Until fairly recently, our family of 10 spent every meal together. Now that the older three are working and the rest of us have various activities, time together is more scarce. To maximize our time together, I wanted to find games we could play as we’re sitting around the table. To that end, I’ve compiled a list of dinner table games for kids of all ages.
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1. What am I?
Picklebums.com has a free set of printable cards for her game of “What am I?” which is like the game Headbands. Each card lists a name of an animal, person, place, or thing on it. To play, one person puts a card on his/her forehead and asks “yes” or “no” questions to other players to guess what is on the card. The blog owner includes some blank cards so you can write your own items down.
2. Riddles
Do your kids ever try to make up their own riddles that make no sense? Spare yourself from having to give a courtesy laugh, by printing out this list of 30 kid riddles and answers from Confidencemeetsparenting.com They are clever and will encourage kids to think as they try to figure out the answers.
3. Table topics
We’ve used table topics at family gatherings and with other small groups that meet at our house. They serve as good icebreakers or as a way to get to know your family members better. You can cut up strips of paper and write your own questions on them, or you can print out pre-made lists. I like to cut up the strips and put them in a mason jar. We pass the mason jar around and everyone chooses a question to answer.
TrishSutton.com has 32 questions to print and cut out.
The Suburbanmom.com has a 60 question list you can download for free.
The Measuredmom.com offers both a printable list and cards for free. She has 100 questions for kids and parents to ask each other.
4. Scattergories
You may have played the board game version of this, but you can also play for free. You start with a list of categories which are numbered. For example, #1 animals, #2 movies, #3 ice cream flavors, and so on. In the board game there is a crazy looking dice that has (almost) all the letters of the alphabet on it. You roll to see which letter will be used for that round. If you don’t have one of those, you can let players take turns choosing a letter, or you can put magnetic letters in a bag and choose one per round.
Each player should have a piece of paper that is numbered according to the number of categories on your list, as well as a copy of the list. When play begins (you set a timer for 3 minutes), each player writes down an answer for each category that begins with the letter chosen for that round.
If letter “B” is chosen, your paper might look like this (using the categories listed above): #1 baboon, #2 Bolt, #3 Banana fudge ripple…
FreeHomeschooldeals.com has a printable set of three Scattergory cards to print, along with directions on how to play.
Hobbylark.com gives ten great Scattergory lists in her blog post, but they are not printable. You can just jot them down and make copies to give each player.
5. “The Game”
Our family calls this game, “The Game” because it has become famous in our house. We host a homeschool high school group and we play “The Game” at the start of every school year. This one is better played with older kids and teens.
Each player has a piece of notebook paper on which he/she writes down a sentence to start a story. Everyone then passes their papers to the people to their right. Once the new paper is received, players add a sentence to continue the story. Play continues with papers circulating around until each person has received his/her own paper back. At that point, every player should have contributed to each story and can add a concluding sentence to his/her own story. Results are often quite humorous.
6. Drawing Dice Games
Drawing dice games are really good for all ages as you don’t have to be an artist to play. You’ll need a dice, a game card for reference, and a piece of paper and a pen or pencil for each person.
I created this game card for my daughter as she loves dragons. We’ll use this as our example of how to play the game. There are six rounds or “turns” per game. On the first turn, players will roll to see what shapes they’ll use for their dragon’s head and body. Say you roll a “three.” You would use a heart for the head and the banner shape for the body. The next person would then roll. Play continues until everyone’s dragons are finished. I like to have everyone compare their drawings at the end of the game.
You can get a free copy of the Draw a dragon dice game and see my list of other drawing dice games here.
7.Charades (Pictionary/Catch Phrase)
My kids love charades. When we play at the table, each person can choose to stand by his/her seat, or just stay seated. I bought a set of cards from the Dollar Store, but you can easily print out a list for free. As with table topics, I cut up the list and put the slips of paper in a mason jar that we pass around. You can play in teams, but we usually all guess at the same time.
In charades, you cannot use words. You have to act out whatever is on your card of paper. You can set a timer for each person, or let people continue acting out their item until someone guesses or everyone gives up.
Thegamegal.com is a wonderful resource for charade word lists. She also has lists for Pictionary and Catch Phrase.
In Pictionary, you draw the word. We have a white board we use for this game. You can’t use numbers or letters when drawing.
In CatchPhrase, you try to get others to guess the word or phrase by describing it. You can speak full sentences in this game, but can’t use any part of the phrase in your description nor any part of the word. For example, if the phrase is “birthday party,” you couldn’t say, “It’s a special day that comes once a year.” You’ve said “day” which is part of the phrase “birthday party.”
8. Family Feud
Have you ever watched the game show called “Family Feud?” It is a lot of fun to watch, and also to play. The idea of the game is to guess the top answers to certain questions that were asked of 100 people. A sample question would be: Name a country that starts with an “S”. You would then guess the top five answers for that topic.
RKO Ideas Galore has a free printable version of this game. In this version, everyone plays at once.
Let’s Get Together offers seven pages of questions. She describes the rules for playing Family Feud in teams.
9. Mad Libs
Our family is mad for Mad Libs! Mad Libs are not only fun, but also great for working on grammar skills. A Mad Lib is a story in which words are left out and blank spaces put in. You then have family members take turns giving words to put in the spaces by asking for that part of speech. Here’s an example:
One day I walked into the ____________ (place). A
____________ (adjective) ___________ (food) _____________ (past tense verb) right on top of me!
In that story, different people would have to provide a place, adjective, food, and past tense verb. Once you have filled in all the blanks with the suggestions you have received, you read back the very silly story.
You can find many free versions of Mad Libs (just search on Pinterest). My favorite free source of Mad Libs come from WooJr.com. There are tons to choose from, including Star Wars Mad Libs.
10. Telephone pictionary
This is another favorite of ours. You can use regular notebook paper for this, but I created this form that you can download for free.
Each player begins the game by writing a phrase or sentence in the top space. Players then pass their papers to the right. The next person draws a picture to match the sentence the first person wrote. Before person #2 passes the paper on to the next person, he will fold down the first “write” space so only his “draw” section can be seen. He will then pass his paper to the person on his right. This person will then write a sentence that she thinks matches the drawing person #2 made. She will then fold over the drawing so only her sentence is showing and pass it to her right. Play continues until the form is filled. It helps to have all players write their names on the backs of their papers so they can each get their own papers returned to them.
We recently played this game with our high schoolers, so I had this example to show you. The original sentence is “Gollum bit off Bilbo’s finger and fell into the fires of Mt. Doom.” It evolves into a picture of a witch.
Since this is a game best played with older kids, I developed a version of it for younger ones. In this game, players will take turns drawing portions of people. I made both a female and male version of this game.
On these forms, the first person will draw the face and hair. When he is done, he will fold over his portion and hand it to the next player. Player #2 will draw hands and decorate the shirt. She will fold her portion over and hand it to the next player. Play continues until the person is finished.
I made the one above for slightly older kids.
All of the telephone pictionary forms I made can be downloaded here.
Enjoy your family time!