Playing "Quest"

Prepare for battle, lion monster!

Inevitably, some time around 5:30 my six-year-old says, "Mommy, will you play a game with me?" I admit, not to my credit, that I often try to get out of it because by that time of day I am tired and hungry and I do not want to play Battleship or Chutes and Ladders while my older son, D-Mac, constantly tries to change the rules so he'll win and my three-year-old, Ducky, ignores the rules completely and bickering ensues.

But yesterday, when I asked D-Mac what game he had in mind, he said he wanted to go on a quest. Now that was something I could play along with! We gathered equipment - a rope for D-Mac, a belt for me, and invisible spikes for Ducky (raise your hands in the air, elbows bent, fingers pointing up, and say "Invisible spikes!") - and set out to face the challenges D-Mac devised. First we had to climb a crystal mountain (the stairs). Then we fought invisible ninjas, battled a lion monster, escaped from sharks, and finally climbed across a cave rigged with bombs to retrieve a flag.

Each challenge took place in a different room; we wandered around the house using whatever we found in that room as part of the challenge. There was no sitting still, no waiting for turns, and we got to make up the rules as we went along (within reason - D-Mac still tried to change his own rules when things didn't go his way). By the time we'd captured the flag it was time for dinner.

I'm looking forward to going on another quest today.

Random Tweets, Illustrated

Couldn't think of anything to post today, so I decided to play a little game. I went to Twitter and picked a few recent tweets that were just statements - without links - from people I follow. Then I took those tweets completely out of context and illustrated them thusly.

The Scribble Game

Here's another game that my siblings and I used to play, which I now play with my own children. My boys are 6 and 3, but my sister and I still used to play this game in high school.

Equipment: paper, something to draw with

1. Each player draws a scribble. Don't go overboard - if you fill up the whole paper there won't be any space for the next person to draw!
2. Everyone passes their paper to someone else.
3. Each player has to create a drawing using the scribble as a starting point.

For a variation, decide what everyone needs to draw: animals, spaceships, houses, food, etc.

It can also be fun to have each person use a different color of marker or crayon so that you can see which part was the original scribble.

Here are a few examples from a recent game I played with my boys.

Gaming Style Gives a Clue About Personality

Photo by Ardail Smith

My mom used to tell me a story about how she and her two sisters liked to play the board game Clue:

My mom, the oldest, wanted to play according to the rules of the game.
Her middle sister wanted to make up her own rules.
Her youngest sister wanted to use the game board and pieces to play house.

Years later, my mom became a teacher. Her middle sister took off for Japan, and still lives there. Her youngest sister has a house filled with a beautiful collection of antiques.

Handful: A Simple Lego Game

Photo by Slack Pics

Before there was Lego Creationary, my brother, sister and I used to play a game we called "Handful." Now that I have kids of my own, I've taught the game to them. Here's how to play.

Equipment: A big tub or bag full of Legos.

Basic game: Each player closes his eyes, reaches into the tub, and grabs a handful of Legos. He has to build something with whatever he's ended up with. When both players are done building, they have to explain what they've made.

Variation 1: The players all agree on what they're going to build (car, treehouse, washing machine) before they grab their Legos. This can get really fun and creative. For example, when you have two minifigs, a wheel, and a tree and you need to build a submarine.

Variation 2: Each player gets to tell another player what to build before they grab their Legos. This makes the game a little more competitive. My six-year-old likes this version of the game.

Build, create, have fun!