We played a game called Qwirkle all season, sitting outside. Camping neighbors would come over and ask what the heck we were doing having so much fun. We found a travel size version for the winter, when we want to play inside. We used it this weekend and it was great, too! There are three sets of each of the six colors and six shapes that you have to play along the way so that you create rows of the same shape that are all different colors.
A great thing to do with kids to is challenge them to HACK board games and change the rules up OR to create their own games using common game pieces. Give them a set of dominoes, a pair of red dice and a pair of white dice and tell them they have 30 minutes to create a fun game and you are going to come back then so they can teach you the game. Then, play their game and laugh with them. They may want to be able to do it again to refine their rules or they may challenge you to do it.
Or, put out a game everyone around the table knows how to play or has at least seen played before, start a timer for 20 minutes and start with the oldest kid. The oldest kid starts the game by making up the rule about how the game starts. You can make the rule that no rules from the "store version" of the game can be used. The next person adds a rule about how the game continues to another player, the next person adds a rule about something else, and this continues for 3 or 4 rounds - passes are allowed. Play continues with the rules that have been established. When the timer goes off, once it gets back around to the oldest kid everyone gets to make one more rule that will lead to the game ending.
Or, put out a game everyone around the table knows how to play. Each person gets to declare one of the rules they would like to change and how they would like to change it. Then, play the new game.
We do things like flip a coin at the end of a Putt-Putt match to see if the high score or the low score wins as well...things to get kids to think strategy and to also put the emphasis on having fun and not just winning...winning and losing is based on a set of rules someone devised. Who says you can't change the rules? It's important for kids to know appropriate ways to challenge rules and what their rights are to move for change. If your teenagers are in to The Hunger Games series, that's a great launch point for a deep conversation about the role of government in making and enforcing rules as well.
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1999 American Cruiser Class B
2006 Palomino Puma 27FQ Bunkhouse
2007 Gulfstream Innsbruck 36FRS Park Trailer
