Marriage building exercises for a couples class -- I need ideas!

[ereks mom]

You may remember that dh & I are teaching a couples class once a week for couples in our church and others. We've been to marriage retreats and gotten a couple of ideas for fun marriage building exercises, but we need a few more 10-15 minute exercises for the couples to work on as a pair.

 

Here are a few examples of exercises we are using already:

 

 

• Couples sit so that they are facing opposite directions. One partner is facing a simple drawing of geometric shapes, and describes it while the other uses paper & pencil to draw what is described. The describer can't see what the draw-er is drawing, and the draw-er can't turn and look at the shapes being described. (This is a communication exercise.)
  
• The husband ties one end of a 2- to 3-ft. length of string onto each wrist. The wife ties a string around one hand only, then takes her string and drops the loose end between the husband's body and his string. She then attaches the other end of her string around her other wrist. Once connected, they must devise a plan to separate themselves from each other without breaking or cutting the string or taking it off their wrists. (This is an exercise in working together to solve a problem.)
  
• Use craft materials to make a special gift for your spouse that symbolizes your relationship or your commitment to each other.
  

 

 

Please share some other fun exercises (that take 10-15 minutes) that you've heard about or done. Thanks!

Edited February 25, 2009 by ereks mom

[WTMindy]

I think that questions like the newlywed game are always fun. You can have the men leave the room and ask the wives some questions about how they think their husbands will answer and then bring the husbands back in the room and have them give their answers.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

You may remember that dh & I are teaching a couples class once a week for couples in our church and others. We've been to marriage retreats and gotten a couple of ideas for fun marriage building exercises, but we need a few more 10-15 minute exercises for the couples to work on as a pair.

 

Here are a few examples of exercises we are using already:

 

 

• Couples sit so that they are facing opposite directions. One partner is facing a simple drawing of geometric shapes, and describes it while the other uses paper & pencil to draw what is described. The describer can't see what the draw-er is drawing, and the draw-er can't turn and look at the shapes being described. (This is a communication exercise.)

• The husband ties one end of a 2- to 3-ft. length of string onto each wrist. The wife ties a string around one hand only, then takes her string and drops the loose end between the husband's body and his string. She then attaches the other end of her string around her other wrist. Once connected, they must devise a plan to separate themselves from each other without breaking or cutting the string or taking it off their wrists. (This is an exercise in working together to solve a problem.)

• Use craft materials to make a special gift for your spouse that symbolizes your relationship or your commitment to each other.

 

 

Please share some other fun exercises (that take 10-15 minutes) that you've heard about or done. Thanks!

 

Well, I really like the book The Five Love Languages. So I might propose that you have couples take a short quiz that would identify their own love language and then what they think their spouse's is.

Once I identified my husband's lawn mowing, car gassing and bathroom cleaning as the act of service that it was, we got along much better.