family GAMES!!!

this is a picture of MOM getting Jakob in "Don't Cry Kitty..." it's SO fun!

we LOVE to play family games!!

OK- here are the ground rules... (i wasn't even going to write this stuff, but i realized that game night isn't naturally fun. you have to teach them how to have fun and enforce their good sportsmanship... ] This is what we do... it's usually evening when we play so i am pretty strict- 3 strikes you're out!

[one warning, 2 min. on the bench, bed...] 
this is for ANY contention or poor sportsmanship-- i say it with a happy voice and fast-- no extra warnings or chances, (ok, if you do have to give an extra warning, you do it with your eyebrows, not your mouth) "Oops, that wasn't very kind... this is your warning. Ok, Drew, 2 minutes on the bench... We sure love you, but if you aren't having fun playing games you need to go to bed." Once the kids knew i was serious they all were very carefully polite to each other...


i remind them at the start-- the goal is to have FUN, we don't really care who WINS. you may have to tell them what to say... so, at the end of the game when you can tell one kid isn't very happy, you say in a loud voice, "great game [winners name]! boy, everybody played so well. we'll have to play this game again sometime. Anna, I'm so proud of you that you were such a good sport. Wasn't that funny when Leah said UNO real loud?" soon, you will hear laughs and echoes "Good game..."


and, one more tip... if one kid is getting a little hot, praise the other kids who are being good... as the game facilitator it is your job to keep the focus on the positive things. it's like i'm the circus ring leader. there may be a fight among the clowns that i quickly move off stage, all the time keeping the focus on the fun, fabulous juggling monkeys. attitude is everything.
you want the kid sitting on the bench to REALLY wish they were playing with you. if you don't nip the crank quickly and quietly soon family game night will turn into family pain night...
so, when anna got sent to the bench for pitching a fit when she lost the "bubble gum" game, i ignored her and quickly started playing her favorite game "Don't Cry Kitty" with the other kids. She QUICKLY changed her attitude, apologized and came to join us.


Those are the ground rules. and. i usually put the little kids to bed after we play a few games for them. Sometimes i have 3 or 4 levels of games... kid games then little girls to bed; bigger games then big girls to bed; hard games then boys to bed; just todd and i games. ;)

OK... want some fun ideas for kids and adults of all ages??
--SINGING GAMES-- Ring around the Rosies... 
we always start with games for the youngest child. 
 EVERYONE loves a good game of Ring around the Rosies... after we all fall down, try we all jump up, or we all freeze, or we all dance around... it keeps the kids listening and laughing... 
5 Little Ducks, Once There Was a Snowman, I'm a Little TeaPot, London Bridge (big kids LOVE this game), Hokey Pokey, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Duck Duck Goose, etc... 

It is so fun watching the little kids GLOW when you sing a song they know. And, it's so fun watching the big kids making it fun for the little kids. You know these games/songs... why do we have to wait for a birthday party to play them?

  -- Hand Games-- 
 Can we forget Paper, Rock, Scissors? Or Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum?
 Everyone has two fists out, IT bumps every one's fists, one of their fists and their chin [representing the fist they are using to bump...] Everyone chants... "Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish. How many pieces do you wish? [the person landed on picks a number... Four.] one. two. three. four.-- the fist landed on is OUT. You remember this one. And, who doesn't love BUBBLE GUM??


--The Animal Sounds Game or the Motion Game... you know this one too... I think my mom called it "Peter, Paul and Mary..." We have each kid pick an action or an animal sound... then you start pat, clap, pat, clap... the IT person says their sound first then someone elses sound, the next person says their sound and someone elses... you pass it around and are OUT if you mess up the rhythm. Remember? "Peter to one. One to Peter. Peter to five. Five to three. Three to Three... oh man, I'm out." 


--Another version of this that is a bit more advanced and a lot more fun is "Dippidy, Dippidy, Dip"... (here's a you tube link- it's not great quality, but this is the game!) My big kids are good at this... and I LOVE IT. But, I can't explain in words, so if you want to know how to play just stop me sometime and I'll SHOW you.


-- CHARADES!!!! OK, this is our families FAVORITE Sunday game. We play it ALL THE TIME, especially when we have company. We almost ALWAYS play SCRIPTURE CHARADES. This is how you play... i pick a kid and whisper in their ear something that is in scriptures... they act it out and everyone tries to guess... Youngest Kid Ideas-- a bird, a snake, a lion, a tree, an angel, a rock, a fish, Jesus on the cross, a star, etc. Get it? Easy things they can act out. Bigger kids- a rainbow (this is our all time FAVORITE to try out on our guests...), Noah's ark, Eve eating the apple, the tree of life, Daughter of Jarius being raised from the dead (another favorite), no room in the inn, angels appearing to shepards (No, it doesn't need to be Christmas for you to act out the Nativity), etc. Older kids-- they sometimes pick their own story from the scriptures and act them out, ammon and the sheep (Yup, another favorite), Abinidi, Christ healing the lepers, Abraham and Isaac, Moses parting the red sea, etc. I can't tell you how much we love this game. It is not only fun, it helps us teach the scriptures. Todd and I have fun testing each other by whispering harder things for the kids to act out to see we can stump each other. LOVE, LOVE this game!!


--"Don't cry Kitty..."-- Leah LOVES this game, actually we ALL love this game. The person who is IT goes to every person in the family and strokes their cheek while saying, "Don't Cry Kitty" The non-IT person must meow three times without laughing. We play it that mom picks the next IT from the one that laughs least. Note... don't make anyone "OUT"... just keep laughing and at the end say who is next.

