Plan a Family Game Night

It’s the weekend!  A perfect time to have a Family Game Night!

It doesn’t matter how old you are, playing games together is a great way to connect with family – and friends. It’s the perfect opportunity to put down the phones and tablets, turn off the game consoles, TVs and computers, and interact face-to-face!  Playing games also helps promote sportsmanship, teamwork, cooperation, and a little healthy competition – and it’s just plain FUN!

Make Family Game Night a tradition and schedule a game night once a week.  And it doesn’t have to be a weekend night. In fact, holding a weekday game night can be a great way for everyone to unwind from a stressful day of school or work!

Here’s my tips for making this tradition fun for the entire family.

Family Game Night Tips

• Schedule It – Determine which night of the week would work best for your family to have a regularly scheduled Game Night. Mark the date on your family calendar.
• Plan the Game – Involve your entire family when determining which game to play each week. One way to choose a game is to write the name of each game you have on separate slips of paper. Put all the slips into a bowl, and have one person draw a slip from the bowl. Take turns drawing each week, or have the previous week’s winner draw the game for the current week.
• Plan Snacks – Make your game night even more enjoyable with fun finger foods! Choose your families favorite finger snacks and serve them in fun containers. For example, serve long Pretzel sticks in tall drinking glasses; or Fresh Fruit on skewer’s as a Fruit Kebab; or Fresh Vegetables in individual bowls with a small cup of dip in the middle of the bowl.
• Keep a Winner’s Log – Download and print this Family Game Night Log Sheet to recognize the family member who won the last game. The log sheet also helps keep track of the games you’ve played. Write the names of each player and the names of the games played. Use the grid to record the players scores, then circle the winning score. Post your log sheet on a family bulletin board or on the refrigerator.

A Few More Tips

• Know How to Play – It may seem obvious, but I recommend that you know how to play a game before introducing it on Family Game Night. There is nothing worse than having your family sit around while you read the instructions and try to figure out how to play the game. Be prepared ahead of time!
• Change the Rules – Be creative and change the rules to a game to better accommodate your family. Of course, you’ll want to work together to establish new rules, and make sure to communicate the rules so everyone knows them.
• Invite Friends – Once a month, invite friends and neighbors to join your Family Game Night. Set up separate tables for a variety of games, or have everyone play one game together. Have a tournament of games!

Some Of Our Favorite Games Right Now

We have a LOT of games (as you can see by the image of our game closet). Some we only play occasionally, others are regular favorites. Here are some of the games we are enjoying right now:

• Apples to Apples 
• Taboo (my ALL time favorite)
• Scattegories (this game causes lots of laughter – it’s fun to hear the words your kids are thinking!)
• Pictionary
• Scrabble (no dictionary used when we play – makes for some hilarious explanations, and lively banter when a word challenge is made!)
• Oodles of Doodles
• Monopoly (we have several variations, and they are all fun)
• Fluxx
• Ruckus
• Munchkin (lots of varieties of this game, all fun)
• Mille Bornes (I used to play this with my Dad all the time, love it)

What are your favorite games to play as a family? Share in a comment below!