With families homebound (at the time I wrote this post) due to the shelter in place order, it hopefully means families are also eating together more. When all 10 of our family members are gathered at the table, we like to play games. Earlier this month, I wrote a post about games you can play with your kids around the dinner table. Some of the games I listed required pencil and paper. The games on the list here don’t require any materials. They truly are simple games to play around the table.
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1. Alphabet train
Players choose a category to use for the game. My family either chooses geography or Bible characters. Going around the table, each person names something from that category using the last letter of the previous person’s answer.
For example: The category is geography. Dad starts by saying “Algeria.” The next person now must give an answer beginning with the letter “A.” She chooses “Afghanistan.” Person #3 now must choose a word beginning with the letter “N.”
We found that certain letters were used a lot more often than others (the letter “A” is very popular in the geography category). If you start running out of answers for that letter, you can start using the second to the last letter.
Variation for littles: Don’t use categories. Start with one word and let your child use any word that begins with the last letter of the word. You might say, “orange.” What word starts with an “E?” Continue play as above.
2. The guessing game
My kids play this one all the time and this is what they call it. Again, choosing categories, one person thinks of an item from one of the categories. Other players then ask “yes” or “no” questions to try to guess the answer. Our favorite categories are: people we know, movies, animals, and food. One of our 10-year-old sons always tries to get us to use “cars” as a category, but is overruled. The game is pretty much like “20 questions” but is not limited to 20 questions.
Variation for littles: Play this as “I Spy.” Choose something in the room you are in and say, “I spy with my little eye, something that is….” and give an attribute of the answer. Say you have a blue clock on the wall. You might say, “I spy with my little eye, something that is blue.” Let your kids take turns guessing. Give more hints as needed.
3. Telephone
You start the game by whispering a sentence or phrase into the ear of the person to your right. That person then whispers the same sentence or phrase to the person on his right. Play continues around the table in the same fashion until it reaches the person on your left. At that point, that person says out loud what she heard. You will see that the end result is often quite different from the original.
I know whether or not to allow a person to repeat the phrase to the same player is a matter of great controversy. I say, you decide. We generally don’t allow repeats. If the person says, “What? I didn’t hear you.” We have them just repeat whatever they did hear.
Variation for littles: Instead of a sentence or phrase, try using just one word. Littles tend to have a hard time whispering, so I say repeats are allowed.
4. Story starter
This game will get the creative juices flowing. One person starts a story with one sentence such as, “Once upon a time there was an ogre who lived in a cave.” The next person adds a sentence or two. Play continues around the table for as many times as you decide. Consider recording your stories via video or audio for preservation.
You can use a story set like this one, but it’s certainly not necessary:
Our family used to use a set of cards that I bought for my daughter’s speech therapy.
Again, to make it super simple, just stick to your own imaginations,
Variation for littles: Choose a story your kids know well to retell around the table. For example: You might start with, “Once upon a time there were three bears, a papa bear, a mama bear, and a baby bear.” The next person adds to the story in the same way mentioned above.
5. Who am I?
This is our current favorite game to play around the table. One player starts by thinking of a person that everyone else present would know. The person can be a celebrity or someone the family knows personally. Player one will now have to answer questions from other players as that person. For example, say player one chooses Chuck Norris as the answer (which someone in our family did). The player must now answer questions as Chuck Norris as people try to guess his identity. If a player gets asked a question for which he doesn’t know the answer, he can say “decline to state.”
We decided that in our game we would not take on the mannerisms or accent of the person we were trying to guess. You may decide to include that additional element for your family.
Variation for littles: You choose a person for your kids to guess. Give them clues and have them guess the identity of your chosen person. Say you choose their karate instructor. You might give the following clues, “I am an adult, and one of your teachers.” Give additional clues as needed.
6. Spaghetti
My second oldest son brought this game to our family from a college drama class. You start the game by giving the person to your right an emotion. Say the emotion is “sad.” The person must then say the word “spaghetti” in a very sad way. He then chooses the emotion for the next person who then says “spaghetti” in that way. It’s pretty hilarious. We were pretty lenient with the “emotions.” For instance, one of my kids told me to say “spaghetti” in a “geekily” way. In my best geeky voice, I said the word spaghetti.
I don’t think you need a variation for littles. I think they can get this game pretty well if you stick with basic emotions like: happy, sad, scared, surprised, angry, etc.
7. This or that
In this game, players take turns giving each other two things from which to choose. Say Dad says to Mom, “chocolate or vanilla?” Mom says, “chocolate.”(duh) Mom then asks Daniel, “sharks or whales?” Daniel says, “sharks.” Play continues around the table for as many times as you choose.
If you need some inspiration for your “this or that” questions, thegamegal.com has three pages of questions in a free printable.
Variation for littles: It might be more difficult for littles to come up with questions, so you might end up doing all the asking.
8. Word association
To start the game, one player says a word, any word that comes to his mind. The next person must, in three seconds, say a word that is related to the first word. If she doesn’t, she’s out of the round. When a person gets dropped out, play continues onto the next player. That player must say a word that is associated with the previous player.
Here is an example of a round:
The first player says, “green.”
Player 2: “frog”
Player 3: “toad”
At this point, player 4 chokes and says, “Uhhhhhh…” He is now out and the next player continues.
Player 5: “warts”
Player 6: “Compound W”
At any time, the group may challenge an answer. If the majority votes against a person’s answer, that person is out. A person is also out if he repeats an answer already given. Icebreakers.ws gives a few good examples of challenged answers.
Variation for littles: Play “rhyme time” with your littles. I used to play this with my youngest on the drive to her speech therapy. To play, say a word and your child has to say a word that rhymes with your word. You can decide if you want to accept nonsense words from your kiddos (such as, “bime” if you say “time.”
9. Categories
Give each player a category (fruit, vegetables, sports, movies, etc.). Taking turns, players will have one minute to name items from their category. The player who calls out the greatest number of items on his turn, wins. You don’t have to keep score if you want to take out the competitive element. If you want to make sure no one can claim his category was more difficult than that of others, you can write categories on slips of paper and have people draw from the pool.
Variation for littles: Don’t give a time limit. Let them give examples of a given category until you are ready to move on to the next one.
10. Identity crisis
This is pretty much the opposite of “Who am I?” In this game, you, as player one, leaves the room while the rest of the group choose an identity for you. When you return, you have to ask “yes” or “no” questions to the other players to try and guess your identity. When choosing identities, be fair and make sure the guesser actually knows his identity! We had to tell our kids to stop choosing characters in shows the rest of us don’t watch.
Variation for littles: Play a game of pretend, Tell your kids to pretend that they are different people or characters. Then ask them questions and they can answer as that person or character. For example, tell your child to pretend he is Olaf. Now ask him questions such as, “Olaf, what is your favorite thing to eat?” “Do you like summer or winter best?” It’s always amusing (and maybe a bit humbling) to ask your kids to pretend to be Mom or Dad.
Have fun trying out these simple games to play around the table. If you need more ideas for keeping kids busy while you are stuck inside, take a look at these posts:
10 Life Skills to teach your kids when you’re stuck inside
Dinner table games for kids of all ages
10 Screen-free indoor activities for kids of all ages