How to Get Little Kids to Play Big Kid Games

Many years ago, soon after we moved into this house, we were all playing a game of Outburst.

In this game, a team is given a category, and the team must give a specific ten answers in a short amount of time.

During one round, the category was "Natural Disaster".  Our team immediately started shouting. 

"Tornado!"

"Earthquake!"

"Typhoon!"

After a few seconds, there was a lull in the shouting.

Until 6 year old Buttercup broke the silence.

"THE PLAYROOM!"

This.

This is why we play games with our kids.

Sure, game playing teaches them all sorts of skills they will need for school and throughout their lives.

There's counting and letter recognition and problem solving and turn-taking and good sportsmanship.

But first and foremost, there is fun.

So much fun!

Now, when there are 6 kids in the family, and the age range is wide, playing games as a family can get tricky.

But it is not impossible.

In fact, it's actually quite doable.

The family just needs to make adjustments.

Of course, there is always the option of the big kids playing the little kid games. In our house, this usually happens when it's just one little kid wanting to play with one specific big kid.

Cuckoo and I have played approximately 340 games of this in the last three weeks. I don't mind. It's a quick, good game, unlike it's wicked stepbrother, the exhausting Monopoly.

We then move up to the slightly more complicated games to keep the big kids involved but are still easy enough for the little kids to grasp.  Card games fit this bill perfectly.

We happened to be playing "Golf" that day.

At some point, the games requiring more thought come out. At first, the little kids don't play, but are given jobs to help the game along. For example, when playing Apples to Apples, the non-reader can be the dealer or the partner of one of the big kids. Eventually, the little kids learn enough to be able to play on their own.

In this photo, Cuckoo is marking his Clue sheet. He can't read, but he uses clues (ha! Can't think of a different word.) to figure out what he's marking. For example, he can recognize the alphabet and matches up the word on the card with the word on the paper. He's all scrunched up because he doesn't want anyone to see which cards he has.

We played Boggle the other night. These are Cuckoo's words for three different rounds. (In our house, anyone 6 or younger gets to use 2-letter words.) I wrote the vowels on the top to help him remember that all words have to have at least one of them. (The letters that look like z are actually s.) The crossed out words are ones other people had or weren't really words. 

Finally, the younger kids will get so good at playing big kid games, they even beat their parents.

Mancala is Cuckoo's new favorite game. He's only been playing it for about a week, but he has already whooped me several times. No joke. And believe me, I do not let my kids win games. They have to earn that win. 

This post was prompted by PJ, who blogs at A 'lil Hoohaa. This month's photography challenge was "Games".  Head over to see what other people did with the prompt.  

If you would like to get in on future linkups, join his Facebook page. That's where he announces the new theme each month and reminds us to get our posts ready.

So, do you have any games which can be adjusted for little kids? We love to find new ones!

Have a lovely day!