This past New Year’s Eve, my mom and I hosted what we termed “the ultimate sleepover” for my nieces and nephews at her house. Side note—had we known what a clunker 2020 would turn out to be, we might have skipped celebrating its arrival. I’m guessing folks will throw some big parties this December as we say goodbye to this year! But, back to the party. The ages of the kids ranged from 6 to 15, and we had a lot of time to pass before midnight, so our plan was to play games. Lots of games. However, my idea of games and my mom’s diverged. I went to Party City and loaded up on games (guess the terrible candy cane flavor was a favorite), while Mom relied on games from her childhood. I thought the kids would roll their eyes at playing “Telephone” or “Mother, May I?” but I was wrong! All of them enjoyed each contest, and we managed to keep them busy for quite some time. The next time you have a group to entertain, consider the following ideas—that don’t require any supplies!
Telephone
So easy and so loved by kids of all ages. Ask the children to sit in a circle. Each child takes turns being “it.” Whoever is “it” comes up with a silly (but appropriate) sentence and whispers it to his neighbor, who then whispers to the next neighbor and so on until the message gets to the last person. The one who hears it last stands up and says what she heard out loud, which is typically very different from the original sentence. Hilarity ensues.
Mother, May I?
One child plays the role of “Mother” while the others line up on the other side of the room and face the mother. Mother takes turns choosing one child at a time to give directions to about how to move forward. For example, Mother may say, “Ally, take three giant leaps forward,” to which the child has to ask, “Mother, May I?” Mother then replies, “Yes, you may.” The first person to make it all the way to Mother wins and becomes Mother for the next round.
There’s a catch! If someone takes steps without first asking for permission, then that unfortunate soul must move back to the start. Keep the game interesting by inserting some silly ways to travel to Mother: crab walk, teeny-tiny baby steps, twirly steps, etc.
Red Light, Green Light
Choose one person to be “it” to start the game and play the role of stoplight. The rest of the kids line up on the other side of the room. Whoever is “it” faces away from the group and calls out, “Green light!” Once green light is called, the lined-up kids move forward until “it” shouts, “Red light!” and turns around quickly. If “it” catches anyone still moving, that player must go back to start. The person who first gets to and touches “it” is the winner and becomes “it” for the next round. Having a parent around is always good for this game, as some arguing is sure to erupt over whether or not someone was still moving when “it” turned around.
Red Rover
Divide kids into two teams (for this one, a larger group tends to work a bit better. The bigger the team, the longer the game will last). The children form a line by holding hands and line up about 30 feet apart from each other. Choose a team to go first and then the team decides on a player to call over from the other side to their side. Once they’ve agreed upon someone to call over, the team calls out, “Red rover, red rover, send Tori right over!” Tori must run over and try to break through the line. If she’s successful, she chooses someone to bring over to her team. If she can’t get through, she joins the opposition. Game continues until everyone is on one team. This is another good one to have adult supervision at hand as it can get a bit rough. Best to have kids near the same age play together, so you don’t end up with older kids trying to break through a line of younger kids.
Other oldies but goodies include charades, sardines and good old hide-n-seek. Once you run out of ideas, ask the kids to invent their own games. As kids, my cousins and I invented a game called “hide behind things.” Although we won’t win any points for creativity in naming the game, it was a complex game with lots of rules that kept us entertained for hours at a time. Sometimes the best games come from a group of bored kids.
Margaret Sarver lives in Lenexa with her family and loves playing all kinds of games!