1. Say everything in opposites. For example, when your family wakes up in the morning say, “Goodnight” to each other.
2. Wear your clothes backwards or inside out. This is sure to make your family and friends laugh.
3. Eat your family’s meals backwards, beginning with dinner food for breakfast. Or, start your meal with dessert—we bet your kids will love that!
4. Play this game: Describe something to your kids and have them guess what the opposite of that word is. For example, “This is the season that is very cold and sometimes brings snow.” (Answer: summer)
5. Play this game: Say an action and your children have to do the opposite. For example, when you say, “Stand up,” your kids sit down.

What if everything was opposite on Opposite Day?

Can your kids think of any more things to do on Opposite Day? Let us know how your family will be celebrating this fun day!

Beaver’s Revenge™ is an HD app that includes 60 levels, 3 different worlds, 3D graphics, leaderboards and achievements. Players choose one of 6 distinct animals and use the beaver’s tail to send flying through the air aimed at lumberjacks that are ruining the forest in this strategy and physics game. This addicting new app was just released today for Android™, iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®. Get Beaver’s Revenge for your family today! Just head over to the App Store or Android Market to download this addictive new arcade game!

Help the beavers rain some furry vengeance on those lumbering lumberjacks!

Twisted Games™ has also just released Ice Cube Caveman™ in full and lite versions for iPad®, iPhone®, iPod touch® and Android™. Help a caveman maneuver a narrow path of tiles to the fire in order to escape his icy fate in this new puzzle game. Find out more about Twisted Games™ at www.TwistedGames.com or stay up to date with all the latest Twisted Games™ information by following us Twisted Games™ on Facebook and Twitter!

Navigate these tricky tiles to melt away the ice and save the caveman!

Lumberjacks beware! Papa Beaver saw a lumberjack cutting down his beloved trees. Now he and his furry forest friends are out for . . . Revenge.

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We know that long trips can be boring for kids, and thinking of activities to entertain them can become tiresome. So, as you head off to your holiday destination, teach your kids some of our favorite supply-free travel games:

Spelling Sleuth: Go around the car and let everyone add a letter to a word. The first person to complete a word loses! But don’t choose just any letter; if you select a strange letter your fellow riders can challenge you to find out what word you have in mind. No answer? You lose.

Counting Games: Road trips provide lots of opportunities to practice counting. Assign each child a side of the car and see who can count the most cows, horses, billboards, or sheep. If you have one child, you can compete or see how fast your child can make it to 100 items. Try switching items every once in a while to ward off boredom.

Question Game: In this game, you are only allowed to speak in questions to everyone in the car. For example one person could ask, “When are we going to get there?”  The next person would ask, “Do you have a watch?” The next person would ask, “Did you take it?” If you do not answer in a question, you are out. The winner of the game is the person who can carry on the conversation in questions the longest!

For other ideas, visit previous posts with great games like License Plate Fun, CAR-tegories, The Teacher’s Dog , and Popcorn Storytelling.

Happy Thanksgiving from JumpStart!

Here are a few ways to have some summertime fun when you’re stuck inside:

Have an indoor picnic: Spread a blanket on the den floor and share your favorite summertime treats like watermelon and lemonade!

Make your own popsicles: All you need is an ice cube tray and toothpicks!  Pour your favorite kind of juice into the ice cube tray.  Cover the tray with cellophane wrap.  Stick a toothpick through the wrap and into each cube.  Place in the freezer overnight.  Voila!  The next morning you’ll have a very yummy treat waiting for you!

Go camping indoors:  Pitch a tent in the living room (use a blanket held up with a line of string if you don’t have one) and let the kids pretend that they’re on a camping trip.  Pull out the sleeping bags and even tell a few ghost stories!

Build a fort: Take apart the sofa and use cushions, blankets and pillows to assemble a secret fort that will rival any tree house!

Check out JumpStart Get Moving: Family Fitness: If you have a Wii™, playing a videogame like Get Moving will help keep kids up and active, even when they’re stuck indoors!

Do you know of any other activities that are great for spending summer days inside?  Let us know here!

Wii is a trademark of Nintendo. © 2006 Nintendo.

As you all know, summer is a time for fun, games and family travel! However, when traveling, there’s always the risk of encountering boredom. Whether you’re driving to a campground or off to Grandma’s house, sometimes the long roads seem even longer when you have nothing to pass the time. Here at JumpStart, we’d like to make road trips a time for family fun so we’ve come up with a few solutions that might help! Next time your kids start to get restless in the car…

For more suggestions, click to see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Sweet and Sour. A true classic. When you’re on the road, wave to kids in other cars. If they wave back, they’re sweet! If they don’t, then they’re sour. Try to get as many sweets as possible!

Jello. Another car game classic! When you’re packed in the backseat like sardines, what better way to make the best out of the situation than to play a game of Jello? As the driver turns, pretend that you’re made out of Jello and move when the car moves – for once, the person in the middle will be glad to be in the middle!

