Table Topics   Updated daily!
April 11, 2008
Mind-stretching brain games and conversation starters.
It's the perfect opportunity for sharing stories, building knowledge, strengthening character, and having fun!

Challenge each other to name words that are spelled alike but mean different things. Orange is both a color and a fruit. Refuse is a verb that means to say no, but it is also a noun that means garbage.

To take your game to deeper levels, name the part of speech of the example word in each meaning. Open a discussion on the use on context clues to determine which usage is correct. This can be an excellent vocabulary building game.

      Read another issue of Table Topics
      A job well done. Is your definition different from someone else's?

I always remember groaning when my dad would bring up the topic of how things were so much harder when he was a child. Does this sound familiar?

"When I was a child I had to walk six miles, barefoot in the snow to get to school."

Well, with computers, palm pilots, cell phones, bigger, heavier textbooks current students could reply:

"Kids today are all suffering from back pain as a result of carrying all their gear back and forth to school."

See if you can make up some more:

"I remember when there were only two channels to choose from."

"By the time I've seen everything that is coming on, I've missed the show!"

Have fun with this brain-stretching game that pokes gentle fun at the difference a generation (or two) can make.