The Communication Game

Christmas is a few days away and I can guarantee you there will be board games under our tree. How about you? Do you take the time to slow down and play a board game with the kids?

Here's a board game that is specifically designed for dads and daughters. From the publisher:

If you talk to your children now, chances are they'll talk to you later. The Communication Game a is a fun game that makes it easy for fathers and daughters to communicate with each other on "father-daughter" outings via a fun, casual "you ask, I answer" format...

The game is designed for fathers with daughers' age 10 or higher, but many fathers have played with daughters much younger. The game was invented over ten years ago by a father who was looking for a way to stay in touch with his daugter after being separated by divorce.

Awards:
2009 Teachers Choice Awards for the family by Learning Magazine
2008 National Parenting Publications Awards
2007 Game of the Year Award by Creative Child Magazine

The Communication Game - The Father Daugther Communication Game & Learning Tool.

At Amazon

Holds Everything You Need

Stumped on what to tell your kids that you want for Christmas?

What could be more manly than a new wallet....but not just any wallet....

You need the Slim Clip*! Reduce your plastic cards down to 7 or so, get yourself $20 cash to carry around, and quit collecting receipts (you never look at them anyway!)

I've been using one of these since last Christmas (I discovered and ordered it and gave it to my wife, to give to my kids, to give to me) and I love it. I carry it in my front right pocket and it is so convenient and cool.

You'll never go back to that bulky, soggy, chunk of leather you have stuck in your back side!

Official Slim Clip Website

*I'm not getting any kick-back, I just really like the product!

Christian Engravers

Here's a website providing engraved plaques and similar items. From a recent post on Familymanweb.com forums:

[Raising a Modern Day Knight] helped me to see the importance of raising Godly young men for the Lord as well showing me their examples of what they did for their sons so that they would remember and never forget. This token of rememberence is vital and anything you can present to him will be forever engraved with him (pun intended). This weighs heavy on my heart as I would have loved something similar from my dad. The other men I included in this ceremony for my son were just as blessed as we were also.

Some of you know that my family and I run a Christian Engraving Business. With that being said, I have some solid Marble 8x10 plaques I could engrave for you to present to your son (if interested).

Check out the website: http://christianengravers.com/

Buying a Sword

I've mentioned before that I decided to present my oldest son a sword for one of the stages of his progression towards manhood.

Well, he was supposed to receive it a year ago (I'm starting to detect a trend here) but I am just now to the point where I am ready to purchase his sword and arrange a ceremony.

As far as sword buying goes, it is not for the uninitiated. There are lots of nuances and pitfalls to choosing the right weapon. The best place to start researching is definitely:

Sword Buyers Guide .com

Here you will find a primer on sword basics and terminology, "war stories" on what can wrong when buying a sword, reviews of several manufacturers as well as specific swords, guides for various types and styles, an online magazine, even a forum area. Everything you need to get started is there.

After pretty extensive research I decided to go with The Warspike: Knight Longsword. It's a “hybrid” Hand-and-a-Half Medieval sword with a hand-forged, High-carbon steel, fully heat tempered, "battle-ready" full tang blade from StrongBlade. (yeah, that's a mouthful...check out SBG to understand what all that means)

I'll probably post a review of the experience once I receive and present it to him. But in the meantime, my advice is to start early with any ceremonies you may be planning!

Rock It Creations

When we had my middle son's first ceremony I used an online service to laser engrave a marble block for me.

For my youngest son, I went a different route and had a river stone engraved (I'm a firm believer that each child's ceremony should be tailored for their personality).

Here's the company I went with. They did a very good job and were easy to work with. The final product came out a little bigger (ie, heavier) than I intended, but I think the Lord worked it out so that I could really drive home the weight of the principles I'm imparting.

I'll try to post pictures of the finished product in the near future.

Rock It Creations

The Little Pink Card

Man, I wish I had known about this a week ago!

Here's some handy gift guidance for the husband who needs a little help when selecting a present for his wife...a camp I am firmly in!

This little card (found out about it on the Building Camelot blog) has all the essential info you need to make an informed purchase in the "heat of battle". Is it lame to have to consult a little card to know what perfume to buy your wife? Yes! But not as lame as not buying it all because of your own ignorance...

