Healthy, strong family relationships are foundational to young people’s growth, learning, and well-being.

 

These relationships build strong social and emotional strengths that kids use throughout their lives.

 

But great family relationships don’t just happen..

 

Welcome to My Discovery Destination!

Discovery Family Adventures

where your family can find plenty of opportunities to

 

The Discovery Family Adventures provide ideas, activities, and experiences to help build strong family relationships.

 

Our goal is to strengthen family relationships to help kids be and become their best selves

and to support parents in raising happy, successful, resilient kids in an exciting,

but sometimes turbulent and dangerous world.

Core Adventures are still available via the website for use by anyone that wants them, but everyone is encouraged to use the Discovery Hunt (Goosechase) App for hundreds of adventures throughout the year.

 

Get links for downloading the App HERE.

Sponsored by:

Choose from the Adventures listed below

 

(or design your own family adventure!)

 

Get Talkin'


Family Adventure

 

GOAL:

Improve communication with family members and help you get to know each other even better.

 

 

The ADVENTURE:

Learn how to play the Chit Chat game and then use it to get to know each other better and make meal times a time everyone looks forward to.

 

 

TIPS:

 

   Let family members choose, or draw, the questions.

 

   Let family members make up the questions!

 

   Acknowledge their answers! Be sure you are giving your full attention when you play the game, and give a positive response to their answers so that they know you are listening. This is a great opportunity to validate your kids and their feelings!

 

   Provide a follow-up reward based on the child's answer. For example, if the question is 'What is your favorite food?' and they say 'Lasagna' you can follow that up by saying, "Great! I'll fix lasagna for dinner this weekend."  OR . . . just DO IT!  Sometime in the next few days fix lasagna and say, "I fixed your favorite food because I love you."

 

 

 

 

This Adventure is playing the Chit Chat game, and you can (and should!) enjoy it over and over again. The goal is to get kids and parents 'chatting' -- from funny and entertaining questions to insightful and educational, asking questions can bring families together and provide lots of opportunities to CREATE and CAPTURE Memories!

 

 

When is a good time to play this game?

 

 Dinnertime!

 

 In the car!

 

 While cleaning or organizing together!

 

 While gardening or doing yard work!

 

 Sunday afternoons!

 

 ANY TIME!  Whatever works best for your family~

 

 

 


QUESTIONS TO GET YOU STARTED . . .


 

 

Ask a KID:

❏ What are five words that best describe you?

❏ What is the hardest part about being a kid?

❏ If you could be a superhero, what would your superpower be?

❏ What is the scariest thing that has happened to you? Why?

❏ What would you do for fun if there were no electronics?

❏ What do kids know more about than their parents do?

❏ What do you want to be when you grow up?

❏ What do you think your life will be like in the future?

❏ What would be the menu of your ultimate birthday dinner?

 

 

Ask a PARENT:

❏ Do you ever feel peer pressure as an adult? Explain.

❏ Tell me about one of the proudest moments in your life.

❏ Describe a difficult time where you wanted to quit. What kept you going?

❏ What do you like to do to relax?

❏ Which famous person would you like to invite to dinner?

❏ What are you most afraid of?

❏ Tell about someone who has affected your ideas and beliefs. How?

❏ What is the hardest part about being a parent? Why?

❏ Describe what you like about your job.

❏ What is the story behind my name?

 

 


10 questions to make family dinner time a time to connect and communicate


 

❏ What was the best part of your day? What was the most difficult part of your day?

❏ What did you enjoy learning about today?

❏ What do you like about it?

❏ What made you laugh today?

❏ How is [friend’s name] doing?

❏ How can I help?

❏ If you were to choose any song to sum up your day, what would it be?

❏ Do you want to help me make dinner?

❏ What do you think is worth remembering about today?

❏ What are you excited about for tomorrow?

 

 

 


Here are some questions for January and MLK Day.

Come up with a list of questions specific for this month.


 

In addition to treating January 18 as a day of service, try approaching it as a day of important conversations. Use these conversation starters to explore topics related to the spirit of MLK Day and the values Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied. Help your family understand the importance of service by using some of the following questions:

 

 

❏ Have you ever wanted to volunteer?

 

❏ What might you want to do as a service project?

 

❏ What does it mean to be compassionate? How is it different from just being nice?

 

❏ Who do you know that is a caring person? Why did you pick them? What makes them caring?

 

❏ What is one thing you would change about the world if you had the power to do so?

 

❏ How do you feel about the following Maya Angelou quote, "If you don't like something change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." What do you think it means?

 

❏ What is a movie you have seen or a book you read that had a character that showed compassion?

 

 

 

You can also inspire your family to think about ways they want to impact the world around them with these questions:

 

❏ If you could change one thing about your family, school or community, what would it be?

 

❏ Do you think it always requires large amounts of money to make change in the world?

 

❏ Are there ways you could make a positive impact that doesn’t cost anything?

 

❏ It has been said that you should never question that a few caring people can change the world, after all, it's the only thing that ever has. What examples from your life are an example of this?

