Games We Play

Family game night is a great way to continue to bond with your children as they get older. If started young enough, the tradition will be part of your family heritage and will help you through some of the rough spots with teenagers and keep lines of communication open. At that point, your problem might be finding time in eveyone's busy schedule, but even once a month meetings can help continue this valuable activity through the teen years.

Some new games I noticed recently are:

Apples to Apples - now almost everyone has heard of this game. It was a huge hit at our holiday gathering with multigenerational players. Decks of cards contain lists and categories. Particpants take turns as the reader, and the goal of the game is to pick the answer the reader will think is the best. If the reader picks your answer, you win his card, and so on until the winner is the person with x-number of cards.

I donated my game to the leadership class at Muskogee High School. As I was walking down the hall to deliver it, kids said "Hey, I love that game," "Oooo, where are you going with that," and "Oh, we play that at our house." When I entered the classroom, the kids immediately wanted to play. It's definitely a keeper. Available at Wal Mart for 1/10 the price of a Wii.

Topics - I saw TopicsCards this weekend at Snow Goose in Utica Square. There are sererval versions of it, but it isn't really a game per se. There are boxes of topics cards that you use to start discussions in the car, around the coffee table or dinner table, anywhere you happen to be in the same room with someone and need conversation starters.

I've played my own version of topics with my teens, especially my non-talkative son, now for quite awhile. "If you could visit any place is the world, where would you go," I asked, trying to get more than a one-word answer out of him when he was that great age of 16. "Where would you live if money weren't an obstacle," "What's your favorite car," "Which birthday was your favorite," "Who's the best soccer player ever," I would go on and on trying to get some information out of my son. "Mom, stop asking so many questions," was usually the agitated response.

I wish I had had a box of these cards to not make it look like I was prying. One question in the deck I would ask is "What do you miss most about home when you are away?"

Here's the url for the company:

http://www.tabletopics.com/questions_to_go.html

Nintendo Wii - I think I might have mentioned this before, but if you have to play video games with your children, a Wii is a good idea. Buy the interactive games like boxing, golf, or tennis and you can really get a work out. I really hate the narcissistic dance the winning avatar does, but it's a small price to pay for some fun with your child. That is if you and your significant other let the kids have a turn... I have played hours and hours of video games with my son and being able to move as part of the game is a great idea (without shooting a "gun" or something else violent). As a real downer, ADD has been associated with playing too many hours of video games. Just something to consider. I think they said the same thing about watching television back in 1966, but having all the facts is a good thing.

Good luck with your family game night, movie night, eat out night - whatever it is, enjoy each other to the max.