FAMILY FUN TRAIL
by
Bernie & Karen Holford
Department of Family Ministries
South England Conference
Trans-European Division
Family Fun Trail is a family enrichment activity that may be done indoors or outdoors weather permitting. The activity may be adapted for whole church groups by clustering members into small “family” groups or devising “superfamilies” comprised of a family plus one or two other church members.
“Trail Signs,” outlining different family activities, are placed randomly at various places throughout a given area-a room or rooms, around the outside of a building, in a park or woods. Families locate the signs and use corresponding pages in their “Trail Books” to complete the activities. (Though Trail Signs are numbered, families do not have to find them or complete them in order.) Also, a message for families is encoded in the set of trail signs, with one letter found on each sign. In addition to completing the various activities, families collect the various letters, then unscramble them to spell the word “ENCOURAGE!”
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Materials needed:
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Summary of Family Fun Trail Instructions
Trail Sign 1. Design and draw a machine that your family really needs, but that no one has invented yet, and give it lots of interesting details! Some ideas could be:
- A Finding-Things Machine
- A Making-Children-Go-To-Sleep-Machine
- A Time-Stretching Machine
- A Lunch-Box-Packing-Machine
Trail Sign 2. Write down the first names of each person in your family, so that their name runs down the page vertically, and each letter has a line:
J_____________________________
O_____________________________
E_____________________________
Then write some positive and special words about the person, each beginning with a letter from their name, for example, J – jolly; O – optimistic, E – energetic.
Trail Sign 3. Design a poster: Either adapting a popular advertising slogan, to encourage families, or advertising prayer! Examples: A hug a day helps you work rest and play; Have a break! Have a Chit-Chat – with God!
Trail Sign 4. Think of the funniest thing that ever happened in your family! Draw a simple cartoon picture of the event (stick men are O.K.!), and write what happened underneath. Example: One of our family members fell in a puddle at a wedding and had to go to the reception in their pyjamas!
Trail Sign 5. Make up a slogan for your family, where each word begins with a letter from your surname! Write your surname down the side of the page with one letter per line, and then find the words to make a zany slogan for yourselves. Here is an example from our Holford family:
H – Happy
O – Ones
L – Loving
F – Fun
O – On
R – Relaxing
D – Days
Trail Sign 6. If possible, go out-of-doors and draw the shapes of as many leaves as you can find on this site! Can you name the trees and plants to which these leaves belong? If so, write any names you know in the middles of the leaves you have drawn. Or if you are inside, design a new plant. What color will it be? What insects will visit it? How long will it take to grow? Does it grow fruit to eat? Then thank God for the trees and plants He has designed and created.
Trail Sign 7. Our fun stuff! Collect a joke or saying from each person in your family and write them in the places for fun stuff on this page. Example: What do you get if you cross a grizzly bear with a kangaroo? A miserable fur coat with big pockets!
Trail Sign 8. Our encouraging texts! Write the words or the reference for a Bible verse from each member of your family.
Trail Sign 9. Let each person in the family draw themselves on this page to make a special family portrait.
Trail Sign 10. Write each person’s name on a different present. Around each gift, let each person write what they would most like to give to that person, if only they could.
Reprinted from Karen & Ron Flowers, New Beginnings. Silver Spring, MD: Department of Family Ministries, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2000.