The Stuck in Traffic Song. When you’re stuck in traffic, take turns singing along to the radio while substituting your own words in place of the real words. Make your lyrics about the traffic – it’s a great way to get a laugh out of sitting in a jam and it’s a sure way to make the delay seem shorter!

Popcorn Storytelling. Have one person start a story with a sentence, then go around the car and have everybody add on a sentence. Agree on a set amount of times you’ll go around before ending the story. Then enjoy the twists and turns as the story unfolds!

We hope you all have fun with these ideas! Let us know if you enjoy playing any of these games or share some suggestions of your own!

Are you tired of being Colin TornadoLegs and longing to be Kyle ThunderFeather instead? Well, long no more! The Name Change-O-Matic is waiting to blast away your name-related boredom. We’ll show you how we renamed our Jumpee using this nifty contraption so you can give it a try!

Our Jumpee’s name was Tommi RedGem. That’s a nice name, but we’d had it for a long time – ever since we first created our Jumpee! It was time for a change.

Before

To change our Jumpee’s name, we headed over to the Name Change-O-Matic, which is located in MainStreet near the Movie Theater.

She’s excited to try out a new name!

Once we clicked on the Name Change-O-Matic, a screen appeared with all the name choices that were available when we first created our Jumpee.

Inside the Name Change-O-Matic

We simply chose a new name from the lists and clicked the checkmark. Voilà – a brand-new name!

After

The best part is that you can choose a new name as often or as seldom as you’d like. Feel free to change your Jumpee’s name to suit your unique personality and mood!

Let your friends know they can change their Jumpees’ names!

#1 Egg in a Bottle

What you need:

• 1 glass bottle with a wide mouth (Snapple or other juice bottles work well)
• 1 sheet of newspaper
• 1 hard-boiled egg
• Matches

EGG-speriment:

1. Peel the egg.
2. Have your child cut a few small strips of newspaper and place them into the bottom of the bottle.
3. Drop a lit match into the bottle. (An adult should do this step!)
4. When the paper catches on fire, set the egg onto the opening of the bottle.
5. Wait and closely EGGS-amine the egg.
6. The egg should be pulled into the bottle anytime now…POP!

#2 Shell-Free Egg

What you need:

• 2 eggs (NOT hard-boiled)
• 2 cups of vinegar
• 1 clear glass jar

EGG-speriment:

1. Place the eggs into the container. Be very careful not to break or crack the eggs.
2. Pour the vinegar over the eggs. If 2 cups of vinegar doesn’t cover the eggs, add more until they are both covered.
3. EGGS-amine the eggs to see the bubbles form on the outside of the shell.  Let stand for two nights.
4. Remove the eggs from the jar and put under slow running water. Gently rub the shell with your fingers. If the shell doesn’t come off easily or completely, then return the eggs back to the vinegar for another night.
5. Once the shell is fully removed, you and your child can observe what the egg looks like on the inside by holding it up to the light. Watch the yolk rise and sink by flipping the egg upside-down carefully.

#3 Shell-Free Egg Part 2

What you need:

• 2 clear jars
• 2 “Shell-Free Eggs” (from the last EGG-speriment)
• White corn syrup
• Water

EGG-speriment:

1. Fill one jar halfway with water and the other one with corn syrup.
2. Record the size of both the eggs.
3. Drop one egg into the corn syrup and the other into the water.
4. Let sit for three days.
5. Remove and rinse the eggs. Re-EGGS-amine the size difference. What did you find?

#4 Soda SHELL-fish

What you need:

• 1 glass or jar
• 1 white-shelled egg
• 1 can of cola
• 1 old toothbrush
• 1 tube of fluoride toothpaste

EGG-speriment:

1. Pour the cola into the glass or jar.
2. Place the egg into the container.
3. Let the egg sit for 30 minutes to an hour.
4. Remove the egg and notice the staining power of brown cola.
5. Set an EGGS-ample! Teach your child about the damaging effects of soda and the importance of brushing your teeth by brushing away the brown stains.

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*To learn more about Johnny Appleseed, visit Answers.com here. That’s where we got our info!*

Today is Johnny Appleseed Day, a day to celebrate Chapman’s growing accomplishments and have some fun with apples! You can make an apple tree, too – and, unlike a real apple tree, you won’t need to wait five years to enjoy it!

Materials:

• Large piece of white paper
• Brown construction paper (or a brown paper bag)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Red and green paint
• Paint palette or paper plate
• Play clothes that you’re willing to get paint on
• Fingers!

Get painting!

1. Cut out a tree trunk shape from the brown construction paper and glue it onto the white paper.
2. Put some green paint on your palette and dip one of your hands in. (This is where those play clothes will come in handy!)
3. Use your hand to stamp handprints at the top of the tree trunk. The green handprints should look like branches.
4. Put some red paint on your palette and dip in a finger or two.
5. Use your finger to stamp fingerprints in the branches of your tree. The fingerprints should look like apples.

There you have it – your very own apple tree, ready to be displayed! Now all that’s left to do is sit down with a Red Delicious or Granny Smith and enjoy your beautiful artwork!

Celebrate with your friends!

