Rolling the Dice

Taking a page from fellow blogger wegank (read his blog here), I asked my sons for their recommendations for games.

I started with my five-year-old, a sometimes silly, sometimes serious little guy who prefers music and art to dirt and trucks.

Here are his three favourite games:

Guess Who

This is honestly one of my favourite games, too. The only disadvantge it has is that you can only play with two people - no more and no less.

He says his favourite part of the game is “asking questions and finding out what it is”, by which I think he means he likes the logic aspect. He likes being able to systematically eliminate possibilities and come up with an answer.

I like that about the game, too. I also like that you can play it with a five year old, but you an play it with older kids, too, by picking up two (or more) cards each game.

I personally love playing with three cards each.

Guess Who is an inexpensive game (around here you can find it for about $15), and there are some variants that look interesting - Littlest Pet Shop is the first one that comes to mind.

Also, the more recent versions have added in faces with different colours, which I think is awesome.

13 Dead End Drive

We picked this game up at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store for $1.99. Even with a few minor missing pieces, we found it a good value.

Our five-year loves this one for “the cards and the traps”. The traps are probably the best part of this game, which usually involves me getting frustrated with the set-up process.

A new version of the game may be less frustrating, but 13 Dead End Drive does require about 5-10 minutes of assembly each time you play it. Which is why we don’t play it as often as our kids would like.

Monopoly Jr.

This game is meant as a way into the Monopoly games for younger kids. However, I find it still takes about an hour to play, so if your kids don’t have the patience for it, you might want to set a timer and declare a winner when it goes off.

“Moving around in a circle” is our son’s favourite of this game. I think he likes the repetition, but also the fact that it’s a lot like adult games, so it feels more grown up playing it.

Monopoly of any kind is a great way to learn about taking turns and counting money, so it makes sense to start trying to play it at age 5.

Next up: our seven-year-old’s recommendations (expect a reference to Pokemon!)

I got involved in a discussion recently about group games for kids. Actually, my husband and the other leader for the local Scout troop were talking about it, and I butted in.

Essentially, we agreed that any game that gets kids active and working together is good, but we’re all more interested in playing games that are excellent.

Games that are silly, noisy and active, yet add something to their lives or teaches them something - even if it is that playing a game does not have to be chaos.

Scouter Allan told us about a game he used to play with the Beavers, when he was a Beaver leader, called “Steal the Key”. All you need is a blindfold and a pile of old keys.

You select one Beaver to sit in the middle of the circle, blindfold him and place the pile of keys in front of him. The other Beavers take turns trying to “steal” the keys without being heard.

If the blindfolded Beaver hears him before he can return to his spot, he yells “thief”, and the key must be returned.

This game teaches some important lessons, including physical awareness, while having fun together as a group. You don’t need to tell them how to move quietly - you can (and should) let them experiment with ways to do that themselves.

Think about what that one simple act can do. By allowing kids to try things out for themselves, by allowing them to fail and to succeed, by showing them that you trust them to work it out for themselves, you can give one of the best gifts in the world - confidence.

The shy, quiet child who usually goes un-noticed and is picked last for races suddenly finds he’s really good at this game.

He sees the noisier children, the ones who can’t sit still, struggle with the game, then turn to him for help.

And those more active kids learn that asking for help doesn’t make the game less fun. They all learn that they can figure something out themselves - without interference from an adult.

There are dozens of excelletn games like these for kids and teens. The key is encouraging the group to work together, learn from each other, and recognize that everyone has something to add to the group.

These are skills that will help them succeed in all facets of their lives.

Dodge ball and tag are good games. They can be a lot of fun, and a great addition to an afternoon in a big open space with a bunch of kids. But games like “Steal the Key” give them so much more for the same amount of effort.