What’s the Problem?

Some of you seem to really enjoy the creative prompts I post on Saturdays so here’s another fun one!

I am going to give you five “solutions” and you need to decide what the “problem” is. For example, I might say: “The answer is 12. What is the question?” If you stick to simple math, you could respond: “What is 7 plus 5?” or “What is 4 times 3?” Or you could go beyond math and say: “How many months are in a year?” or “How many sons did Jacob have?” or “How many letters does the word intelligence have?”

Then again, you could stretch your imagination and come up with something silly, such as: “How many times did the chicken cross the road?” or “What is the perfect number of mini marshmallows in a mug of hot chocolate?” or “How many light bulbs does it take to change an electrician?”

Now you try:

1. The answer is apple pie. What is the question?
2. The answer is penguin. What is the question?
3. The answer is blue ink. What is the question?
4. The answer is dump truck. What is the question?
5. The answer is shoelace. What is the question?

Please share your ideas in the comment section below. (Some of you comment on Facebook, which is nice, but comments here encourage other readers to comment. Thank you!) And please share this blog with friends. You can use the handy buttons at the bottom of this post. 🙂

Bonus idea: Here’s a game we often do at our annual women’s fall retreat that is always a big hit. It’s best with a larger group but could be easily adapted to a small family. Split your group into two teams and give everyone a slip of paper (or more if the group is quite small). One team has to write hypothetical problems on their papers (e.g. my rabbit smells, I lost my keys, I’m afraid of heights, etc.) and the other team writes hypothetical solutions (e.g. take two aspirins, start studying sooner, talk to your dentist, etc.)

Then collect all the pieces of paper in two separate baskets or piles and have someone read them out loud–randomly choosing one problem and one solution from the piles. You can imagine how hilarious the results can be. We’ve had some side-splitters but, occasionally, wet get a pairing that makes us all quietly say, “Whoa.” (For example, the problem may be, “My sister is going through a hard time” and the solution is, “Ask God for help.”) Try it. It’s great fun! 🙂

Happy Saturday!

Ann-Margret