Family Game Night . . . Buzz Blast . . . I'm Giving One Away!

I recently wrote about planning special events at your church for families from your church and community. I said, "Family events can provide excellent opportunities to reach out to families in your church and community and bring them together so they can experience and learn God's Word together - this can generate great enthusiasm for both families in and out of your church! The key word for family events is "together"! Children's ministry tends to provide opportunities for children - just as adult ministries tend to do the same for adults. Family events allow you to minister to parents and children together!" This is true!

Family events can be big events such as a Minute-to-Win-It Family event or small events like a Family Game Night. Today I want to talk about planning a Family Game Night for the families in your church and community! The Summer is a wonderful time to offer special times for families to get together and have fun together and a Family Game Night is a very simple way to do this as all you have to do is . . . 

• select a day, time and place for your Family Game Night
• get the word out
• ask families to bring one or two of their family's favorite games
• be sure to have a few extra games on hand
• ask families to bring their favorite snack - could be chips, Muddy Buddies,  popcorn, etc - put all the snacks on a table and allow everyone to sample (be sure to provide some extras in case anyone forgot to bring one)
• set up tables, space on the floor - whatever you need and then team up families so they play together and rotate through the games . . . give families 15 minutes to play and then they move to a new table/location and continue the game there as they find it!

You could plan a short time of songs and a simple devotional if you like, but the goal is to bring families together so they are able to spend time together and with other families to build relationships . . . and to have fun!

I'm happy for the opportunity to share a game review with you. Discovery Bay Games sent me a Highlights Buzz Blast game for review . . . and they are making another available for me to give away, but more on this in a moment!

Highlights Buzz Blast  

By - Discovery Bay Games

Ages 7+

For 2 or more players

Favorite Features -

• Love how this game gets families talking and having fun together!
• encourages paying attention, thinking quickly, being able to say tongue twisters, thinking silly, interacting with others and laughing!
• game involves spotting the differences between two pictures, answering questions, completing silly sentences, saying tongue twisters - answering challenges 
• includes 150 double-sided cards with challenges on them and a Buzz Blaster card holder with electronic timer

As Discovery Bay games says, "Buzz Blast is fast-paced fun for the whole family!" I love this game and how it gets families interacting together! This game could also be great fun to have on hand in your children's ministry for small group leaders to use in their small groups to get conversions going and kids interacting with each other. While it says it is for ages 7+, my three year old grandson had a wonderful time finding the differences in the picture cards, so this is a game you could use with younger children; especially if you were playing it at a Family Game Night where the parents were there to help younger children.

As I mentioned, Discovery Bay sent a game for me to review and are making another available for me to give away! If you have "liked" About the Children's Department using the tab in the "find us on facebook" box ON THE BLOG, then you are entered in the drawing for this game which will be on June 29, 2012. If you have not "liked" this blog yet, please take a moment to do so and you will be entered in the drawing. In addition, if you "share" this post, you will receive an additional entry (please comment to let me know if you share so I can give you your additional entry). It is this simple! Thank you for reading About the Children's Department and thank you for sharing it with the people you know!