Family Game Night

Family Game night….   My kids, at least the older two, are at the age where board games are making a comeback in my house.  I have to admit, they weren’t that big before but I’m hoping that our competitive spirit doesn’t get in the way of this new trend.

First, the game of “Life” made it’s début.  I laughed most of the time I was playing.  Trying to convince my under 10 crowd the benefit of their first house being more modest than the mansion they were fighting over.  To my surprise, they all took me at my word.  It didn’t help much though, considering that at the end of the game I was sitting with all of the money and they were, well, broke.  They loved it though, and with the exception of my three year old getting revenge for not being old enough to join in by grabbing the little cars filled with the people and running away with them… it was great!

Their next game of choice was “Clue.”  The cutest thing about this game was the fact that my oldest had played this game in school and decided to explain how to play to my son.  Since I didn’t run out and buy the game right away, they spent the next couple days role-playing their own version of the game.  I thoroughly enjoyed their little version of masterpiece theater playing out in our house every time I turned around.  My wonderful sister ended up buying the game and brought it over to them.  By then, they pretty much already played out every possibility the game had to offer.  My kids were quite memorable, especially the night my son slept at his grandma’s and decided to call home to play out a phone version of the game while they were in two different houses.  I will never forget hearing only one end of that phone conversation as they were walking room to room role-playing.  Knowing that my son’s least favorite thing to do at this age is to talk on the phone made it even more special.

These games brought hours of family fun to my house, some of that time was actually before we even got the game!  So, set aside time to spend with your kids in a different way.  I think you learn so much about them when you are spending time doing new things, especially new games.