Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Family Game Night

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We have recently begun the habit of holding Family Game Night.

(Thanks to all of you who gave me great ideas for family games suitable for all ages.)

Everyone gets popcorn with a handful of M&M's and sweet tea or Kool Aid to drink, which is a real treat since the kids usually are only offered milk or water.


I put all the games on the table and everyone's name in a hat. One name is drawn and that person gets to choose the first game. We play until there is a winner and another name is drawn. This kept even the little ones engaged since they were anticipating their turn to choose a game.

I bought a couple of new games and so far Pictureka is our favorite! It is a super fun game with a "Find Waldo" type game board. Cards are drawn to tell the players what pictures to find before the timer runs out. Sometimes everyone plays at once and sometimes only one player at a time, depending on the card drawn.



This one is great for all ages and any number of players!

We also really enjoyed Jenga. Again, everyone from the three year old up was able to play this game.



We had fun with Uno and Apples to Apples, too, and are all looking forward to enjoying Game Night every week, Lord willing.

15 comments:

Kirsty said...

Your kids are beautiful! They will have lots of fun memories from this I'm sure. Thanks for sharing :)

Home School Dad said...

Family game night rock and work very well in the summer when we turn off our t.v.

Anonymous said...

We do something similar once a month at our house, except we invite multiple families. The kids play upstairs under the supervision of a sitter ($1.50 per kid per hour), and the adults play games downstairs. Three years running so far!

Dana~Are We There Yet? said...

I love playing games with the kiddos! It makes me so happy to see other families getting in on this great pastime!

I did not grow up playing games, and now I find our extended family gatherings mind-numbingly boring. My husband's family, on the other hand, loves canasta, dominoes, board games, horseshoes....the list goes on and on. I hope this is what we're instilling in our kids, and that as they grow up and fly the coop, they'll come back so I can kick their tails at cribbage from time to time.

~*Michelle*~ said...

OH I love game nights....my kids get aggravated with me because my competitive side comes out, lol.

Hoosier Homemade said...

We love game nights at our house too!
~Liz

Amy said...

How funny! Dale got Pictureka for Christmas and I thought later about adding a comment to tell you about it. Glad you've already found it! :)

Lene said...

Looks like a lot of fun at your house!

Unknown said...

When my girls were younger I helped them create our own board games as rainy day projects and we would play them on family game night. It was always a hoot how the rules would change around. We just had so much fun with it!

Nikki said...

How fun! I remember game nights with my family growing up. I bet my kids would love this. I like how you put the names in a hat to make it fair.

Lora Lynn @ Vitafamiliae said...

Just added pictureka to my wish list on amazon. Thanks!

Lori Watson said...

We used to have game nights all the time but it's been awhile now that the kids are getting older. Maybe we need to schedule one in soon! Thanks for the inspiration. :-)

Sharon said...

We use to play games more than we do now. I think I need to institute Family Game night at our house. Thanks for the idea!

Donna(mom24boyz) said...

I have the same problem of finding a way for everyone to play...since we have such varying ages. Your name drawing idea sounds perfect! I will have to give this a try..thanks!

Jenny said...

I've thought about doing family game nights, but my four year old is...clueless when it comes to doing anything that requires thinking, or counting...maybe it might teach him a thing or two. Great tip! And thanks for the inspiration.

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