TV-free day 193: Russian egg roulette (family style)
Sometimes we just need to be silly. Â Thank you to late night host, Jimmy Fallon for a ridiculously silly segment on his show where he challenges a celebrity to smash an egg on their head. Some of the eggs are hard boiled, some are not. The first with two raw eggs loses. Â For more on this, please see this clip (yes I chose the clip from David Beckham for my own enjoyment).Â
To do this TV-free activity, you will need:
1 dozen eggs. Â Boil 8 of them (double this if you have a big family).
An egg carton (or two)
Towels and a bowl (optional but really helpful).Â
Old clothes for all participants
Showers for all immediately following the game. Really. Nothing worse than the smell of egg on the head the next morning.
Steps: Â
Hard boil 8 eggs and let them cool.
Then place them in the same carton with the 4 raw eggs.
Choose wisely. Have each player choose the first egg they touch. Don't let them inspect the eggs too closely. Â And no put backs!
Smash the egg on your head. Â If it's hard boiled, you are safe. Â
Goal of the game: The first person that gets the raw deal twice is out of the game. You can keep playing as long as one person still has only one raw strike against them. Â
Jayne's book recommendation to go along with this activity: We are just starting this one at home, but I cannot think of a better book to go with Russian egg roulette than Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire. (Candlewick 2014). How appropriate is a middle-grade fantasy set in Tsarist Russia with eggs in the title? Age recommendation is 12 and up.
Let me know if you've read the book....we are just getting started with my 11-year-old, but so far, so good! "The heels of military books, striking marble floors, made a sound like thrown stones. The old man knew that agents were hunting for him."  I'm intrigued already.
From the publisher: Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside. Her father has been dead for years. One of her brothers has been conscripted into the Tsar’s army, the other taken as a servant in the house of the local landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying untold wealth, a cornucopia of food, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint Petersburg — a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena’s age. When the two girls’ lives collide, an adventure is set in motion, an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and — in a starring role only Gregory Maguire could have conjured — Baba Yaga, witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs.
The New York Times Book Review - Leigh Bardugo:
…a series of dreamy, expertly painted vignettes, set pieces both absurd and spectacular…But in this surfeit of myth and mayhem, there are also moments of poignant quiet, when the grand quest of saving the magic of Russia recedes. In these moments, the human comes to the fore, and our focus narrows once more to a child longing for a parent, a mother longing for a child, the aching burden of living through suffering that life demands again and again. In Egg & Spoon Maguire sets his characters the fundamental challenge of stepping outside themselves and acknowledging the wider world and giving up the pleasure of being the center of the narrative. Sometimes he even lets them succeed. Readers may hunger for heroic deeds, but it is impossible not to root for girls and witches and aunts alike, and to cheer their little victories as acts of grace.
