One Word At A Time: Games
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 7:00AM
MAD21 in Family Life, Fun, Games, One Word At A Time, One Word At A Time

By Ginny (MAD21)

I've written before about how you can use games to teach your kids. But in general, I love to play. When it comes to family entertainment and children's ministries, I am commonly known as the "game keeper." It probably has to do with the fact that for years, whenever there was any kind of gathering whether family or ministry, you would usually find me playing with the kids. Generally it has always been where I felt the most comfortable.

I was the recreation director at a summer camp for seven years where I spent the week doing such things as filling water balloons for a wet version of sharks and minnows, playing caterpillar kickball, and providing an afternoon of fun on a 100 foot slip-n-slide; we had an annual kid's night out at our church where I built a maze out of about 12 rolls of duct tape and 24 wardrobe boxes that filled our sanctuary (it even had dead ends!). I could go on and on about all the fun I've had over the years in ministry. But honestly, even though it was a great time, the bottom line was that playing games with the kids helped to build relationships and trust between themselves and the leaders.

The same is true with family. I have found that the more time I spend just playing and talking with my kids, the more likely they are to listen to me, and the better they treat each other overall. We all learn about patience, taking turns, and being a good sport. The more face-time we all get, the better.

We have games that we enjoy playing on the Wii together like Just Dance, Rock Band, and Wii Sports, but honestly, we have way more fun playing regular games without electronics (ya, I know, what a novel idea!).

Here are some of our favorite family games to play:

Zingo (similar to bingo but way more fun)

Tumblin' Monkeys (this is similar to HoneyBee Tree and Kerplunk but we love this one because the monkeys actually hang on the sticks which makes things a little more challenging)

Sequence (regular and "for kids" versions)

Hi Ho Cherry-O

Sorry

Candyland

Slap Jack (card game... use old cards!)

Connect Four

Guess Who?

And here are our top three favorites for older kids and adults:

Settlers of Catan (along with expansion packs, we like Cities and Knights)

Carcassone

Phase 10

What are some games your family likes to play?

This post is a participant in a blog carnival over at Peter Pollock's place.
Be sure to go and check out what everyone else wrote on: Games.

Article originally appeared on Make a Difference to One (http://makeadiff21.com/).
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