This is our last episode on the “Back to School” series! To wrap this all up, we dive into conversation with Anna about how we can make Analog Adventures with our own families.
The emphasis of today’s conversation: You can do it, even on a low budget, even if it doesn’t look great on Instagram. To quote the amazing @maandpamodern:
Adventures aren’t the goal in themselves, they’re the vessel for deeper relationships with our kiddos.
So, listen in as we walk through a few of the options available to us as parents for Analog Adventures in daily life.
Show Links:
Follow Gospel Tech: Online | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Find Greta Eskridge: Website | Instagram
- Book: Adventuring Together
- Book: 100 Days of Adventures
Gladys Hunt
Sarah McKenzie Book:
The Sutherland’s 13 Adventures List:
- Read A Book
- Read The Bible
- Read a Devotional
- Go on a walk
- Play Board Games
- Play a sport you’re bad at
- Play any kind of tag
- Yard Games
- Nature Adventure
- Make something
- Cook something
- Move together
- Learning together
Want to play a board game, but have no idea where to start? Look no further! We’ve compiled a list of tried and tested games. These have been vetted by middle schoolers (the toughest crowd around), nieces and nephews of all ages (there’s 17 of them, after all), and our three little ones as well. Jump in knowing any of these will get you started on the right path for quick and easy board game fun!
Ages 3-5:
- Animal Upon Animal: Stacking fun for everyone. Like Jenga, with delightful little wooden
critters. - Hoot Owl Hoot!: A whimsical cooperative game where players get the owl back to the next
by sunrise. Works on sequence, taking turns, and problem solving. - Zingo: Matching game mixed with speed bingo. Be the first player to match the newest
card with your board.
Ages 6-9:
- Downforce: An accessible, fun, and easy-to-learn F-1 racing game (instead of placing
“bets” we like to take “guesses” at who will win). 🤗 - Outfoxed: A fox is on the loose. Work together to discover who-done-it before he gets
away! - Ticket to Ride: Collect multi-colored tickets to be the player to travel the most high-value
tracks on the map.
Ages 10-12:
- Carcassonne: A semi-cooperative tile laying game.
- Dixit: Use fantastical pictures to get players to guess your one-phrase “story”.
- Super Fight: Create silly hero combos and duke it out in the arena of popular opinion.
- Code Names: Work together to find all the spies before your opponents find yours!
Ages 13+:
- Wingspan: Build the best bird sanctuary. Beautiful artwork on 200+ bird cards.
- Imperial Assault: Live the Star Wars adventure as either the Rebellion or the Empire.
- Clank!: Compete to gain the best treasure from the dragon horde. Just remember, the
more you take, the angrier the dragon gets.
Transcription:
Purposely. Your life. God’s purpose. Listen at onpurposely.com.
Nathan Sutherland: Welcome to the Gospel Tech Podcast; a resource for parents who feel overwhelmed and outpaced as they raise healthy youth in a tech world. As an educator, parent and tech user, I want to equip parents with the tools, resources, and confidence they need to raise kids who love God and use tech.
Hello everyone and welcome to the Gospel Tech podcast. My name is Nathan, and this podcast is dedicated to helping families love God and use tech. Today we have Anna with us.
Anna Sutherland: Hi!
Nathan Sutherland: And we are finishing up our back-to-school series. So, if you’ve been listening with us over the last, little bit over a month now, we’ve been talking about going back to school because here in the northwest we’re really late at that. I know some of you East Coast, You’ve been at school for two months now, so my apologies. But we’ve been looking at what does it look like to get our tech ready to go back to school. We looked at healthy steps we could take to healthy tech. Whew, that was mouthful. What to do when Your Child Asks for New Tech. How to Make Friends in an online world, Finding balance keeping the internet safe. And today wanted to kind of wrap up this conversation by looking at what we call analog adventures. By that we simply mean things that aren’t digital. And we’re going to be talking about basically, does it operate at the pace of real life? Can it be done with other people you know in real life? And are these physical, often difficult, intentional adventures? Are they things that we’re inviting our children into? Both for the growth side; we wanna be a part of something difficult, cuz we grow through difficulty, but also because they make us more present with our surroundings.
So, then that brings us to why Analog Adventures, which I stole a little of that thunder? What do we say for why we’re having this conversation?
Anna Sutherland: Well, I think on the podcast and in our work, we talk a lot about helping children and families reach their full potential. And I think analog adventures, we’ve seen in our own family and working with kids, that that’s a great way to develop that full potential. And when we default to the easier option of entertainment tech or drool tech, then. I think we’re missing some of that opportunity. So, God made our kids for good works that we’ve been saved for good works. Then he’s wired each of us to be great at certain things and to be amazed by him in certain ways. Adventure is how we can use our work in the way it was intended.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. And, and that’s like we see that with our kiddos, right? Like our kids, so, we have eight soon to be 9, 6, 3 and a half. And each of them finds amazement in different things. And in the analog way, like when it happens in the pace of real life, it has less downside, which is I guess is the why. Like why do we focus on analog to see this amazement? And our argument is basically just the digital is great. We use it. Actually, when I told Anna the subject for day, what was your response? When I was like, I think we’re gonna talk about analog adventures.
