Reverse Reading

Directions:

Esrever ni sngis yawhgih daer ot ekil dnuos ti dlouw tahw? Oops! Make that "What would it sound like to read highway signs in reverse?" The answer is clearly, "Pretty silly!" But it makes for a great highway game.

Demonstrate to your children how to read exit signs, billboards, truck lettering, store signs, and anything else they can find, backward. It's easier to start with if they jot down the words on a piece of paper before reading it backwards; then they can try it from memory alone. They'll quickly discover that some of the "words" they come up with may sound like real words.

Once your kids get the hang of the strange pronunciations, they can make the game more interesting by coming up with silly definitions to go with the nonsense words they've discovered. They might just create their own secret language (even if nobody knows what anyone else is saying).

Pay attention: "Daeha sevruc"! And above all, "Pirt ecin a evah."

More on: Games for the Whole Family

Excerpted from:

© 2005 by Steve and Ruth Bennett. Excerpted from 365 Unplugged Family Fun Activities with permission of its publisher, Perseus Books Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.