What are some fun play ideas for the car/tuktuk/at a restaurant?
“The creative mind is the playful mind”- Eric Hoffer
If your kids are like mine, there is a high risk that if they get bored, they will fight, or find some innovative way to be naughty. The risk is particularly high in waiting situations — driving somewhere, in the queue, when told to sit still, etc.
But this is where play comes most handy. Even when you have nothing, not even a pen or a paper, there are many games you can play with kids of all ages. The below games are our go-to games when we want to preempt boredom and create some good memories out of an otherwise boring situation. We try to mix them up and introduce some variations to keep up the fun!
Revisit some old classics: These games are popular in Western culture, and the reason is that they work great with children of different ages. They can be adapted easily to your kids’ages
· Nor Yes Nor No game: In this game, the family asks questions and one child or parent must respond. But no one is allowed to say “yes” or “no”. For instance, I can ask my child “is it your birthday today?” and he must answer without saying yes or no, otherwise he loses the point. Then we can switch turns and he must ask me questions without me saying yes or no. This game is good to make the whole family laugh, and also help children develop their ability to ask/answer questions well.
· I spy (colour/letters): Pick something that you see and your child(ren) see. Then say “I spy with my little eye, something green (Or whatever colour the thing is). The child needs to guess what object you chose. For instance: This tree? This tuktuk? Etc. When they are right, it is their turn to chose an object and say “I spy with my little eye, something…. Red” and others need to guess.
As the child(ren) get older you can use first letters instead of colours. For instance “I spy with my little eye something that starts with C”. And then the children need to guess the object: The car? The corn? …’” This game is great to develop observation skills. It also helps me notice some cool small details in the landscape or crowd I would have otherwise missed (e.g. an interesting tatoo, a beautiful road sign)!
· I go to the market and I buy…: Each person in turn needs to add a word as part of the sentence. For instance “I go to the market and I buy a mango.” Then the second person needs to repeat everything and add one more “I go to the market and I buy a mango and an umbrella”. As children become older and to improve their literacy, you can play that each object needs to follow alphabetical order (an Apple, a Banana, some Chocolate, etc), and/or that each time you need to increase the quantities (1 apple, 2 bananas, 3 chocolate pieces, etc). This game is great to practice memory.
· Orchestra conductor: Once you have one or several songs that you know together as a family, you can play the orchestra conductor game. Nominate one of the children or parents to be the conductor. As the others sing the song, the conductor must give instructions to the singers, for instance “louder!” “softer” “higher!” “lower”. The singers must adapt their singing to the instructions. Once the song is finished, another child can become the conductor. This game is an excellent way to please the children because of “role reversal”: they feel in control as they can give orders to the rest of the family, when usually it is the parents who decide. It is also a good way to practice obeying instructions.
· Guessing game: In this game, the parent thinks of a person/place or animal (you can start with only one category for younger children, like animals only). For instance, the parent choses the blue whale. The children must guess which person/place/animal the parent is thinking of by asking questions. The questions should be answered only by yes or no. For instance: “Does this animal live in the sea?” Or “Is this person a woman?”. As children get older, you can add a limit number of questions they can ask to guess the animal or person (for instance, 20 questions, but you can make easier by giving 30 questions or harder by giving 10 questions). The child who guesses the correct answer (the blue whale) gets one point and must think of a person/place/animal for the next turn, and the others must guess. This game is great to develop logic in children.
· Simon says: One person is “Simon” and must give instructions to the other family members. For instance “Simon says put your hands on your head’. The other family members must obey the orders, but only if the instruction starts with “Simon says”. For instance, if the “Simon” child says “Jump on your feet” but doesn’t first say “Simon says”, and if one of the participants still jumps on their feet, that person is eliminated. The person who is best able to follow the instructions without making a mistake for the longest time becomes the next “Simon”. This game is good to practice giving/receiving instructions and concentrating.
Some other ideas that work great for us as a family:
· Finish the story: In this game, each person in the family adds one sentence to create a story together. For instance, I start and I say: “Once upon a time, there was a little boy called Alex.” Then my son may say “Alex was very sad because he didn’t have any parents”. It is ok if sometimes the story doesn’t make sense! This game is great to develop creativity.
· Learn a family poetry or a family song: In this game, the parent (or the child) teaches a song or a poem to the whole family. Start by teaching each part of the song line by line, until every child is able to master that line. For instance “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine”. Then add the second line “You make me happy, when skies are grey”. Once you have learned all the lines of the song, you can practice singing together until all the children know the song well. You can also add gestures to help the children memorize the lyrics (for instance, for “you are my sunshine” you can make a round with your hands like the sun. This song can become one of your family songs that you sing when a child needs to be comforted, or you need to reconnect as a family. We have a few and it helps to increase our family team spirit.
· Rhyming game: In this game, one family member starts by completing the sentence “For my birthday I would like …” For instance, “for my birthday I would like a coat”. The other family members then need to speak in turn to find something that rhymes with coat. “For my birthday I would like a boat”. “For my birthday I would like a goat”. The person who can have the most rhyming ideas wins. This game is great for children who are learning to read and must practice recognizing sounds, like my 5 year old at the moment.
We have also created some more unique games based on our chosen family values — and you can create yours to mix it up.
