Family Games: Something for Everyone
Finding a game that everyone in the family can enjoy together can be tricky. Personality differences can bring challenges - your intellectual child may not get excited about playing Pictionary like your creative child does, or your competitive child may unintentionally frustrate a sibling who prefers to focus on just having fun when playing games.
But, there is something out there for everyone - the possibilities are endless when it comes to family games! And, one benefit to having a regular family game night every week is that each member of the family can take turns picking their favorite. Not only does everyone have a chance to do what they like best, but it’s a great opportunity for your family to get know different aspects of each member’s personality and strengths by playing a variety of games.
Educational Games
Many games offer the opportunity to help children learn valuable skills. Try one of these:
Skip-bo: helps younger children learn numbers
Scrabble: helps elementary-aged children learn vocabulary and spelling
Monopoly: gives older children an opportunity to practice money management skills
Puzzles: find a puzzle with a map of the U.S. or the world to learn geography or one that outlines the progression of U.S. presidents to teach American history
Intellectual Games
Perfect for your child who has a mind for strategy or a great memory. Try:
Memory: good game to help your younger ones improve their memory recall
Trivial Pursuit: fun test of knowledge and memory
Risk: older kids will enjoy strategically taking over the world
Chess/Checkers: it's never too early to learn these classic games!
Creative Games
Your budding artist or actor will love improving his or her creative skill set with these games:
Pictionary: Split into teams and play boys vs. girls or kids vs. parents
Charades: No need for a game board for this one. Just have fun acting out words, songs, books, or famous people and see how long it takes everyone to guess!
Use your imagination: If you have a child with a particularly vibrant imagination, let them make up a game! Help them identify rules so that the rest of the family can know how to play along.
Active Games
Work out a bit of energy with these games that will appeal to your more active kiddos:
Any variation of tag: take the kids outside and try one of the variations of the classic game of tag
Any variation of hide and seek: this one is good inside or outside!
Simon Says: great for helping kids pay attention to instructions
Kickball: your kids who enjoy being athletic will have fun with this one. Invite the neighbor kids to join!
Making it meaningful
Playing games as a family is not only a fun way to spend time together and develop important skills, it offers a great opportunity for teachable moments. Take some time during Family Game Night to ask your kids to point out the strengths of each family member that were apparent in the game and discuss how each person's skills contributed to help the team or make the game fun. Talk about important character traits like teamwork, having a good attitude, and playing by the rules.