Our first leprechaun craft is great for older kids, so they can have their own leprechaun cup to place coins in, as if the leprechaun is protecting his pot of gold!  The second, simple craft places a pot-of-gold at the end of a rainbow as a door handle decoration and is probably best for your younger children, but even older ones might find it fun!

The Crafty Leprechaun

The Crafty Leprechaun

What You’ll Need:

• 12. oz paper cup (like those used for coffee)
• 2 Green and 2 orange pipe cleaners
• Green, peach, yellow, and black construction paper (one small sheet each)
• Green paint
• One pair of googly eyes
• A black pen, black marker, and red marker (or pen)
• Glue

Here’s what do do:

1. Paint the paper cup green and let it dry.
2. Cut out a circle from the peach construction paper. Make sure it’s big enough to hide the cup’s rim when looking at it straight on.
3. Cut out a hat from the green construction paper and make sure the brim is a little bit wider than the peach circle that will create the head.
4. Use a black marker to make a band on the hat, but leave room in the middle for a buckle!
5. Cut out 3 small squares from the yellow construction paper and then cut out their middles for the hat’s and shoes’ buckles!
6. Glue a buckle onto the center of the hat and then glue the hat onto the top third of the peach circle.
7. Glue the googly eyes a little under the brim of the hat.
8. Draw a nose in black pen and a mouth in red marker (or pen) and then set the face aside.
9. Coil an entire orange pipe cleaner around a pencil or pen and slip it off.
10. Glue the ends of the coil onto the peach circle, making a beard.
11. Cut two small, straight pieces from another orange pipe cleaner and glue these above the googly eyes for eyebrows.
12. Glue the head onto the cup to cover near a third of the cup in length.
13. Take one green pipe cleaner and make a small loop at one end (secure it by wrapping a small part around).  Make a loop in the pipe cleaner right next to the one you just made and twist it so it stays in place. It should now resemble a flower stem with leaves. Take the straight edge and make a third loop that meets the other two in the center, making a clover shape!
14. Repeat the previous step again for the other hand.
15. Attach one on each side of the cup using tape or glue.
16. Cut out two small shoe-shaped pieces from the black paper and glue one yellow buckle to each shoe before gluing them to the bottom of the cup.

The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

What You’ll Need

• Paper plate
• Scissors
• 1 sheet of yellow and 1 sheet of green construction paper
• Black marker
• Markers for each color of the rainbow
• Gold and green glitter (optional)
• Glue or tape

Here’s what to do

1. Cut a half-circle into the bottom of the plate.
2. Cut out two pie-shaped pieces on the edge of the plate where the half-circle’s corners line up.
3. Have your child color a rainbow that follows the arch of the half-circle
4. Color the rest of the plate with black marker and be sure to color in a pot rim at the corners of the half-circle
5. Take the yellow construction paper and cut out a shape that resembles a pile of coins, making it as long as the diameter of the half-circle.
6. Run a clear glue stick over the “pile of coins” and sprinkle gold glitter over the construction paper to make it look real!
7. Glue or tape this to the back of the paper plate with the glittery side facing frontward
8. Cut out the shape of a shamrock from the green construction paper and glue it to the center of the pot. Optionally glue green glitter to it.
9. Hang it on any door knob in the house!

Have fun making these crafts with your children! They are a pot-of-fun!

Share These Great St. Patrick’s Day Crafts with Friends!

Sock Bowling

What you’ll need:

• One pair of rolled up socks
• 10 empty plastic bottles (any size will do)

Directions:

1. Place the 10 empty bottles in a pyramid shape, just like bowling pins, at the end of a hallway.
2. Stand at the opposite end of the hallway and toss the rolled up socks at the bottles to see how many you can knock down.
3. Too easy?  Try different techniques to throw the socks:  Spin around 10 times before bowling at the pins.  Turn backwards and throw the socks between your legs.  Try bowling with two pairs of rolled up socks at one time.  See who can make up the most creative way to bowl.

Balloon Tennis

What you’ll need:

• Two wire coat hangers
• One pair of old nylons (cut in half so that the legs are separate)
• Masking tape or tin foil
• One balloon or ping pong ball
• Scissors

Before you can play, you’ll need to create nylon rackets!

1. Start with one wire hanger.  Pull on the hook and the opposite side simultaneously in opposite directions, to create a diamond shape.
2. Take one leg of the nylons and pull it all the way down to cover the diamond shaped hanger.  You may need to squish the diamond a little bit to make it easier to pull the nylon over the hanger.
3. Tie a knot in the nylon right at the coil of the hanger so the nylon is snug and tight over the diamond.  Cut off any excess nylon.
4. Have an adult pinch the hook toward the rest of the hanger.  Tape the end to create a safe handle.  If you do not have tape, tin foil works just as well to wrap around the handle.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 to create a second racket.

Once you and your child have crafted two rackets, all you need is a ballon or ping pong ball and you are ready to play. Passing the balloon back and forth or counting the number of consecutive hits are great ways to stay entertained.

Share These Indoor Sport Ideas with your Friends!