Do you have family game night?? Does it tend to be scheduled? Or impromptu?
We have game night quite regularly. We are huge fans of card games and board games, and love to play them as a family.
Game night as a family is a great way to get everyone together, turn off all electronics and have fun. It will encourage communication, and will create memories that will last a lifetime.
Here are a few suggestions for a fun-filled family game night:
• Schedule it. If your home keeps a hectic schedule, mark it on the calendar so there are no excuses. Everyone is there.
• Keep it in the family. Leave the invites for friends and neighbors for another night. Make this night about your immediate family. To foster communication and comfort in your home.
• Avoid interruptions. Turn off the TV, laptops and iPhones. This time is all about the people in that room.
• Choose the right game. Make sure the game of choice is one everyone can enjoy. Take turns letting different family members choose the game. Giving children that responsibility will show them you trust them, helping to foster a sense of confidence. It’s a win-win.
• Use this as a teaching time. Whether children realize it or not, math, reading, and logic are all used in most games. It’s also a great time to reinforce social skills and manners – taking turns, good sportsmanship.
• Have fun! Just as the kids are to turn off the electronics, you as Mom and Dad are to turn off the never-ending-list-of-to-do’s. This is a time to enjoy every minute – as a family.
With thousands of games on the market today, the sky is the limit!
What are some games your family enjoys playing together?
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We enjoy
Scrabble
Apples to Apples
Boutique Monopoly
Mad Gab
Sort It Out
and our ‘gaming’ is impromptu. We tried scheduling our nights but our lives are so spontaneous..impromptu works best.
We love Spinner (a domino game that many ages can play together).
One of our daughters received Settlers of Catan for Christmas and we have been enjoying learning to play that.
My husband just said last night that he wants to schedule “Family Night” on Friday of this week and we are planning to play games!!
I will have to check out Spinner. We love playing Mexican Train dominoes. Have a great time Friday night – enjoy every minute!
We keep a basket of games beside our kitchen table and pick one of our 10-15 games every night after supper. It keeps us connected in a great way. We also have Family Night for our longer games on Friday night.
Some of our favorites are:
Bananagrams
Sequence
Uno
Phase 10
Rack-O
What a great example for your kids! Thanks for sharing
We have a 6 & 4 yr old boys and sometimes we play Sorry as a family. My 6 yr old and I have played checkers together.
My 11yo and I played checkers and Connect 4 today
My kids are younger but we still do play a lot of games, always impromptu. With a four year old, our current favorites are :
Snail’s Pace Race
Break the Ice
Pingo
Connect Four
Hi Ho Cherry-O
We have our family game night on Fridays. We enjoy:
- Apples to Apples
- Blockus
- Uno Attack
- Whoonu
- Phase 10
- Hullabaloo
Our favorites are:
Blokus
Apples to Apples
Last Word
Uno Attack
Pay Day
Blokus & Apples to Apples = 2 of my 9yo’s faves!
oh and we usually schedule a game night just to make sure that we get to have one : )
Settlers of Catan is our current family favorite.
Ours tends to be impromptu but scheduling sounds like the way to go! Great suggestions. We love, love Blokus and the Kings Corners card game
Sequence and Sequence for kids !!! Perfect for the whole family- fun for mom and dad and even the little bitty ones can team up and participate! It’s a matching, board, card, four in a row game!
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