Anna Sutherland: Oh. I just feel like listener, I. This is hard for me. I default to like; this is not a natural choice for me to pick an analog adventure. I feel like I have to fight against…. it’s, I would rather just turn on a show and let’s watch a movie and not… that is so much easier than anything else.
Nathan Sutherland: And it’s not, that’s not bad, right? Like, I, I wanna make sure that that’s said because that’s not natural for me. I do not enjoy sitting down and watching a movie. Like, that’s not normal for me. So, it’s not bad to enjoy those things. And listener please feel encouraged. that that’s not bad. We’re not saying analog adventures are the only biblical way to enjoy time with your kids or something. We’re saying that because they’re not easy, because it can be a difficult default, let’s emphasize the the value of these pace of real-life adventures we’re having. And I, I loved what Anna brought up there, that we were made for work. Like in the Perfect Garden, Adam worked. He was designed for that before the fall. So, these adventures aren’t necessarily relaxing. They’re hopefully biblically grounded work that is focused on wonder and amazement. And like the Psalms talks about like singing about how great God is, you have to have experienced God’s greatness. His nature, his sunrise rises, his storms… the incredible way we’ve each been wired to make things that leave us more present and don’t simply consume our time and our attention.
So, I’ll use I was gonna save this for later, but I’ll use it now. Greta Eskridge talks a lot about adventure. She’s @maandpamodern. She wrote a pair of books which we’ll link to but called Adventuring Together and then 100 Days of Adventure. And I love her vision for adventure cuz she says, “Adventure’s the vessel that we use for relationship with our kids.” it isn’t the thing, so, I’m not saying go do an analog adventure. It’s not saying do an analog adventure cuz then your kids will be good. Or then life will be perfect. We’re saying analog adventures are a wonderful way to be amazed at God and have a relationship with your kid and to be intentionally part of their life and raise them up in the way they should go.
Anna Sutherland: Can I circle back to my TV comment? I think , I was just wanting to wrap that up more nicely. That I think it’s, my default can be when things are hard I just wanna put on a show and like, make the problem of noisy children go away too. Cuz I think that there can be good bonding and learning opportunities. Nathan does not enjoy watching TV or movies, and I love a good story. And I think there can be a lot to be taught and learned.
Nathan Sutherland: Hold on just a minute. Okay. Nathan doesn’t like movies and I enjoy being intelligent.
Anna Sutherland: That’s not what I meant. You feel like you’re getting emotionally manipulated?
Nathan Sutherland: Yes. Most of the time I do.
Anna Sutherland: When you’re watching a movie and I don’t like the emotional… I think there are things that emotionally, emotionally manipulate you, but I also think that you can, it can be like a good novel, watching a good movie. Can, Yes, it can be. So, there are certain movies I think that as a family are good ones to watch. Like that’s different to sit down as a family and watch a movie and talk about it and laugh together, or to learn something together, than it is to use it as a digital babysitter. Which we also on occasion do.
Nathan Sutherland: The, the last episode we recorded, we, we quite literally did that.
Anna Sutherland: Sorry, me. Stories and learning and anything worthwhile.
Nathan Sutherland: Knowledge. So, but yeah. Thank you for return to that. That it was, you were focusing specifically on like it can, it can be amazing, but it can also be just so easy that we…
Anna Sutherland: like, just wanna make the problem go away of.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. Yeah. We see our kids as problems to fix sometimes, instead of people to love. And that, that’s an issue. And so, analog adventures, it’s very difficult that because you have to be intentional, because we have to be intentional in them, these forces us to be more present and more intentional and, by golly, our kids can still be problems that we want to fix. But this is a, a cool way to, I think, bring it in. So, my hope in doing this, when I, again, I pitched the idea that Anna was, I wanna make sure this doesn’t come off as, here’s things we do perfect, and you should be more like us. Instead, I really want this to be, and Anna’s gonna help me moderate, from this what families could do ina hypothetical world to practically, this is how we can make this happen on a limited budget, on a limited timeframe.
Anna Sutherland: If you don’t like going outside.
Nathan Sutherland: If you don’t like going outside,
Anna Sutherland: Cause I’m thinking like you, this is very natural for you to do. You are a player. You like to play with our kids. Yep. I am not like art. My dad is a player. I’m like Hawaii Lindsay is a player. Like these are, Hey, Hawaii, Hey Lindsay, outside. Like that is her default. This is your default to choose an adventure over anything else. And so, I feel like I’m here for the people who are sleep. Yeah. Yeah. And doing like, you would rather do that than anything else. Yeah. So, I’m here to advocate for the people who this is hard for.