 

❏ What favorite book or movie deals with change?

 

❏ Do you think it always requires lots of money to bring about change in the world? What are some ways you could create change that wouldn't cost anything?

 

❏ How would you finish the statement, "One day I will be the first person to ________"

 

 

Use the following questions to help your family better understand MLK Day and what Dr. Martin Luther King stood for:

 

❏ Do you think ‘fairness’ is the same as ‘justice?’ Why or why not?”

 

❏ Have you ever seen someone else treated unfairly because they looked different, spoke a different language or came from a different culture? How did it make you feel? How do you think it made them feel?

 

❏ Have you ever stood up for something you believed in, even when other people thought you were wrong?

 

❏ How do you feel about the statement, "You must never be fearful of what you are doing when it is right"?

 

❏ Have you ever been afraid to do the right thing?

 

❏ Who is a person you admire, famous or not famous, that fought or fights for the freedom of others?

 

❏ Have you ever stood up for something you believed in, even if others thought you were wrong? What did you do? Was it hard to stand up for your beliefs?

 

❏ When is a time when you or someone you know righted a wrong? What happened and how did it make you feel?

 

❏ Have you ever had a thought or feeling about someone that was partially influenced by their race, ethnicity or appearance? Why did you think or feel the way you did? How did you, or how can you, address those thoughts and feelings?

 

❏ Dr. Martin Luther King said, "There comes a time when silence is betrayal." What do you think he meant?

 

❏ Has there ever been a time when you think you should have spoken up, but didn't?

 

❏ What is something you, or our family, can do now and in the future to stand up against racism or prejudice in the community?

 

 

 

These questions are important to discuss on MLK Day, but they are equally important on any other day of the year.  One day in January is set aside to honor the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., who worked for justice, but we can honor the spirit of his work all year long by talking about these topics as a family on January 18 . . . and beyond, and by finding ways to keep volunteering and making a difference in your community

 

 

 


Additional Chit Chat Cards . . .


 

 

We will be posting additional questions for different holidays and themes on our social media sites, so stay tuned for more great questions to keep the Chit Chat game going.  We have also created, and will continue to create more fun, seasonal cards for other months.  CLICK HERE to check those out.

 

 

 

Of course, you can also come up with your own!

 

 

 

 

Pre-K Adventure

Playing the Chit Chat game is a great habit to start YOUNG!  You may find you need to adjust the questions a bit, but start early with setting aside certain times to play 'chit chat' and just ask each other questions-- silly, sincere, important, unimportant. Shake it up to keep the positive energy around it, but START NOW while your kids are young!  You'll be glad you did!

 

 

You can find some Chit Chat questions to get you going, and the basic instructions,  under the Basic Level adventure.

 

 

Community Engagement Adventure

Ready to take the Chit Chat game your community?

 

 

❏ Come up with a list of your own questions, including a few specific to your neighborhood. Of course, you can also use any of the questions in this Adventure! Remember to include . . .

 

           Questions for kids to ask parents

           Questions for parents to ask kids

 

❏ Type them up. You can use your creativity to design a fun card set, or you can just type them with a few lines in between each so that they can be cut into strips. You may want to write or type them onto different colored paper-- questions for kids on one color and questions for parents on a different color.

 

❏ You could even find a fun container for your questions-- a bottle, a bowl, a tin can, or even just a plain box that you could decorate. Fold the questions up, place them in the container, and you're ready to go! This, of course, is optional~

 

 

❏ Print them and deliver them to other families on your street and invite them to use the chit chat questions to help their families connect.

 

 

 

Teen Adventure

 

Teens can take the initiative to create opportunities for their family to enjoy the Chit Chat game together periodically and help turn it into a family tradition. Whether you make it a dinnertime routine, a weekly Sunday afternoon activity, 'the thing we do in the car', or 'the thing we do as a family-- whenever', be the family member who brings it up and keeps it going in your family.

 

 

 

Photo Location

Take a family selfie wherever it is that you like to play the 'Chit Chat' game and post it to your social media sites with the hashtags #chitchatgame, #ParentsEmpowered and #MyDiscoveryDestination

by Chit Chat



ParentsEmpowered.org is a media and education campaign funded by the Utah Legislature and designed to prevent and reduce underage drinking in Utah by providing parents and guardians with information about the harmful effects of alcohol on the developing teen brain, along with proven skills for preventing underage alcohol use.

 


NOTE: If the Adventures don't show up find them at DiscoveryFamilyAdventures.com

Not sure how the Discovery Family Program works?

   

 

Discovery Family Program How-To Visual

 

My Discovery Destination! Adventures

Sponsored by My Discovery Destination! and  local businesses and organizations in your community

for the purpose of

STRENGTHENING FAMILIES and BUILDING CHARACTER.

Send an email to Sharilee@MyDiscoveryDestination.com if you would like to learn how we can bring a wide variety of FUN and educational LIVE EVENTS to your community!