Favorite Things Thursday: Games and More Games

I had high hopes of accomplishing a lot of household purging this past weekend. I wanted to present my husband (who loathes clutter and the accumulation of needless things) with photographic evidence of my efforts on his behalf. His birthday is coming up and I can honestly say that he would rather receive proof of simplification than any item or gift. However, because of my tendency to own far more than we need, it took the whole weekend just to get the house cleaned and orderly. Groan.

When I looked at my game cupboards to prepare this post, hubby's desires for the simple life were like devils on my shoulder. I have always enjoyed playing games. I suppose this love was nurtured in my childhood because my siblings and I spent a good deal of time playing games. I have fond memories of playing Battleship, Monopoly, Life, Yahtzee, Probe, Mille Bournes and many other games with my family members.

Even when we grew older, we made time for game play when we gathered at the holidays. I remember one Christmas when we met together at my oldest brother's house. We sat around their table for hours playing "Know Your America." This is an educational game intended for 2 - 4 players, ages 8 and up.

The night that we played this at my brother's house will forever be a fond memory for me. I'm not sure how to explain why it was so much fun or even how a game about United States facts can spur on so much laughter and hilarity, but we were laughing and carrying on so loud that my sister-in-law had to beg us to quiet down or we would wake the children. One of the funniest players that night was my sister's husband. It was really stunning because he is normally such a quiet and reserved guy. I would eagerly jump at any opportunity to play this game with him again.

As kids, I can remember going to my paternal grandmother's house and playing the game of "Skunk." This was one of our favorites, back then. You roll the dice and accumulate points. However, if you roll and get a skunk, you lose your turn. If you roll and get double skunks, you lose all the points you had accumulated up to that point. It was a simple game and we anticipated playing it every time we headed to visit our grandmother.

My maternal grandmother gave me a game as a gift one year. It was called "Jotto" and it was an excellent game for playing on long car trips. Each player would select a five letter word and place it in the boxes beneath a top flap. Then they would take turns making guesses about the other person's word and receiving clues as to how many letters occur in the other person's word. It is a game which exercises word knowledge and strategy skills.

I still have my two Jotto pads and play it from time to time with my ES. When I searched for it on-line, I discovered that you can go here to play several various difficulty levels against the computer. If you go here, you can print out an actual game sheet (similar to the ones my game came with). Thus, if you were searching for an easy word game to play with your children, you could enjoy this game without cluttering up your house and filling enormous game cupboards.

Alas, it is too late for me. The enormous game cupboards have already been filled. Even when I look over my games with an eye for reducing the number, I feel a sense of hesitancy because these are all games I purchased with the hopes of playing with my children. They are games I love and games I wish to create memories with. If my kids have even a handful of memorable experiences, like I did with my siblings, then it will have been worth the garage sale purchases and the extra space they have taken up.

Still, I can easily see several games that will never be played unless I force my children to sit down and play them. For example, a while back I came upon several inexpensive grammar games. I purchased four or five of them and gave them away as gifts. Looking back, I believe several of my relatives were chortling (or maybe severely disgruntled). I mean, who gives a child a grammar game for Christmas???

But, there are plenty of games in my game cupboard which have, indeed, been played with my children. Moreover, I fully intend to spend time with my younger sons playing board and card games. Despite the advent of technological options, I still crave that time sitting together and playing a game around a card table.

Anyway, here is a sneak peek at my accumulated games:





*Escape the Mad Mummy (ages 7+) - MS loves this one because it has a magic spinning cube and mummy game pieces
*Junior Monopoly (5-8) - this is perfect for little ones; they love landing on roller coasters and carousels and pushing the cars around the board
*Checkers (6+) - rarely used, though it should be
*Once, A Storytelling Game (12+) - this could be serious fun with my grown siblings
*Jeopardy (12+)
*Mind Trap I & II (12+) - I played this somewhere and loved it, so I purchased both sets when I noticed them at the thrift store - sadly I have never managed to get anyone to play it with me, think intellectual puzzle game - my husband would love it (and win) if he would ever give it a try
*Phase 10 Dice
*Scrooge card game
*Uno Spiderman - MS should be ready to play this finally
*Boggle (8+) - lots of fond memories of playing this, but no takers in my home
*Mille Bournes (French auto card game) - same as with Boggle
*Wordsters (12+)
*Gram-R-Fun (8+)
*Mission Command (8+) - could be a great boy's game, but for now the little boys just like playing with the fighter planes
*Sorry (6+) - a ES favorite
*Aggravation (6+) - have played this loads of times
*Ring-a-Round (7+) - a highly versatile math game which ES and I used to play a lot
*S'math (think Scrabble, only math - ages 6+)
*Scotland Yard (10+)
*Pit
*Dominoes
*Jenga - an ES and MS favorite
*Go Fish (ages 3-7) - falling apart because of overuse
*Clifford Pick-Up Bones - a kid's meal toy worth keeping
*Ants in the Pants - purchased for a quarter at a garage sale and played well over 25 times, easily



*Bikini Bottom Book of Games - somehow Spongebob games are as loved as the cartoon?
*Spongebob Squarepants Game
*Guzzlin' Gators - ES picked this one with b-day money long ago and all the boys have loved it
*Safety Game - the bug which lights up to reveal how many spaces you move, really makes this game for little ones!
*Simpsons Clue and Simpsons Jeopardy - purchased at great expense for ES during a Simpsons phase, yet never once played - grrrr! - although the Simpsons characters are carried around all the time
*Spiderman & Friends Match-up - again the plastic characters are the big hit
*Shapes (a game like Tangrams)
*Scattegories Junior (8+)
*Domino Rally Dino Roar
*Operation (6+) - a hit
*Scrabble
*Upwords, a pyramid version of Scrabble (8+) - if I put down "loop," you can guess what ES changes it to!
*Spiderman Make-a-Match - well worth the 50 cents for all the play with MS
*Bug's Life Birdie Builders
*Memory Game
*Mousetrap - the little boys beg my husband to put this up, but usually destroy it within ten minutes
*Bulldog Dozer (6+) - this simple game is fun because you build structures and the bulldog randomly knocks them down - another thrift store winner
*Know Your America (8+)
*Pooh's Musical Hide-n-Seek (3+) - waste of money - this one is going



Card games:
*I Spy (a fantastic memory game)
*Yahtzee - not played nearly as much now that we have an electronic hand-held one which makes the game go super fast
*Old Maid
*Uno
*Authors and Quartet - my absolute favorite card games
*Skip-bo - I love this one, but haven't really played it with ES much
*Phase 10 (kind of a longer version of Uno)


These games are from ES's closet. The large box one is called "Labyrinth" and ES brought it home from his paternal grandparents' house. He was determined to beat the thing. You have to get a marble to travel all the way from the start to the finish without dropping in one of the hundred holes. When he mastered the game, he took a video of himself and talked his dad into giving him money!

There are a few more games in the little boys' room, like the Thomas the Tank Engine letter game, a flipping frog game, and "the game at the end of the book." Plus, there are games I would like to replace - games which were lost in a basement flood several years ago (like Stratego and British Monopoly). So, I doubt I've purchased my last game. Most of these games cost between a quarter and $2.50. Some were received as gifts. Several were handed down.

I'd like to think my boys will be smarter individuals because I took the time to play games with them. Even if they aren't though, I will still continue to love games and want to play them with others. I'm striving for no dull minds and no dull moments.