Nathan Sutherland: For people to make the world work, this is for you here.
Anna Sutherland: This is, I mean, I feel like that was, what was that sermon we just? Maybe that was at school Talk. The body is made of many parts, and our family is made of many parts, right? Like that We all are on our own. Like, yes, I would just run the calendar and make sure we have groceries and not be very fun. And you’re very fun. And you would never grocery shop.
Nathan Sutherland: Or get a golden retriever until the sun goes down.
Anna Sutherland: And our children all are different parts of that team and body. And so, I think it’s important to, we need each other. Anyway, sorry.
Nathan Sutherland: No, you’re good.
Anna Sutherland: One part is not more valuable than the other. Yeah. Is what I was trying to say.
Nathan Sutherland: And an excellent point to make as we look at these adventures. So, please note, the reason we brought that up is these adventures are awesome. Please hear that they, you don’t have to do them all, and they can be done in whatever way works for your family and your personalities. Anna does adventure differently than myself. But here’s, I put together 13 because I’m not superstitious, I don’t even incur. So, I, I put together a list of 13. Feel free to add any, as you go along, Anna, if you’re like, Oh, you forgot this.
Anna Sutherland: So, these are just options people could…
Nathan Sutherland: Options people consider and, and to walk out what it looks like. So, the first is just simply read a book. A, a wonderful book that we’ve actually found encouraging in this is the read aloud revival. And there’s a podcast called the same thing.
Anna Sutherland: It’s Sarah McKenzie, is the gal’s name, and she…
Nathan Sutherland: Read Aloud Family.
Anna Sutherland: Read aloud family is her podcast. Yeah. She’s a great resource if you are looking for book references, or how to create a culture of readers. She’s a, Or if you’re a homeschool parent, she has great resources on integrating that into your homeschool day.
The one year that I homeschooled, she was very helpful and I, I just appreciated her. She had a lot of like good, guided questions and like, if that’s not natural for you, some, some ways to integrate that into your family. And then the thing I just, I just actually the other day printed it out, it was like, it’s always so nice to have somebody vet books for you, cuz it can be scary to walk into the library sometimes and just grab anything off the shelf, because you might not want your child reading just whatever is on the library shelf. And so, she has, I just printed off like two or three pages of books boys love, from ages four to seven. She has them broken down in age groups. . So, I was like, Great. Here’s 30 books for each of my kids to start plowing through when they’re looking for something new. That’s an, Sorry, can I just, You want me to keep talking about reading? That is, that is probably more natural for me to want to do that adventure. And something easy for me to do because I like to read. It’s also something that’s been really nice as the boys are back in school and they’re gone more of the day. I feel like we fight over who gets to put which kid to bed, and I’m like, Can I please put the big boys to bed because it’s the only time of day they wanna snuggle and they’re gone the whole day and they’ll lay on their beds with me and read for 20 minutes. And they’re happy to read picture books, or they’re happy to listen to a chapter book they like reading to me at night. And I feel like it’s a really nice time. We don’t always have like big, meaningful conversations about every single thing we read. But it’s just a nice way to like create physical closeness and share in a story together.
Nathan Sutherland: Which, Huge. Like if that’s all we get from, from reading a book together, like that’s huge. You’re building this, the proximity closeness, right? Yeah. Like you get your eight-year-old man cub to snuggle with you.
Anna Sutherland: He snuggles with me every time we read. And he is not, he’s not a snuggler. He does not snuggle.
Nathan Sutherland: He doesn’t even like hugging. He backs into you when you ask for one, sometimes.
Anna Sutherland: He likes to hug when he’s supposed to be going to bed.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. He’ll come down for an extra hug. That’s his trick. But I, thank you for bringing that up, that that is an amazing opportunity and just use of that time. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable to read aloud, so, let’s just acknowledge that. That’s many of our least favorite parts of school was that popcorn reading. And just know that your, it’s like singing with your child. Like they don’t care what your voice sounds like. They care about your presence.
Anna Sutherland: They, Nathan reads the voices.
Nathan Sutherland: Oh, but I’m just saying like your, like some people don’t like reading out loud. Think they’re, they don’t read fluently enough. Or they like popcorn reading gives people anxiety. And so, your kiddos just want you to be there. So, just know that. I was, while you were saying that I was thinking of, Oh, second resource, Gladys Hunt.
