Trump and Biden are squaring off tonight for the first time this election season. Is anybody else looking forward to watching? To make viewing the upcoming presidential debates a little more fun and interesting, I whipped up some free printable Debate Night Bingo Cards just for the occasion — something my husband called home this…
Our family loves games. And road trips. And playing games on road trips. In my kids’ minds, the more competitive the challenge, the better. So I designed some FREE Travel Bingo Cards to use on our next road trip. Which, with states starting to open again after prolonged COVID lockdowns, will hopefully happen sooner rather…
Question: Can you make more Christmas bingo cards? I am looking for a way in which the “Christmas Travel Bingo” can be 10 versions of it. When I click on it to print, it only has 4 versions for it. Is there a way for it to be 10 different versions? – Victor Answer: It’s…
In honor of National Scavenger Hunt Day (May 24), I wanted to share some neighborhood bingo cards I made for my little ones to use when we take walks around the block. Let each child carry a card with a marker and check off as many boxes as they spy during your stroll through the…
Today I’m sharing another free printable party game, something I like to call Back-to-School Ice Breaker Bingo. It’s been twelve years since I published the “Life Experiences Bingo” sheet I’ve used for breaking the ice at the various Christmas parties we’ve hosted over the course of our marriage, but it remains one of my most…
Today’s game is “Life Experiences BINGO.” This makes a great ice breaker to play as guests are arriving. Guests are asked to check off all statements that apply to them. Whoever calls gets a BINGO reads their five in a row to the whole group and usually elaborates with a little storytelling.
I’ve never seen my children play closer attention to a presidential debate than they did when Trump squared off against Biden a few months ago. Our first set of Debate Night Bingo Cards made all the difference! And judging by the number of requests I’ve received for updated cards for tonight’s debate, other families must…
The 2024 Summer Olympics start this week, so I thought now would be a great time to share my brand new, free printable, Summer Olympic Word Scramble. Try your hand at deciphering words like As with my other free printable word scrambles, on’t let the initial capitals on all those scrambled words trip you up….
What follows is another yearly installment in our family’s complete history told via the 2023 Flanders Family Christmas Update. To see a full listing, see Our Christmas Letters. For tips on writing your own family history in this fashion, follow this link. In the meantime, enjoy! The 2023 Flanders Family Update December 2022 Happenings Simple but elegant….
Our family loves to travel, and we do a lot of it. As homeschoolers, we view the world as our classroom, so every vacation becomes just one extended field trip. Below are a few of our favorite travel tips to make family vacations more economical, educational, and enjoyable. Vacation Planning I enjoy planning our trips…
I got the sweetest letter from a reader thanking me for the musical themed discussion prompts I published last week, so I’m sharing another set today. These Friendship Themed Conversation Starters will help promote meaningful conversation with the people gathered around your dinner table, whether they be family, friends, or — as is the case…
It’s National Scavenger Hunt Day! And I’ve rounded up a plethora of free printables to help you celebrate! Thanks to our pending move, my entire life feels a little like a scavenger hunt these days. Everything is getting packed up and ready to transfer to our new home, and nothing seems to be where it…
In honor of Global Volunteer Month (April), I offer you another of my themed free printable bucket lists. This one details Print – 50 Ways to Volunteer. Each of these ideas is relatively small, but can make a big impact. Especially when people all around the world dedicate themselves to such altruistic acts. But don’t…
Today I’m sharing links to the Top 10 Flanders Family Posts of 2021. As has become my habit, I always like to look back in January at the most popular posts of the preceding year. Since my goal in writing this blog is to serve my subscribers, it’s instructive to see which posts readers find…
This list of December Holidays and Quirky Celebrations is the 12th and final installment in my monthly series on celebration-worthy moments. I hope these posts will help you make every month more memorable this year. You’ll notice that some items on this list are linked to other pages. Click through for ideas and resources to…
Three of our children have birthdays in September, but there are plenty of reasons to celebrate this month that aren’t specific to our family. Below you’ll find a lengthy list of September Holidays, ninth in my monthly series of celebration-worthy moments. I hope these posts will help you make every month more memorable this year….
