Five Minutes You're Out

Dear Friend,

Yesterday I went on a first grade field trip to the kite museum. It was very fun, but the car ride was quite noisy. Kids love to talk. I enjoyed listening to their conversations. I wish I had a pen with me so I could have written down the silly comments they made. Here were my two favorites (and you must read these in little high pitched first grade voices).

"[name] stop talking so much.
"No, I like to talk.  Talk, talk, talk."
"If you like to talk, then go to grade 2, because they like to talk."
(This is very true. My grade 2 students LOVE to talk!)

"Your house is pink."
"No, my house is not pink."
"Your house has to be pink because you're a girl."
(Evidence that stereotypes are already set by first grade.)

The noisy car trips made me appreciate my parents. My family traveled a lot by car; my two sisters and I LOVED to talk. My parents were so patient and put up with it for quite a while; eventually though, they would tell us we had to settle down and be quite, but only after at least an hour of our non-stop chattering.

There is one game we used to play called 5 minutes you're out. I don't know how the game got started. The goal was to make someone say the word "what" and if they did, the other person would say, "5 minutes you're out." Then the person who said 'what' had to be silent for 5 minutes. It would work like this:

Andrea: Becka.
Me: Hmmm?
Andrea: Han.
Me: yeah?
Andrea: Hannah.

Hannah: Yes?
Andrea: REBEKAH!
Me: WHAT?
Andrea: 5 minutes you're out!


Perhaps my parents made up the game to make us be quiet. Going something like this:

Dad: Girls, do you hear me?
Andrea, Hannah and Rebekah: What dad?
Mom: 5 minutes you're out girls!
Dad: Ahh, 5 minutes of peace and quiet!

Although it was a fun car game, it wasn't my favorite. My favorite of all times is the information service game.

My most memorable car trips are the ones in Switzerland. When we went sight seeing, we always saw information booths for tourists. Well, my sisters and I decided to make up our own information service game. This is how it went:

First, we would pretend to answer a call using our made up Information Service slogan:
"Information service at your service, how may we NOT help you?"
Then, we must come up with some witty air-headed comment.
Finally, laugh with sisters until you think up another scenario.

My favorite scenario was this one, "Hello, information service at your service, how may we not help you? Oh, I'm sorry, I can't help you right now, I'm on the phone."

My sister liked this one, "Hello, information service at your service, how may we not help you? You need to get to (insert destination)? Well you can get there by foot, bike, plane, boat, taxi, bus, train."

A couple other favorites of ours include:

"... You are going to visit (insert destination). Oh it is so beautiful there. Have a great trip!"
(Answering the phone) "Hello, we would like to order a pepperoni pizza. What? You aren't the pizza guy. Sorry, I must have dialed the wrong number."

The summer we created this game, we played it every time we were in the car, repeating our old scenarios and maybe coming up with new ones. We were so amused with it. But even with this game my parents would eventually tell us it was time to do something else that was more quiet.

Did you ever play fun games in the car with your family? What were they like?


Hope to hear from you!
Rebekah