Anna Sutherland: Oh, the Honey for a Child’s Heart. Yes. Yeah, that’s a great one too. Several different chapters and explanations on from really little to high school age books. Yeah. Book recommendations.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. So, I will say I’ve, so in Young Life I would use, this was a veteran leader gave me the suggestion, I would use a read aloud to get my middle school aged boys to calm down a night, cuz it’s camp. Everyone’s all hopped up on sugar and sunshine. And I would bring either Narnia or Hobbit and I would just read, for like 45 minutes every night. And they got the boys either pass out or lay silently and listen. And it worked year after year with different groups of people. So, just know that your middle school kid still isn’t too cool to be read to. But it will take the right book and such. So, that’s number one.
Number two might feel like an obvious, but it’s read the Bible. Reading the Bible. Is an amazing opportunity for us to learn from the Lord together. So, I think it breaks down the barrier of what I’ve had to do is I felt for a long time, like I had to know all this stuff and then I had to deliver it. Like I, I’m the Bible specialist. You’re giving a sermon, like a sermon. And this was a mistake I used in Young Life many of my very gracious Young Life, former kiddos, now friends, would be able to tell you about Nathan’s sermons. But reading the Bible together and simply putting all of us under scripture together. It can be Proverbs; those are very practical. They can be Psalms because kids understand worship really well. Or it can be, you know, gospels or wherever you choose. But reading it together to see God’s character in his goodness and to have that. and a book that we’ve enjoyed for reading the Bible with our kiddos has been the Jesus Story Book Bible. We, I personally love it. I believe Anna likes it for the same reason, but it does a great job at keeping the focus of the gospel throughout the whole piece. So, it’s not like, Here’s David, be like David, cuz God was impressed with him. It does a really nice job of be like, Nope, David was bad at life, but God’s still good. And David put his trust in God, and you can too. So, reading the Bible together. Is that… Did I bug that up? Well.
Anna Sutherland: That was excellent. Fabulous.
Nathan Sutherland: Then the third would be what you’ve done really well. This is something I do terrible at, is devotionals.
Anna Sutherland: Oh. That kind of fits into reading the Bible together?
Nathan Sutherland: I Okay. I, I would respectfully disagree on… like, there’s a Bible verse, but like, I want to read the Bible as like its own source. This is a third-party text.
Anna Sutherland: Okay.
Nathan Sutherland: So, Sure. But like, you’ve done a really good job. You found it and have implemented a devotional from Louis Giglio, which I thought has been awesome.
Anna Sutherland: Yeah, he’s got three that are kind of like a sciencey… the how great is our God. Indescribable.
Nathan Sutherland: I don’t remember about the third one.
Anna Sutherland: There’s one more that’s on Owen’s Christmas list. They are, they’re good at the breakfast table. Quick. Like five minutes and a little prayer and a Bible verse. And I think most kids are interested in sciencey at that age. So, I feel like there it’s like stuff I, the body. Yeah, they’re animals. I feel like all three of our kids really enjoy those and they have a good question usually. Or like something to talk about. Like it can be a good conversation starter on something that might not naturally come up.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. And I feel like it’s a lot lighter. The reason I feel like I feel the Bible is especially intimidating and we don’t want devotional to be the only Bible reading we do with our children. Cuz again, we’re reading kind of through the lens of someone. But like the Jesus Story book Bible, it can be a wonderful introduction, a great conversation starter, and a reason to go to the Bible. He does a nice job of giving us Bible verse and stuff. But you’ve done great at that.
Anna Sutherland: Thank you.
Nathan Sutherland: Speaking of things you’ve done great at; our family does a nice job with this because you enjoy these. Just going on a walk.
Anna Sutherland: I guess. Yeah. I’m noticing a theme of like; you don’t have to do everything on the list, right. Do the things that…
Nathan Sutherland: I’m trying to give a big idea, like show people how broad and even how simple Yeah. Some of these ideas are. Cause when I say analog adventure, most people are like, I gotta go camping. We have to make a canoe. We have to basically be the family from Alone or Swiss family Robinson, like right there. There’s no family Alone. The person from alone or Swiss Family Robinson Family and Alone. No.
Anna Sutherland: Okay. Yes. No, I don’t, I don’t tend to do those things. But I can do little things and I do like going for walks, I feel like, And it’s good for, It’s usually a good reset for our children to go for a walk also.
Nathan Sutherland: So, this is, I included this for two reasons. This was not one of my lists. I built a list of like six, And then I was like, What would Anna say? And you do amazing at walks because they’ve even done it, the drop of a hat. So, we get that awkward lull.
Anna Sutherland: They got it easier. I will, I do wanna, I remember a season when it felt like a nightmare when Owen was two and Henry was a baby. I was like, We might never go for a walk again, because it felt like you would just get somebody fed and somebody changed and get the dog ready, and do it, go to the bathroom and then somebody else would have to start all over and it was like that was a nightmare. And now everyone can get their shoes on and get their scooter and get out the door. So, it feels like we can go for a walk, and we can go for a 15-minute walk or a 45 minute walk and everyone is mostly fine. So, we are That is a season too something.
