Family Superhero Trading Cards: The Six-Year-Old Knew His Superpower Before We Did

Turns out if you want to find out your family’s real superpowers, the fastest way is to ask the six-year-old first — and the grown-ups last.

We tried this Family Superhero Trading Cards activity this week. Once I sat down at the kitchen table with my husband Cody and our son Ollie (6), I knew we were going to have an amazing time together — and I can hardly wait until our daughter Kaia (age 3) is old enough to join in the fun!

A few things we learned along the way, in case they’re useful for your own family:

Go bigger than you think. We cut our cardstock larger than a standard trading card, more like a playing card and a half, because Ollie’s hands (and, honestly, ours too) had an easier time with the extra room to draw and write. If you’ve got older kiddos, you can always size down. There’s no wrong size here, just whatever your kids’ hands can hold and handle.

The kids will out-power you. Ollie sat down and rattled off his superpowers without a moment’s hesitation. Cody and I, on the other hand, sat there staring at our blank cards for a solid few minutes. We ended up helping each other out, which turned into its own sweet little exercise: “What do you think MY power is?” is a surprisingly good question to ask the people who know you best. Ollie’s answer for Cody, by the way, was better than anything we came up with ourselves (he was Super Chef Daddy).

They’re worth keeping somewhere you’ll actually see them. Our cards now live on the fridge. Every time one of us grabs the milk, there’s a small reminder of what we’re each good at, right there at eye level.

How to Make Your Own

You’ll need:

• Index cards, cardstock or construction paper, cut to card size (yours can be bigger or smaller than ours, whatever works for the hands using them)
• Markers or colored pencils
• Optional: contact paper or laminate, if you want them to survive being handled a lot
  
  

How to:

• Give everyone in the family a blank card.
• On one side, draw a portrait of yourself, or trade with someone else if you’d rather draw each other.
• On the other side, write your name and your real superpower. If you’re stuck, ask someone else in the family what they’d say. (This is where the good stuff happens.)
• Give it a trading-card-style title for fun, something like “Mom: Finder of Missing Shoes, Level 100.”
• Once everyone’s done, trade cards around the table and read them out loud.
• Keep the finished set somewhere central (maybe a jar on the counter or a small binder) and add new cards anytime someone discovers a new power in someone else.

If you make a set of your own, we’d love to see them. Tag us @sparkle_stories or send us a photo. We’re always glad to add more superpowers to the collection!

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Looking for some stories to go along with the craft? Why not try one of these Super Series?

I Am Marvel (How I Became Super)
How to Be Super: The Violet Crown (Book One)
Martin & Sylvia: How to Be a Superhero

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