I believe all things are connected if you look hard enough. I’m sure many of you have heard about the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon – where only six degrees of separation come between any actor and the actor Kevin Bacon.
My husband and I were just talking about connections the other night when we were watching Who Do You Think You Are? It’s a great show that follows celebrities who go back into their family tree to learn new things about their past and who their ancestors were. Some of the celebrities have family connections to George Washington and even Louis XXIV.
We always start each episode with a little joke- which famous person will this celebrity will be related to this week?
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized we are all probably related to someone famous (or infamous!) somewhere along the line. Each of us has had a father and mother, and they’ve had a father and mother, and so on. The family tree branches are endless. Of course, I believe we all ultimately come physically from the same mother and father, but even if you don’t, you still have to admit, it does sometimes seem like a small world out there.
When I taught junior high, I played a game with the kids I called Connections. I’d write different character names, places, dialogue, and other factoids from the book we’d read together on index cards. The kids came up one at a time, drew two random cards, and received one point for each connection they could make between the cards. Almost all the kids loved this game.
I thought it would be fun to play a weekly version of this game here on the site. I’m going to start with a random subject – in this first post it will be Scooby-Doo after my children’s favorite animated character – and find 25 different subjects or resources connected to the original subject.
So, here goes……..
SCOOBY DOO
1. Encyclopedia Brown Mystery Series
2. Dogs
3. Forensics
4. Animation
5. Script Writing
6. Writing Jokes
7. Thirty Second Mysteries Game for Kids
8. Clue Game
9. Geocatching
10. Logic Puzzles
11. Graphic Novels
12. The Boxcar Children Mysteries
13. 40 Fabulous Math Mysteries Kids Can’t Resist
14. Detective Science: 40 Crime-Solving, Case Breaking, Crook-Catching Activities for Kids
15. Blood and DNA Evidence: Crime Solving, Science Experiments
16. Nancy Drew Mystery Series
17. Hardy Boys Mystery Series
18. kids.mysterynet.com
19. Monsters
20. Disguises
21. History’s Mysteries – The History Channel
22. One Minute Mysteries and Brain Teasers
23. Kids Write! Fantasy and Sci-Fi, Mystery, Autobiography, Adventure & More!
24. Haunted Mystery Tours in your city
25. Scooby Doo Sheet Music
Of course, each one of these subjects or resources can lead into 25, 50, or 200 other related subjects. The point is no matter what subject your child is interested in you can find many other related subjects that will also interest her. And when those subjects catch her attention, you have a whole new range of ideas to introduce.
What topics or ideas currently catch your child’s interest? Can you think of other subjects or ideas that connect to the original topic that might interest him, too?
Also, can you think of any other subjects I’ve left out that we can add to our Scooby-Doo Connections list? Do you have suggestions for subjects for future lists?
Image: zipckr
