Friday, October 17, 2014

"You Reap What You Sow" Encouraging Communication with Harvest Time Partners :)


In this day and age with everyone's nose in a smart phone, Ipad, or other device, face to face communication is becoming a thing of the past!  It has come too easy to send a text or quick reply, message someone on facebook or email. Today's online chatter has actually caused our families to become more and more disconnected.   The new age is great for the shy or extrovert, great for the children with selective mutism or social anxiety...or is it??  It has become so easy to communicate without actually speaking a word to someone, that these folks are able to climb deeper into their hole, soon to never escape!  We are losing the critical life skill of effective face to face communication.  I, myself suffer from some social anxiety and if something isn't able to be done via email you might as well count me out!  As many of you know we have a daughter who suffers from Selective Mutism, she has been in treatment and is doing much better, but she does still have her "quiet" days.



We make it a point in our family to sit down to dinner every night together and have a discussion about our day.


   Another way we try and keep open communication and togetherness in our family is to have family movie and game nights.  We recently sat down together for family game night with a game from Harvest Time Partners.



 Harvest Time Partners, Inc. was formed over 20 years ago to provide resources to support and encourage individuals, families, and organizations to reach their full potential in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.  In addition to it's award winning conversation games, harvest time partners provides custom programs designed to increase personal effectiveness, enhance character development, and strengthen the bonds of marriage and family.

Our family played the board game, Abundant Harvest For Teens & Adults.  The purpose of this game is to help families and educators open the door to communication, encourage decision making based on principles such as honesty, loyalty, and commitment with the intent of reinforcing the law of harvest..."you reap what you sow".  In this game you spend quality time together discussing real-life situations, encouraging your teen or adult to open up about dealing with their reality.

This particular game is from 2-8 players recommended ages 13- adult.  In this game you move around a game board while reading different scenario cards out loud.  The player then makes a decision using a principle from his/her principle card to support his/her decision to the scenario.  Each scenario card ends with the phrase, "what would you do?"



I enjoyed listening to my children's answers to each of the scenarios.  I learned my kids have a great heart and are always wanting to help those in need.  The game did indeed open up our family to communication.  If there is something i would change about the game, I would add some happier scenarios to it.    The game brings about a lot of life topics that are good to talk about, but each one was a bit negative per say.  Bringing more happy scenarios would make this game an A+ in my book.

I do recommend Harvest Time Partners and their products to my readers!  I think they have put a lot of thought into helping families and educators.  I am interested in purchasing the Abundant Harvest For Kids game next which is focused on ages 7 an up for the younger kiddos in the family.   So if you are interested in a game to open up to one another and help build character skills I recommend you check out all that Harvest Time Partners has to offer!
a Rafflecopter giveaway




Disclosure:  
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

27 comments:

  1. Love this! We sit down as a family
    Every single night for dinner too! I think it's so very important to have the time spent with family!

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  2. This is a great idea. A game like this is a great way to really connect with the family. Interactivity is always great!

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  3. This is very interesting. It would definitely open up conversations

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  4. I've never heard of this game before, I hope I win it! We also enjoy family meal time together, it's so important to get some family time in.

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  5. I really love the concept of this game. It's a great way to introduce really important concepts in a relaxed, safe way.

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  6. This sounds like a great game for families. It would be interesting to hear my sons responses. We try to eat dinner every night as a family without phones or the TV on.

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  7. Love the look of the game you guys are playing.

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  8. We spend time together as a family for every meal, if possible - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes we talk about our day and sometimes we are being quiet :) I think that's really something that helps bringing families together.

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  9. The scenarios in this game are really intense! It doesn't seem really age appropriate for our household yet though.

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  10. What a great idea for conversation! Love this!

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  11. wow. this sounds amazing. so good to get kids talking and thinking about scenarios that might affect them one day - like, its a fun way to get behind the scenes or something!

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  12. Looks like a very thought provoking family game, which isn't seen very often!

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  13. This sounds like a very interesting game. It would really help to prepare children to think swiftly if the situations ever arose.

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  14. OH WOW! Those are some pretty serious subjects on those cards. I think this game would be great for a lot of situations where conversations need to be real.

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  15. I see it everyday with my employee's, they only know how to speak in 140 characters! I love the idea that you sit down with your family and talk.

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  16. This was such a clever review! Oh man, I love the way you tied everything together. And I like the questions, they're provocative

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  17. Sounds like a wonderful game! By the way, I have had social anxiety disorder since I was a child. I have come a long, long way, though. It's always interesting to come across other people that has it since it's a disorder that isn't often talked about.

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  18. Wow I havent heard of this game. Sounds interested, a great way to start discussions with you kids about their everyday life too!

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  19. Sounds like a great game. Looks like I missed the giveaway. =(

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  20. We use to have family game night and the games were very educational... probably boring for some, but they were for increasing vocabulary.

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  21. Bravo for making family time a priority. It's hard to do that today with all the busy schedules and tech devices.

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  22. We have the "no handies" at the dinner table as well. Totally agree with you on the happier scenarios. Life has some good times to share too!

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  23. This sounds like a great game for family night. We have family night once a week too. We watch a movie and talk about it or we play a game. Thanks for sharing.

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  24. Ok, that Abundant Harvest For Teens & Adults is pretty interesting. That’s what I call a real game! I seem to miss the great contests!

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  25. This is the reason why until now that my first born is 9, i still won't give her a phone.. I want her to enjoy the things while she's young and not get hooked on to smartphones..

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  26. This is a marvelous game! Being a 20 year old in university I see how technology has broken down my generations communication so drastically and it is truly sad, I think this should be a requirement for everyone!!

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  27. Congratulations to Crystal S. Never heard this game before. I'm sure this is not available here in our country. GReat game for the whole family.

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