Nathan Sutherland: It is a season. Very, It’s a really good reminder.
Anna Sutherland: One baby. Like I would walk Owen for hours. Yes. Then that was great.
Nathan Sutherland: When he was little.
Anna Sutherland: When he was the only baby. Yes. Yeah.
Nathan Sutherland: And put him in a bob and just roll
Anna Sutherland: and run with him for a long time. Now, Yes, we have entered a walking or riding bike season
Nathan Sutherland: and, and the kids can run up ahead and you and I even can like, sneak in sentences of like, that’s a real goal, real adult conversation, which is more than we can do at dinner, or, or after bed. So, walks are awesome. I have implemented what my dad did for me growing up, which is grab a ball or a Frisbee and throw it and make the human run…
Anna Sutherland: when they’re cranky about, sometimes they don’t wanna go for a walk, so like, Great, we’ll play catch, and you can, or you get to walk the dog tonight.
Nathan Sutherland: Yes. Hadley does love walking the dog until she doesn’t, and then she wants you to push her and walk.
Anna Sutherland: She’s the weakest link on a walk, but she still comes.
Nathan Sutherland: But, but one of the prettiest links on the walk, so. And then this is obligatory. In any list of adventures, I make board games, please play them.
Anna Sutherland: This is not something that comes naturally to me.
Nathan Sutherland: Please play them. I was thinking about, I, I made a. I might, I’ll link to it below, but it like breaks it out by age. And I try to do like five games for each age group, like three to five, six to eight, nine to, I think nine to 11? 12 to 14. And then 15 plus I think is my age brackets off the top of my head. But just know
Anna Sutherland: 15 plus means hard.
Nathan Sutherland: 15 plus means difficult. There’s rules and focus. You wouldn’t wanna start at a 15 plus. Cuz 15-year-olds are smart. They can really handle a lot of weight when it comes to,
Anna Sutherland: I like to hang out in the three to six.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. Come on out Fox. What’s the one up…
Anna Sutherland: Candyland
Nathan Sutherland: What’s the one where you guess the person that Guess who?
Anna Sutherland: Oh, guess who.
Nathan Sutherland: Guess who. There you go down for a game of, guess who? Yeah. So, games. That we do enjoy though, that Anna has played Carcassonne.
Anna Sutherland: That means anyone can play them.
Nathan Sutherland: And what means anyone can enjoy them?
Anna Sutherland: I’m not gonna promise that. All right. Some people don’t like games.
Nathan Sutherland: Carcassonne people don’t like fun. And Nathan doesn’t like being smart. And this here,
Anna Sutherland: We’re just here for the big sweeping generalizations today.
Nathan Sutherland: Carcassonne, you’ve enjoyed.
Anna Sutherland: I do like Carcassonne. Yeah.
Nathan Sutherland: Take it to Ride.
Anna Sutherland: Yeah. We haven’t played that for a while.
Nathan Sutherland: But we haven’t played it for a while. But it’s both pretty and a fun intro game if you’ve only played Monopoly, take it to ride’s a great, That’s a good next one. Yeah. Next step. And then Outfoxed for Youngers was a gift from friends that our kiddos have loved and will play with like other kids who’ve never played games. They’ll just come over and it, it’s an easy one to teach him. It’s, it’s kind of like clue, but makes more sense and no murder involved. Yeah. So, board games, I could, I have literally spent full podcast episodes discussing, so, I’m gonna move on before I get distracted. But what, what do you think about this next one? I…
Anna Sutherland: Play a sport you’re bad at?
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. So, I feel like sometimes when we play sports, we’re, we so often gravitate to stuff that like, I played in high school, or I was good at this.
Anna Sutherland: And we, I do gravitate,
Nathan Sutherland: but we bring our kids out to it, which isn’t bad. We want our kids to be a part of our interests, but our kids also love seeing us be terrible at things. And that’s very like encouraging for them to see, mom and dad aren’t actually great at everything. We’re very human so trying to do something. So, for me, like I’m really bad at volleyball. Like really bad. Like I wasn’t allowed on the staff volleyball team one year because they didn’t lose liability at the beach trip. The night. The night. Yes. And at the family one, I, I am the weakest link there. So? No, no. The staff put me; Wouldn’t I play?
Anna Sutherland: I remember you’re a liability for real.
Nathan Sutherland: Like on the, Cause the ninth graders would just aim for me with their serves. Yeah, they’re get free points. You can’t hide me on a volleyball court. So, that being said, volleyball I play. Owen loves it. I’m terrible. And he does better than me and that’s great. So, whatever it might be for you, it might be just something you’re learning. Like right now I’m learning how to do some stuff on my bike and the boys are learning it with me, and they’re better, but we’re learning together and that’s great. Yeah. So that’s why I said specifically sport you’re bad at. Oh. Yeah. I put a note. You’re not, not being Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. Circle here. Any kind of tag.