Our family loves to travel. We’ve been seeing the world together for decades. But it didn’t take long for us to learn the secrets to stress-free travel: streamlined organization and loads of prayer! Think traveling with twelve kids in tow would be a logistical nightmare? More work than it’s worth? Think again! We learned long…
We’re planning a family road trip this summer. So I’ve been hard at work all week, mapping our course, planning our itinerary, downloading discount coupons, and making fresh copies of the free printable road trip games I’m sharing with you today. We got a chance to try these out, along with my travel bingo printables,…
Sixth in my monthly series on celebration-worthy moments, below you’ll find a lengthy list of June Holidays and Quirky Celebrations. I hope these posts will help you make every month more memorable this year. You’ll notice that some items on this list are linked to other pages. Click through for ideas and resources to help…
You don’t have to travel far from home to enjoy a wonderful vacation with your family. You can save both time and money by playing the part of a tourist right in your own hometown. The following tips will show you how to plan the perfect staycation. Finding Local Fun Poll your kids to find…
At year’s end, I like to look back to see which of my posts from the preceding 12 months enjoyed the most popularity. Hence, my Top 10 Flanders Family Posts of 2020 is born. Creating this list helps me better understand what kinds of resources have appealed most to my readers (that’s YOU) in the…
This week’s “Scripture Sunday” coloring page is taken from Jeremiah 29:5. “Plant gardens and eat what they produce.” Click to print our “Plant Gardens” coloring page Plant gardens. This was part of the instructions God gave Israel when they’d been taken to Babylon as exiles. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of…
Thanks to COVID-19, we’ve been cooped up indoors for weeks. But the weather has been glorious in our neck of the woods lately. The sunshine is beckoning us to come outside. If you’re feeling a similar pull, here are 50 Ways to Enjoy the Great Outdoors. Print out a copy and give one a try……
I always like to look back in January at my top posts of the preceding year. My goal is to deliver resources that will be truly benefit my readers (YOU!). So examining what kinds of resources drive traffic to my site helps me plan future posts. Of the posts I wrote in 2019, the following…
Will you be hosting an open house, office party, or church get-together this holiday season? Then today’s printable Christmas “Getting to Know You” Ice Breaker game is for you. Use it as an ice breaker at your next gathering and give your guests a reason to mingle. To play, print enough copies for each guest…
My mailbox really filled up over the holidays. I’ve been working overtime on getting it cleared out again. As I do, I plan to share the letters and queries of the most general interest in this “Mailbox Monday” column. This week’s is about some of our free printable fun and games: Message Jennifer, Thank you…
Our family has been watching Elf almost every Christmas since it was released, so we have it nearly memorized by now. If you’re that kind of fan, then this quiz is for you: Click to Download Quiz + Answer Key I didn’t want it to be too easy, so most of the questions are fill…
I have another free printable Christmas game for you movie buffs today. See how well you know your Christmas classics by trying your hand at this Name that Line quiz. click to download Name that Line game and answer key The goal of the game is to match up the movie lines to the films…
Our family has done a lot of traveling this week. We’ve attended two college graduations (one out of town). And we’ve visited extended family who live out of state. That translates into about 14 hours on the road so far. And we have at least that much more ahead of us in the coming week….
About this time every year, I print out a lengthy list of fun family traditions I want to remember to do during the Christmas season. I’ve shared many renditions of this “Holiday Bucket List” in the past, including this bare-bones original plus this vintage, black & white version. I have a new one this year….
