Battling the boredom during long-term, long-distance relationships
I have been in a four-year-long relationship with a lovely man, who asked me out over the phone as he was going through security at the airport to leave the country for four months! After he returned I still had two years of college, eight hours away, to finish up. So, while I am by no means an expert, I can say that I have some experience with the long distance experience. Now, let me just say, long-term, long-distance SUCKS but here are my tips so that you don’t get bored with the standard text/call/Skype routine…
Play Oscars Bingo this Sunday
Remember going on long road trips, and being super bored, until Mom whipped out those auto-bingo cards to shut you up? Well, now there’s something kinda like that for adults to play, in case you’re getting bored, during the Oscars!
Start an in-absence game of chess with your partner or roommate
My friends, Megan and Trevor, have wildly different schedules. So Trevor came up with this great idea to keep things fun and playful, even when they’re apart.
Great board games for every group
Tabletop gaming is huge right now. Once relegated to children and uber-nerds, board games have gone mainstream. If you’re looking to add some tabletop fun to your next get-together, here are 11 games that will appeal to a wide range of interests.
Board game hack: turn Connect 4 into a reading activity
Did you know Connect 4 can be hacked to be a reading game! It’s easy!
Talking about being safe online freaked out my kid
We started with a basic conversation on how not everyone online is who they seem, and that she shouldn’t give out personal information. I kept it light, like “In your game you’re a wizard with purple skin, and we know you’re not really a wizard and you have peach skin, so the person you meet who say’s they’re an 11 year old boy with a Mohawk could really be an eight-year-old girl with a ponytail”, etc. Through the course of our conversation, she asked why safety is an issue online, and I let her know, in generic terms, that sometimes people use online personas to manipulate or bully or hurt other people, and that sometimes it can spill over into offline life.
LeakyCon and 4 other nerd-tastic summer cons perfect for parent-teen bonding
Guys, summer is almost upon is… which means it’s TOTALLY time to get ready for con season! We’ve chatted about taking a small child to a con (totally doable), but never before have we waded into aspirational con territory for many a parent-child duo: taking your teen to a con. Luckily there are tons of options this time of year — there’s a con for just about every form of geekery you can drum up. Harry Potter fan? Check. Horror movie aficionado? You got it.
I’m using Harry Potter to teach a first grader literacy skills
Just as caretakers have been surreptitiously sneaking veggies into kids’ favorite foods for eons, I have been hiding literacy skills in games and activities that center around JK Rowling’s brilliant, alluring universe. And it’s working. I might even say… it’s just like magic.