Restaurant Activity: How Many Words?

Directions:

What's in a restaurant's name and a restaurant's menu? Good waiting games for your kids, probably.

First try seeing how many distinct words your children can discover using the letters in the name of the restaurant you're patronizing. If the establishment is called something like "The Grand Old New England Clam Chowder House," it'll be easy for everyone to come up with a slew of words. If it's "Al's," you might want to try using words from the menu. For instance, how many words can people find in sandwich entrees such as "Hamburger Deluxe" or "Grilled Cheese Special"? Make sure each player gets a chance to pick a section of the menu for the next round of the game.

As a variation, each player tries to find his or her name in the fewest number of words on the menu. To make the name "Steve," for example, you'd need a "Side Order," (an s and two e's), a "Taco" (for the t), and "Virginia Ham" (for the v).

As these games will show, it pays to go to restaurants with varied menus!

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.