been a perennial favorite of many of our repeat party goers.

Basically, kids walk across a board or low balance beam with books on their heads.

A tip if you use this game - don't use treasured books, because the binding can break as they fall off chidlren's heads.

You can find a free printable for it here.

3. All Saints Day Treats in a Jar Guessing Game

My eldest son said, "the one where I won the coins!"

He meant the candy jar guessing activity that friends often prepare for our parties based on ideas from Catholic Inspired, Catholic Icing, and Shower of Roses - three fantastic Catholic blogs!

4.  St. Anthony Seek and Find

My favorite - just because it always engages younger and older children alike and has a sensory element to it, is St. Anthony's Seek and Find.

For it, I put various beans into a container and hide small objects, such as religious medals, in them. Kids try to find all the objects before resetting the game for the next players.

Kids have enjoyed this one for years!

5. Serve with the Inspiration of St. Kateri

Finally, several parents at a past party told me we need to make our Serve with the Inspiration of St. Kateri activity an annual one. 

Admittedly, not all the kids like this activity, but some do - and it gets things cleaned up.

Basically, it is a clean up scavenger hunt. You can find a free printable for it here.

More Ideas!

If you'd like ideas for other games, you can find tons of them in our All Saints Day archives. Also, please feel free to share your own - with links, photos, or whatever - in a comment here or on our Facebook page.

Saints in Heaven, pray for us.

My New Favorite Way to Use Learning Cards

{This post was initially shared in 2014 at Upsidedown Homeschooling Blog where I was a contributor. That blog can now only be found using the Wayback Machine, so I am resharing the post here for easier access.}

Between homeschooling and tutoring, I make and use a lot of learning cards! Vocabulary cards, spelling cards, math cards, Alerting Activity ABC Cards, 3-Part Movement Cards, Saint Symbol Cards, Life of Mary Sequencing Cards, 3-Part Bob Book Cards, M and N Discrimination Cards, Act Like and Elephant Cards… You name it. Week in and week out, my children, my tutoring students and I use all types of cards to tackle new learning objectives and to review old ones.

Almost any learning objective becomes hands-on and interactive when learning cards are involved.

Of course, being so card crazy, we have developed a regular repertoire of 10+ games and activities for using learning cards, and, we love adding to it!

Even when little ones are too young to play with siblings, they can with your help. My youngest likes to place markers when I play with my oldest.

Over the past two weeks, we did just that!

We revamped the simple strategy game of Tic Tac Toe to be a learning card game

Playing is easy, effective and engaging.

Winning rounds happens quickly, which keeps the game pace moving along and motivates children to keep learning and reviewing.

To play, you need nine or more learning cards and two piles of distinct markers. (We use Bingo chips, but coins of two different colors or any distinctly colored or shaped small objects would work.)  Set your cards up in a 3 x 3 grid.  Then, you are good to go.

Playing Learning Card Tic Tac Toe

1. Have Player One start the game by selecting a card. If Player One can read the card, spell the word on it*, solve the problem on it, state a key fact related to it, make a sentence with the word written on it, name the part of speech of it, answer the question posed on it or do whatever the learning objective of the card is, Player One may put a marker on it.
2. Player Two then chooses a card and does likewise.  Play continues until a player has three markers in a row or until all the cards are covered.
3. At that point, players shuffle the places of cards within the grid, or trade new cards into the grid, and play another round.
4. Whoever wins three out of five rounds is the winner.

It’s that simple!

A Note on Playing with Spelling Words

Flip the cards over to use Tic Tac Toe as a Spelling game.

To use Tic Tac Toe to practice spelling words, place all cards face down.  Have Player One hand a card to Player Two, who reads it to Player One.  Player One then must spell the word correctly in order to place a marker down.

Learning Card Tic Tac Toe is adaptable, too!

Just like learning cards themselves are, so is Learning Card Tic Tac Toe, and that is one of the reasons I love it.  I am constantly coming up with new variations and uses for this easy card game:

• Learning Card Tic Tac Toe can become Four-in-a-Row or even Five in a Row to cover more material in one round.

• For students who need more movement in order to meet sensory needs, the game can be super-sized with full-sized sheets of paper as cards and stuffed toys as markers. 

•  To make this game equally valuable for multi-disciplinary review as it is for focusing on one specific learning objective, cards used can target a single subject or a mixture of subjects and skills – English Language Arts, Math, Science, Character and Virtues, Social Studies, just about any topic...

• Students who are reluctant to practice handwriting or spelling can be encouraged with the “carrot” of making game cards.

• Almost any age can play.

In fact all three of my children, plus two of my tutoring students, have played round after round of this game with me in the past couple weeks.

My three year old used Learning Card Tic Tac Toe to practice basic phonic sounds; my six and eight year olds mastered spelling, vocabulary and reading words with it; my high school tutoring student learned and reviewed SAT materials with it; and my fourth grade tutoring student practiced parts of speech, sentence building and target reading words with it.  In doing so, all of us found Learning Card Tic Tac Toe quick, easy and effective at providing lots of learning through enjoyable repetition.

Learning Card Tic Tac Toe is a keeper!

So, what are you waiting for? Grab some cards and markers and go play a quick game with your learner today.