Anna Sutherland: Play tag with your kids?
Nathan Sutherland: Any kind of tag. So, I personally like running less. So, laser tag works well for me. Some people are not comfortable with guns, so I get that. So, find a kind of tag you’re comfortable with.
Anna Sutherland: I feel like this is a thing that I would organize, and I don’t wanna play. Ooh. But I’m happy to organize this game. Yeah.
Nathan Sutherland: You did that for Owen’s birthday. implemented.
Anna Sutherland: Yeah. I just feel like it’s okay to be like, I’m 37 and I’m not playing tag. I will organize tag and I will like create opportunity for tag. Yeah. And I will gather a gaggle of children for you to play tag with.
Nathan Sutherland: I’m 39 and darn it, I wanna play some tag.
Anna Sutherland: That’s great. I just wanna validate the people who no longer want to play tag.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah, that’s fair.
Anna Sutherland: I played tag many a year,
Nathan Sutherland: and my tagging days are over.
Anna Sutherland: My taking days are over. I will happily organize the game.
Nathan Sutherland: You could be suckered into like pointing and clicking at some kids though. , You could do that. Yeah, but it’s not gonna be natural. You’re not gonna pick that off a list. All right.
Anna Sutherland: But I, I appreciate it. And the kids really like, they love it. I love… and I like watching a group of kids play these games. Like our, the cousins are finally all old enough to play kind of organized games, and it makes me so happy to watch ’em play weird combos of freeze tag.
Nathan Sutherland: That they just make up.
Anna Sutherland: Yard games. They make up in the backyard. Yes. I’m like, this is so fun.
Nathan Sutherland: Fight over rules. You said that it’s all a Calvin ball at some point, like when we’re within six paces of this thing, we all agreed only your left foot. Right. I did, I put a special note here because for Owen’s birthday, this is just so weird and no one would ever think of doing it, but the, the battle club for a form of tag. Everyone you need to, you need to find, find a picture of what most of you will only know is larking, but it’s not larking. Just tag with giant foam swords. It’s amazing. And your children will love it. Then what’s number eight?
Anna Sutherland: Take a nature adventure. Hmm. Walk a hill. Climb a rock. Climb a rock. Climb a rock. Paddle aboard. You can tell which ones I’m not doing. Ride something somewhere. Bicycle, mopeds, Dirt bikes, Longboard. Okay. This is a more outdoorsy, Do something outdoorsy.
Nathan Sutherland: Cause they’re not bad. Again, we focused
Anna Sutherland: what’s not bad? Doing something outdoorsy.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. I said this list, It wasn’t, That’s not bad. Well, but I, I focused on like things that were very practical, but by number eight, like Yeah, go do those. Like classic. I didn’t use the H word hike. Oh. Because I feel like hikes can turn into just forced marches at some at some point. Yeah. So, trying to make the adventure, the focus of it. So, recent example, we went camping with the papas.
Yeah. And took the papas out on this lovely… it’s two and a half miles. Kids are eight and six. They are not avid quote unquote hikers, but when part of the walk is tagged and part of it is find a stick and part of it is see the waterfall, like, we can keep them engaged. And the next thing, okay, part of it is race to the next bridge. Like it is fun. The pop, it was flat enough, the papa has loved it, so, it wasn’t up the side of a cliff. Like know your, know your audience. But that, that can be an amazing opportunity. And again, find some wonder or ride if you’re not a hiker, Walker. Ride something.
Anna Sutherland: No, I do. I like that. It’s nice. It’s, it’s nice to get in nature.
Nathan Sutherland: It is.
Anna Sutherland: Even when you feel like you don’t want to.
Nathan Sutherland: Even when it’s all over, you get it off. Then making something was number nine. And for this, again, we’re back to stuff you can do at home. But you actually do quite well at several of these, despite it not being your proclivity. Which is your favorite one to make?
Anna Sutherland: Well, you listed Legos, a robot. None of those was a puzzle. A garden. I don’t do any of these.
Nathan Sutherland: You do Legos and puzzles.
Anna Sutherland: Mm. I can follow directions.
Nathan Sutherland: Okay. That’s true. You’re not like free building, I guess I’m not a free builder either. We’re not all Remington. But with these, so when you’re making something, again, the point isn’t you are an engineer at heart. The point is it’s something that you get to see. You get that progression of,
Anna Sutherland: I feel, again, this is more my role as a facilitator. And I think that can be part of creating analog adventure with your kids is allowing for opportunity for these things to happen. I don’t think you have to be, like, it’s wonderful to do these with your children, but I don’t think every single time it has to be.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah, really good point.
