March 15, 2011

Einsteinian Evening

I had this ingenious thought last week
that it would be fun
to have an Einstein party
and play strategy and math games
and solve mind-bending puzzles and such.
No one else I told was as excited about the idea as I was,
which is often the case with my brilliant plans.
I let my idea go idle for a few days.
And then on Sunday, Kyler and I
were looking at a calendar he has in his room.
It's one of those calendars that
tells you the date of important things like 
National Anthem Day and National Goof Off Day.
And what do you know?
The next day was Albert Einstein's Birthday!
March 14th.
I was stoked.
We could have our Einstein night the very next day.
So we did.
I went into my school stuff
and pulled out
Rebus puzzles, brain teasers, and math games.
I gathered whiteboards and markers.
I wrote down a few Einstein quotes.
And we were ready
for some brainy good fun.
To start out the evening,
we looked on the internet at a few pictures of Einstein
and read a little bit about his life.
Then we read the quotes I had written on notecards.
Two of the quotes were not by Einstein
so my family had to figure out which quotes were
not true Einsteinian.

Eric picked out the one by Abraham Lincoln (to stand firm)
and Kyler figured out the one by Elvis (about truth being like the sun).
Then we divided into teams and decided on names.
We were
the Experiments (Kacin and E)
vs.
the Mad Thinkers (Kyler and Me)
in a battle of the minds.
We played first team to ten points on the rebus puzzles.
We had simpler ones for the boys,
and a bit more challenging ones for me and E.
Point to the Mad Thinkers.
We solved one of these.
Point to the Experiments.
We played first to five on brain teasers, like
If there are 3 apples and you take 2 away, how many do you have?
and
Two men play 5 complete games of checkers. Each man wins the same number of games. There are no ties. How?
Point to the Mad Thinkers.
We had to be the first
to put the addition and subtraction signs in
to make the equation true.
6   4   1   2   6   2 = 15
Point to the Experiments.
We studied a picture for one minute
and then had one minute
to write down as many things as we could remember.
Point to the Mad Thinkers.
We could have kept going with the fun games,
but it was time for bed.
At the end,
we each made an awesome looking snack
using 6 treats,
but we made it for another person to eat.
We are definitely more intelligent after tonight.

For the record, I do know that Einstein was a physicist and probably didn't do rebus puzzles, but the point was building our thinking skills.
chelsea :: stock said...

I am terrible at these kind of games. I can't think under pressure. (i.e. anybody watching me, timing me...) my inability to perform at similar puzzles almost got me kicked out of the Excel Learning Program in elementary school.

so maybe... just maybe... when you suggested an Einstein party my palms began to sweat and I had flash backs to a disappointed Mr. B shaking his head...

it's possible that is why I didn't get super excited when you suggested it :)



however... maybe that is also why I need the practice. next year!

Jen said...

You are my idol and one day I dream of being the kind of mom you are

Stefanie Hyer said...

I love your awesome ideas and fun activities! You are inspiring! I also loved your team names!