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It is always good to be mindful of the many blessings God has bestowed upon us. And I’m glad our country sets aside a day dedicated to doing so. Over the years, I’ve published lots of resources that have a Thanksgiving theme. I thought this year would be…
The start of a new school year is just around the corner! Accordingly, this post is chock-full of fun ways to celebrate starting back to school. Even though, as homeschoolers, our family usually does lessons year-round, I still love the fresh start August brings with regard to co-ops and school supplies and new routines. I’ve…
Whenever I plan a family vacation, I always check these 9 noteworthy websites as I map our our itinerary. I do this whether we’ll be driving thousands of miles or staying close to home. Whether we’ll be gone for three days or three weeks. Whether we’ll spend all our time in one place or traveling…
My daughters and I hosted a Mother/Daughter/Granddaughter Valentine’s Brunch last weekend for a bunch of our neighbors. Some of the neighbors (including us) are relatively new to the neighborhood. Since we didn’t already know one another well, I designed a little Getting to Know You Questionnaire to help us all get better acquainted: It made…
We are making slow progress on unpacking boxes from our recent move. Today’s project: Organize the closets. I need to sort through the clothes, cull the stuff that’s outgrown, and switch out summer shorts for winter sweaters, as cooler temps have finally come to Texas (at least for the moment). On the topic of winter…
December is here. It’s time to celebrate! Not only is Christmas just around the corner, but our family is officially in our new house, having moved the very last box of stuff over late last night. Hooray!! We spent the entire month of November s-l-o-w-l-y moving, room by room — which explains why I only…
It always helps me in my blogging, when wrapping up the old year and setting goals for the new, to take stock of which of my posts have enjoyed the most popularity over the last twelve months. That’s my goal in tabulating these top 10 posts of 2015. Knowing what has been most helpful to…
Not only is the turn of a year a great time for looking ahead and setting goals, but it’s also a good time for looking back and reflecting. Which is my goal in tabulating my top 10 posts of 2014. My husband and I were looking over both our blogs this weekend. Noting trends. Discussing…
I don’t know what the weather’s been like in your neck of the woods, but here in East Texas it has been sunny and gorgeous and mild. We’ve had perfect conditions, in fact, for staging our Christmas photo safari. Want to play? Just print this list, grab a cell phone, divide into teams with your…
Today I’m sharing a brand-new free printable I designed to challenge my kids while we were tent camping last week. It’s an outdoor scavenger hunt! These picture bingo cards are full of nature items, like pinecones, sweet gum balls, rocks, leaves, and doodle bugs. I laminated our cards so we’ll be able to use them…
The bright sunny days and the break from school that we’ve enjoyed over the past few weeks may have made us feel like summer had already arrived, but the season does not get its official start until today, June 21, the first day of summer! Nevertheless, we’re getting started early with a brand new 31…
It’s best if you spring today’s activity on your friends and family unaware. We make it easy with these handy labels. Just stick one unobtrusively to the bottom of every dinner plate before guests arrive, then when it is time to eat, let folks go through the buffet line without drawing attention to that hidden surprise.
Today’s game is a simple one, but fun for all ages. Get a blank sheet of paper (or print our holiday-themed notepaper) and write “Merry Christmas” or some other seasonal phrase across the top. Then set a timer for 5-10 minutes, and race to see who can form the most new words using only the letters in that phrase.
Remember the old “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” activity that was such a mainstay of birthday parties when we were growing up? This game is a spin-off of that one, only in our version, the goal is to “Put the Baby in the Manger.”
Today’s game is seriously cerebral. We first created this “Christmas Timeline” for a party we hosted for old college friends, but we’ve since used it with homeschool classes and physician groups, as well. It is perfect for folks who appreciate a challenge and love to learn. The object of the game is to place 21 events in chronological order in …
Several years ago, my daughter called home from college to ask if she could borrow one of my (many) Christmas sweaters for a holiday party she was attending. I was briefly flattered, until she explained that the point of the party was to see which attendee could wear the ugliest, gaudiest, most over-the-top, sparkly, spangly, bejeweled and bedazzled Christmas sweater imaginable… and she figured any of mine stood a good chance of winning!
If you love Christmas and parties and games (and Christmas party games) as much as we do, you are going to love this series of posts. We’ve been throwing Christmas parties for over 25 years now, so we’ve amassed quite a collection of games. There are the old standards, like Christmas charades and word scrambles,…
There is no question that laptops, smart phones, and iPads have altered the way we do life: Technology puts a wealth of information at our fingertips, but can simultaneously cost us a fortune in terms of first-hand experience. These portable gadgets make it possible for us to connect with people on the other side of…
If your summers are anything like ours, they are packed to bursting with projects we’ve not had time to finish during the school year. We have found that we must be very intentional about how we spend our vacation if we want to make much headway on all we want to accomplish. Which is how…
I devote Mondays to cleaning out my mailbag. This week’s topic of finding time for fitness may be a day late, but it’s still timely for a lot of us. Question: How do I find time to get fit when motherhood demands so much of me? Jennifer: We have five children, ranging in age from…