Anna Sutherland: You doing it with them, A lot of this is creating space for these things to happen. So, that space in your time. Like that you’re not gone all the time. Cuz to build Legos or a puzzle or garden or make something out of the, like a fort in the house, you have to just be home and have downtime where people are bored and have nothing else to do and then these things start to happen a little bit more naturally. So, I feel like some of that is just in your role of a facilitator of the family. Space physically and, and the calendar.
Nathan Sutherland: Facilitating Adventures Parenting 102. But it is like, and you’re buying yourself space when that happens, and you’re knowing that your child is not running into strangers. They’re not being over stimulated. It’s impossible to be over stimulated while playing Legos or building a robot or doing a puzzle. And you’re getting your, So your kid’s gonna come away rejuvenated, hopefully. At least having invested some of their energy mentally into something and having built the skills that come with whatever the adventure was. So, yeah, that’s my, that’s my pitch for that.
Number 10 is cook something. And when I’ve brought this up before, you’ve been like, No, don’t cook things with your kids. I,
Anna Sutherland: Well, again, you could just tell, don’t, like they will destroy it. I don’t enjoy cooking with our kids,
Nathan Sutherland: But you choose…
Anna Sutherland: I also with don’t day like cooking, so that’s part of it.
Nathan Sutherland: That’s true.
Anna Sutherland: You like to cook. Yes. And so it’s more fun. ,
Nathan Sutherland: but you just baked with him the other day. And we’re sorely disappointed at the result.
Anna Sutherland: I did, I facilitate, I passed off my cookie making duty to them, which is a good, like for them to try to do it. And then cookies are part of, So I was like, I eat cookies every day.
Nathan Sutherland: If you guys, if you guys know Anna or have ever been at a church Zoom meeting, you would know that Anna loves her cookies.
Anna Sutherland: And I passed off my, I delegated the duty while, cause we were trying to get ’em done fast and I was like doing something else, so the boys did it. Something went wrong. they’re not, they’re, they’re edible. They just not, they have chocolate chips in them. They’re goes a long way.
Nathan Sutherland: No, not perfect. Very flat.
Anna Sutherland: Again, I, I facilitate a lot of adventure. That’s what I’m learning from this episode.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. Anna’s noting that that we’re noting that for Anna Life as a group Project, and she’s…
Anna Sutherland: …and I’ll be the facilitator. Somebody needs to know what’s happening,
Nathan Sutherland: and some of us are just so good at being energetic, so that’s great. This is something you do drawing & painting?
Anna Sutherland: I, yes.
Nathan Sutherland: And you’re both good at it and the boys love doing it with you, which is super cool. I love seeing that because my goodness, I can’t draw or paint to save my life.
Anna Sutherland: I did just pencil in; I feel like we struggle in the after-school hour.
Nathan Sutherland: What do you mean by struggle?
Anna Sutherland: Cause I’m tired from. Like we get home at like 3:30. The 3:30 to 4:30 to 5:00. Yeah. Hour to hour and a half can be a little bit tricky. And it’s, we’re not home every night. With, I feel like we have piano, or somebody will have a sport practice community or whatever. Yeah. But on the nights that we’re home, it can feel a little like, I’m tired. They’re tired. But it’s still a long time till dinner. and Nathan’s still working or… so, I did just kind of make a mental list. I feel like that’s where the temptation, not that it’s bad, like again, great if you, it’s part of your rhythm, like this is when we watch a show or whatever this is when they get tech time. That’s fine. I feel like I just was kind of brainstorming the other day like, okay, what would recharge me and what would recharge them to kind of decompress from that school whirlwind? So, we did just make a little list of their date and I’ve started just writing it on the chalkboard when they come home. Like, these are, we’re gonna go for a walk or we’re all gonna go outside and shoot hoops. Or, I did, we got the paints out this weekend. I think we all had colds, and it was like, you know what? It’s a nice day. We’re gonna get the watercolors out because I just wanna sit here, and I’m tired, but we can paint together. And I feel like again, yeah, that facilitating. Like it was me just getting stuff out and I sat and painted, and they painted for 20 minutes with me and yeah, it was, that was a long time for them to sit and paint. We haven’t done that for a while, so they’re not in, some people are probably more in a habit of doing arts and crafts with their kids every day, but we haven’t done that for a bit.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. And that was awesome. And the boys, like, they look to you when they want to paint something. And I think that’s a valuable little cool thing too. And also, I came inside and there were super pretty fall paintings to enjoy. It was lovely. I was trying to think of something. Oh, for, for a cool, fun resource, if you’re not artistic, you’re like me. I have done this. In fact, I’m looking at a painting I did or a drawing I did with the kids. We just did Art Hub for Kids? Or Art Kids for Hub, whatever it is, it’s YouTube.
