For awhile, my daughter has been urging me to include some games in our Christian education curricula. I thought it was a good idea, but we don't have any. I figured maybe we could purchase some board games from the Christian bookstore down in the city, but thought I'd have a go at making up some of our own first. So I got out some little slips of paper and had a go. Yesterday was our trial run of the first two.

1) Bible "Who Am I?"

This took ages for me to prepare. I wrote eight to twelve clues on several individual pieces of paper, then read them out to the kids to see how many people they could guess. I tried to include a good number of familiar, easy to guess folk from the Bible (like Jonah, Noah and Jacob) as well as some more obscure ones who might be more challenging (like Ishmael and Boaz). It took about two hours to write them all down and only about twenty minutes to play, but it does have scope.

Logan's verdict - "That was easy." He scribbled down each name after hearing only a few clues.

Emma's verdict - "It was OK." She couldn't remember all the names and found it a bit frustrating at times. Emma is a person who remembers pictures and faces easier than names while Logan is the opposite.

2) "Say Five Facts"

This was a cinch to get ready and even more fun to play. I simply wrote a variety of names on little cards, placed them face down on the carpet and the kids took turns to turn one over. They had to state five facts about whoever they turned over. We had some funny results and did lots of laughing.

"Jacob, OK, he was the brother of the hairy guy (they forgot the name Esau for the moment), he made the hairy guy a pot of stew, he stole the hairy guy's birthright, their father blessed him instead of the hairy guy, the hairy guy got mad and set out to kill him."

"Ham - OK, he was one of Noah's three sons, he sailed on the ark, he didn't cover his father up when he got drunk, his son was called Canaan, and ahhhh, he has the same name as a very yummy sort of meat made from pig that we put in sandwiches."

We all had a good time playing that one and chasing after Blake, who stole slips of paper and raced off as fast as his little legs could carry him, laughing, several times. "Hey Mum, Blake's got Abraham and Goliath!"

What struck me is that a game that took five minutes to prepare was more thoroughly enjoyed than one that took two hours. I'll definitely be adding more names to that one and playing more often as our regular Bible study lessons and reading continues.