Family and Parenting: Information For Families

Games are bonding activities just waiting to be played. When you play games with your children you are not only enjoying their company while having a blast but you are instilling a life lesson of togetherness and giving them a gift far more important than any Christmas present; the gift of You!

If you have a young family this can be a fun game to play one night a month, or week, to make dinner time even more fun. Call it what you like but the basic idea is to have dinner dress-up. Have everyone put their name on a piece of paper and place it in a bowl. Have someone draw a name each time the game is played to determine who selects the theme. If you select a duplicate two times in a row then draw again so everyone gets a turn. That person will select a theme, a famous family (i.e. the Adams family) to imitate. Together you will all select a certain time to begin the game so that everyone, even Mom, has time to get made-up before it is time for dinner (an hour before hand is usually adequate). This is a fun game for younger kids because they get eventually have the power to choose the nature of the ‘beast’ and they get to dress-up at the same time. Be aware that when a young girl gets to pick the theme, and a Father and brother are involved, feelings (and pride) can be hurt if the theme is too girly, such as “Princess”, so promote categories that will be gender friendly.

A really cool game that my families use to play when we were very little was a game of ‘Reverse’. Simple meaning; everyone put their name in a hat (or bowl) and each person has to draw the name of a family member and then act out, and impersonate, the person that they drew. When you play reversing the roles with the family members you may see a side of yourself that you weren’t aware of before. It is also a hysterical way to revamp a family gathering. This does not have to be tied down to family members only; it can be expanded to cartoon characters or anyone else the kids may know.
Finally, an age-old game used to provoke laughter, yet the point is to hold it back, using a timer set it to one minute. Going in a circle, each person has one minute to make the others laugh using anything they can find. Props can be used, anything around the area, but no touching. The ones who laugh are out and whoever is the last one left wins the round.