  --The Thimble Game-- another Moss favorite... get a thimble full of water, or any other cup with just a little bit of water in it. Mom picks a topic, like Prophets or months or candies or cereal or presidents or colors or vegetables, etc... Everyone thinks of one... The person who is IT whispers in Mom's ear what they pick (this is necessary to help the little kids and avoid changing for the big kids)... Mom can still play and the kids don't really care that she knows the answer. Anyway, the person who is IT goes up the each person with the little cup of water. The non-IT kid says a prophet and if they pick the same prophet as the IT kid, IT gets to throw the water on them. You keep going around and around until someone gets wet. My kids usually LIKE to get wet so they are always begging me for more water in the cup. (A couple of times I've tricked the Professor and filled a cup all the way full... i've told the kid to just dump it on Dad no matter what he says... they can ONLY do this if I tell them too...) :) Fun times!!

  -- Pictionary or PlayDoh Pictionary... No, we don't use the real game. Just paper and a pencil. We play it much like Scripture Charades... Mom either writes up things ahead of time on little pieces of paper that the kids can choose, or I just whisper them in their ear. I like whispering the best because I can adjust to skill level. Youngest- a ball, a smile, an L, a tree, a snake, a line, an X, hair, a grape, etc. (These are so funny because it takes just as much skill to guess as to draw.) Older- a knee, love, a book, happy, mailbox, Jesus, church, cow, family, sacrament, prayer, bed, [name of one specific person in your family], dinner, etc. Oldest- sharing, Joyland, Library, Idaho, running, soccer, school, [a person NOT in your family], President Obama, Noah, etc. For 60 cents I bought a little spinner from the teacher's store and wrote on it All PLAY, just boys, just girls, pick one, teams... sometimes i use it and have the kids spin before they get their topic. It's FUN. NO POINTS or WINNERS, just memories. You can do the same thing with playDoh... have them create things like snakes, letters, people, etc...

  -- ALL AGE GAMES-- Memory, Jenga or Tumbling Towers, Twister, Candy Land (i don't know why i HATE this game-- it's just not fair), Trouble, Chutes and Ladders, etc.

  -- DOMINOES-- we love Mexican Train... here is a link with directions...

  -- SPOONS! this is a great beginner card game... here is a link with directions... IT IS MY FAVORITE LITTLE KID CARD GAME... we played this for a LONG time on Friday night... it's short and fast and simple and FUN!! we laugh and laugh... (you can't play the card game spoons without taking a break to balance spoons on your nose... i can't do it. the kids tell me "Don't lick the spoon first.") -- The FAKE Scrabble game- everyone starts with 6 tiles and the rest of the tiles are in a pile. you make your own cross word type grid of words... all connecting. when you use all of you tiles you say TAKE TWO... everyone grabs two more tiles... the person to use all their tiles says TAKE TWO again until the end when you only have enough extra tiles to say TAKE ONE. The Winner uses all of his tiles on their own created cross word. After checking the spelling to be sure all of the words used are actually words, everyone gives the winner their non-used tiles. You count up the number of tiles you've used and keep track of your score. The winner get's everyone elses extras added into their score... the first one to 500 pts wins. (this is one of my favorite games, but doesn't work well with kids who can't spell well... unless you don't worry about spelling... but, you may have an 8 year old police officer in the family who freaks out if someone spells sorry SARY and wins the game.)

  -- The Newly Wed GAME adopted for families... I got this one from Ms. Teague, Anna's first grade teacher. We had SO much fun with it. So, give everyone a paper and pencil. Have them label 1-8 or however many people are in your family or write the name of everyone down the edge of their paper. Say a topic (favorite color, worst food, favorite book, best friend, favorite thing to do, what they want to be when they grow up, favorite restaurant, middle name, hero, etc.) Have each kid write their answer and what they think everyone else would answer... DON'T GIVE POINTS if they get it right. This just created WW3 in our family-- "YOU LIE... Your favorite color is too Pink." "No, it's white, black and teal." So, just keep it for fun and it is way more fun. [Note- when i played this with anna in her classroom, her teacher asked who their hero was... i was so curious to see what anna answered. i think she answered Amy, her aunt. anyway, that got me thinking and thus our whole summer theme on Heroes was born.] I LOVE what you learn about your kids from this game!!

  There are HUNDREDS more games we love... Pass the Pigs... Bop it... WAR... UNO... CLUE... Chess... Connect Four... Guess Who?... LOTS of board games... etc... etc... But the final two I'll dedicate to my Grams... I learned to hold a hand of cards and count dice from her...

  -- BONES!!! we play this game ALL THE TIME!! here are the directions... i love to see the kids different personalities in this game... are they safe or risky?? fast deciders or contemplators... oh, i LOVE this game! And, you can buy REALLY cute colorful dice for CHEAP at the teacher's store. here are some directions for Farkle... i thought it was just like BONES, but these directions show some more ways you can win points... oh! doesn't everyone LOVE dice?

  -- May I?!! todd's family calls it BarnYard Rummy and the way they play is not nearly as KIND as the way we play. (well, if you happen to sit behind Todd's Dad... Yes, it's been 10 years and I'm still bitter that he took EVERY SINGLE CARD I WANTED.) Here are the directions... these directions call it Contract Rummy... but, i read them and it's May I... Oh, this is so fun... the best thing about this game is that you can play with a lot of people (i have so many memories of sitting with all my aunts and cousins around the table... it was such a right of passage when you could hold your own hand and play by yourself)... I also LOVE shopping for snacks and prizes. There are SEVEN rounds, so you have a winner for each round, an overall winner, and an overall highest scorer. (9 prizes...) and, lots of mid-game snacks. 
 Love it!!

  What are your favorite family games???
Hope your family loves these games as much as we do!!!