Anna Sutherland: I think most people know about it. Yeah, maybe it’s pretty, but it’s so, it’s free.
Nathan Sutherland: Check it out if you want something to do.
Anna Sutherland: They’re really cute little drawing lessons. There’s a bunch of great re again, Greta Eskridge has great drawing resources. Also, there’s a lot of great things on the internet if you are, I mean,
Nathan Sutherland: Those are two spots to look. Yeah. Or if you don’t have arty kids, cuz even you’re not arty kids gotta figure out how to do something they’re not good at.
Anna Sutherland: Yeah.
Nathan Sutherland: Then move together. And by this I simply mean like do anything that involves physical activity. It doesn’t have to, We’re going for total calories burned, or we’re going for you know, being incredible specimen. This is just something because it’s fun to move with your kids. So, whether it’s a YMCA, a Zumba class or like a dance party with Hadley. Even if it leads to nanny elbow nanny,
Anna Sutherland: I was trying to be a fun mom. that’s what I get for being fitness. My mom, mom.
Nathan Sutherland: Trying not to facilitate.
Anna Sutherland: My mom and I always joke, we like, that’s why we don’t go outside. This person just got super hurt. . Something just happened when somebody just got really hurt on a mountain. She’s like, That’s why we don’t go hiking. Like, you’re right,
Nathan Sutherland: That’s why we don’t go, We stay in our houses where it’s safe. Where it’s safe.
Anna Sutherland: No. Hadley really likes to dance the record player. And I was like, Okay, I have 20 minutes. Sure, I’ll be fun and dance. But she really likes to be swung around with her arms fully extended, which doesn’t always end well.
Nathan Sutherland: and in this case, in it in a dislocated elbow.
Anna Sutherland: She’s fine. But it was a bummer of a morning.
Nathan Sutherland: What, what did she what did she call her?
Anna Sutherland: My wankle. My wankle. My wankle hurt.
Nathan Sutherland: My wankle broke. My wankle hurt. My wankle okay. I Okay. What you doing? I Okay. My wankle okay. I know. Oh, man.
Anna Sutherland: Then moving together.
Nathan Sutherland: Yes, moving together, whatever that looks like. Because at the end of the day, the dislocation popped back in and she’s fine. Yeah. It none,
Anna Sutherland: Were a little dance party. I feel like I default to a walk, but every now and then I can get the boys to do a yoga with a piano. .
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah, they do. Owen like to do that. And the last one is just learn together. And that can be anything. You could be learning, like Anna just said, like doing a, a stretching class together. You could be learning something academic together. Something hands on, some real time. And that’s whether it’s learning how to bake a pie or tie a fly or cast or carve or shoot bows and arrows. Write stories. Like whatever the thing is, doing it together, not because you know how to do it or you’re good at it, but because you’re not, and you wanna grow together. So, what we’ve just finished is an extensive list of activities and adventures.
Anna Sutherland: Mm. You’re gonna link some good resources for people.
Nathan Sutherland: Yeah. So, I’ll, I will link Greta Eskridge. I will link the, oh, the read aloud revival and the honey for a child’s heart. And then just some ideas. I’ll link our board game list. Anyway, the links, they’ll be in the show. I don’t have to tell you guys what the links are. They’ll, they’ll be at the bottom. There will be good links and Anna will add whatever she believes to be beneficial as well for the Overseeing of the group projects.
Anna Sutherland: The facilitating, if you’re facilitator of analog adventure, which isn’t important. Every role is important.
Nathan Sutherland: Every role is important. I mean, someone needs the brain and the rest of us just need to be the arms and legs that do it. So, I, I just want to emphasize at the end here, don’t feel overwhelmed, like you have to do all these. They have to do any of these ones specifically. I hope it just inspired for you something you’re like, Oh, we could go do some of you live in Hawaii or Australia. Lindsay in Zealand, where you can like go see sea turtles enough that you hate them. Or go on like it’s
Anna Sutherland: Just a lot of shots fired at our Hawaii friends today. Can you tell, we really wanna go and visit?
Nathan Sutherland: We’re just so bitter that it’s so pretty over there. But wherever you are, by the way, Canada surging with listeners right now. So, thanks Canada. And the UK you’re not, you’re not missed. And Ohio. Ohio. Ohio. Thanks, guys, for listening. Wherever you are, we hope that you find adventures. You find ways to just model wonder and amazement with your children. Be willing to just be humble enough to be bad at it. That’s okay too. And enjoy that process. We’d love to hear what adventures you pick.
You can find us on social media, on Facebook and Instagram at @lovegodusetech. You can write me directly if you’d like, [email protected], and you can join us next week as we continue this conversation about how we can love God and use tech.
