Rolling the Dice

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.

I don’t remember who gave us the Apples-to-Apples game that sits on our shelf, but I sure am glad they did.

Describing the game to people, it sounds lame. So I’m not even going to bother. If you want to read about how the games works, visit the Wikipedia entry. Or the “official” website at: http://www.otb-games.com/apples/apples_partybox.html

According to the box, this is a game for 12 and up, but I say that as long as a kid can read, go for it. Of course, just like any time you’re playing a grown-up game with younger kids, you may have to modify the rules a little.

For example, many of the pop culture references may be missed, so give the kids the option to trade in cards if they don’t know anything about the person, place or thing printed on it.

I think the appealing part of the game for me is the fact that there is never a right or wrong answer. The person who is the judge can use whatever criteria they want to select the winning card.

And you are allowed – even encouraged – to try to persuade the judge to pick a certain card. It doesn’t even have to be yours.

One of the little quirks of the game that our family has picked up is the idea that the green apple cards you collect (with the descriptive words on them like smelly, heart-warming or sordid) are accurate descriptors for that person. So, at the end of the game and go through them.

“Oh, I’m smelly, heart-warming and sordid. Sounds about right.”

And then much giggling ensues. At least from me. I’m going to blame my love affair with words for that one.

This is a great game to play with your teens, who will get a kick over having a turn to be the judge of you for a turn, and you end up finding out a lot about them in the meantime. This game does more than just entertain – it gives insight into a person’s sense of humor and how they look at the world.

And for parents of teens, that is a refreshing (and often surprising!) turn of events.

When my younger brother and I were in university, we made a pact. We decided that we would each give the other a board game for Christmas. The only rule was that it had to be something that could be played by two people (though it could be played by more), because we would rely on them for entertainment for the whole Christmas break.

We spent Christmases at our grandmother’s house, where there was a small but interesting collection of old board games. Monopoly and Chinese Checkers shared shelf space with Triominos and Head of the Class.

But by the time we got to university, we’d long ago memorized all of the answers to all of the trivia games, and while Monopoly is a good way to waste three to five hours (especially the way my brother plays), you can only play it so many times before you start dreaming about rolling double fives.

I’ve come down with a nasty cold that’s left my head feeling like someone’s been shoving cotton in it while I sleep, and my voice sounding like I smoke 15 packs a day. All of the loving attention my husband’s been giving me has made me think about comfort games.

Comfort games are the ones you play when you’re feeling cosy and safe, like when the power goes out or a snowstorm’s a-brewin’. Or maybe it’s the ones you play in the tent with your kids when it rains the whole vacation. Funny how all of this seems to be related to poor weather for me!

So, I’ve got reviews of three of my favourite comfort games (all of them found on my personal shelf).

Scrabble

This is a classic, and it is so for a reason. I’ve always been a word-lover, and the words you can learn trying to get that Q or Z on a triple word score are quite interesting. For kids under 8, it might be best to start with Scrabble Jr., which has two levels of play to get them used to the idea.

But if you’re feeling patient, and you’re willing to relax the rules a little, you can play this game with any child who can spell. Allow proper nouns and contractions, or include French spellings if your child (like mine) is in French Immersion at school. Or, abandon keeping score, and just see how many words you can make together.

Cribbage

I grew up with all of my dad’s family playing this any time they got together, for hours on end sometimes. My dad even went home to play an all-night Cribbage marathon with his brothers last summer.

For the un-intiated, Cribbage can seem complicated - my husband always wondered why there were two pegs used to keep score - but once you get the hang of it, it’s a speedy game. I reccommend learning by either playing online in a social room, or reading Hoyle’s guide to card games.

Once you’ve mastered the regular game, try this twist that my brother and I loved: Backwards Cribbage. A rule that can be applied to almost any game, Backwards Cribage is just like regular cribbage, only you’re trying NOT to get points, and the first one to the finish is the loser.

Kids as young as 5 or 6 can learn to play this with a parent, but I do reccommend starting by playing to 61 instead of the usual 121.

Tour de Force

This is a classic Canadian trivia game, introduced to me by my husband and his parents. It was created by Pierre Burton  and Charles Templeton. Waddingtons, the company that produced this game (and many others that I love) was bought out by Hasbro (or at least that’s what Wikipedia claims), so you’ll have to scour second hand shops and eBay for this one.

But it’s a beautiful game, played in teams of two or more (we often play old vs. young or men vs. women), and has lots of Canadian content. My favourite part is getting the special 10-point bonus cards… even though we usually end up going back five places.

This is a tough one to play with younger kids, but is a good way to get teens talking about the chanes to some of the answers (it IS 20 years old, after all), and the way they’d change the categories if they could.

So, as mentioned in the last blog, as kids hit middle school and those (sometimes dreaded) hormones start kicking in, social games become much more interesting.

When I was about 12 or 13, my uncle gave me one of the best games for a kid this age. It was called “Dweebs, Geeks and Weirdos”, which, as far as I can tell, is no longer produced. (check out http://www.amazon.com/Dweebs-Geeks-Weirdos-Totally-Awesome/dp/B000YPRY0K for used versions)

The gist of the game, is that you do a bunch of silly stunts to collect points and win the game. There are plenty of others in this vein - Truth or Dare is the one everyone knows - and they all go over big with 10-14 year olds, generally.

But the tendancy to favour social games isn’t just limited to doing silly things in a big group. It also lends itself to games like Pictionary, Cranium, and a Canadian TV classic - TalkAbout.

Use this trend to your advantage when trying to keep (or create) games night with your teens or pre-teens. Get them to invite their best friends over and challenge kids vs. adults (recruit a friend or two of your own, too).

This is also the age in which strategy games are most successful, since the ability to use logic is even stronger as kids enter junior high and high school.

You can start with Checkers and Chess, but if your kid is the kind to shrink from something so stodgy sounding, try Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan or Risk.

The beauty of those last three is that it adds a bit of character to the strategy. They all strengthen mapping and geography skills, too, but you don’t have to tell your kids that!

And for the kids who want a little of both, you can turn to games like the Munchkin series (by Steve Jackson) or Zombies.

From here, it’s not far to reach the world of role playing games. While I don’t play them myself, I don’t have a lot of problems with them either.

Dungeons & Dragons got a lot of bad press when I was a teen, but as long as you don’t find your kid playing nothing but, there shouldn’t be any cause to worry.

As always, the best way to make sure gaming is safe and fun at this age is to make sure you’re involved with your kids. If they’re interested in role playing games, get them to teach you how to play it, too.

Hello all you game-lovers out there.

Not “gamers” - I’m not into video games. No, this blog is all about the kinds of games you can play in a tent in the middle of the woods, in the living room in front of the fireplace during a snowstorm, or even outside with a bunch of energetic kids.

It’s about the fun, laughs, learning you can teach and share with kids of all ages through board games, co-operative play and other games that don’t require a computer chip.

I’ll be tackling ideas for games you can play with little ones that can’t yet read, right up to games you can play when the in-laws are in town.

I’ll give suggestions for good games to play at your next youth group, Beavers, Brownies or 4-H meeting, or at the family reunion when it’s too late for lunch and too soon for supper. 

I’ll review some of the zillions of games I currently have my shelves, and will gladly take requests and suggestions - I’m always up for a game.

Up first (tomorrow’s post) games to play with non-readers….