While I am not willing to pay $9 plus shipping to have a professional one made, I will be putting this little idea to good use with a DIY card for my wallet.

The Little Pink Card

The Armor of God

Part of creating impactful ceremonies with your kids when conducting a rite of passage or manhood/womenhood ceremony is presenting them with a meaningful, valuable keepsake.

These can be as simple as a rock picked up along the path or as elaborate as a personalized, inscribed sword. If the item carries with it symbolic meaning and reminders of the principles that have been imparted, all the better.

Here are some great items I stumbled upon that fit this description wonderfully...all based on the Biblical metaphor of "The Armor of God". These would make a great gift at any age to remind your son that he is a warrior belonging to the Army of God.

I've seen the dog tag item in person and was impressed by the quality. Check it out:

The Armor of God products

The Perfect Present

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and of course that brings the eternal question of what to get the kiddos. Although their lists are full of high-tech gadgets (even my 10 yr old wants an ipod!), I've been seriously considering going low-tech this year.

In fact, I've got an idea for the perfect present: The Stick. Here's an article about the classic toy, which recently landed in the National Toy Hall of Fame:

Curators said the stick was a special addition in the spirit of a 2005 inductee, the cardboard box. They praised its all-purpose, no-cost, recreational qualities, noting its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed in myriad ways by a child's creativity.

"It's very open-ended, all-natural, the perfect price -- there aren't any rules or instructions for its use," said Christopher Bensch, the museum's curator of collections. "It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream or a slingshot with a rubber band. ... No snowman is complete without a couple of stick arms, and every campfire needs a stick for toasting marshmallows.

The lowly stick, a universal plaything

Stanley London Manhood Gifts

So you've made the decision to create a cermony for your son to celebrate his passage toward manhood, but you have no idea what kind of gift to get him?

I've shared in the past a great place to get engraved stones/rocks, but here is another website with a large selection of brass instruments like compasses, sextants, telescopes, other nautical instruments, and even swords. They'll do custom engraving on most of their items.

I purchased a compass from them and had it engraved with some principles around "Choosing a Direction" and the verses Proverbs 3:5-6 for my son on his 10th birthday. It turned out great!

Stanley London

Generations of Virtue

With a teenager son and a "tweenager" daughter, I am always looking for resources that deal with combating the cultural pressures around them. The constant flow of information through movies, music, tv, and peers gives a pervading message of relativistic values to our kids as the world tries to squeeze them into the mold.

As fathers, it is our job to protect them and anchor them to the Truth. But how do we do this without becoming isolationists, protecting them to the point that they are unable to cope when they leave the home and are on their own? Only by equipping and preparing them now to understand the difference will they be able to survive and even perhaps lead their peers to a higher moral standard.

Generations of Virtue is a non-profit, volunteer-driven ministry that equips parents to empower their kids for purity in our world today. We work closely with parents and teens as we provide them with classic and cutting-edge resources to fight the battle for purity.

It looks like they break down their book resources by gender and age to make it easier to find appropriate material. Also, they provide dvds, audio books, and purity jewelry. Check it out at:

Generations of Virtue

HeroDads

Here's a cool website with lots of products to jump start your "daddy time" with the kids. The pressure of our jobs and life in general can sometimes rob us of the wonder of true quality time with the kids....this website aims to provide tools to make it easier to capture those moments:

HeroDads came into existence for one purpose: to help dads become more heroic in their families’ eyes. By heroic we do not mean the empty, unattainable sense of a “Superhero” or a Hollywood action star. We mean it in the noble, achievable sense of a genuine commitment of a father to lead boldly and connect relationally with his wife, sons and daughters, by the help of God.

HeroDads - Tools and Strategies to Help Dads Become Heroes!

Engraving Creations

Need a personalized object for your child's rite-of-passage ceremony? I recently used this company to create a marble cube laser-engraved with manhood principles for my 7 year old and I was very impressed with the results.

They are very customer service centered and willing to listen and understand your request. They sent me several "proof" images prior to actually doing the engraving so I was sure I was getting just what I wanted.

http://www.engravingcreations.com/