Having a regular game night with the family is a great way to build bonds and create lifelong memories. There’s nothing like unplugged, face-to-face time with the kids to help you forget about the stresses of daily life. Home is the ideal place to make time together special.
You won’t be sorry you started a custom of playing board games with your loved ones every week. The time you spend raising your children at home is brief. Shared laughter is a powerful bonding tool.
It’s safe to assume that your children would not respond positively if you invited them to an evening of adult conversation and specifically said that cell phones were not permitted. However, if you establish a routine for family game night, your children will constantly inquire as to when the next one will be.
What is the objective of family game night?
Family game evenings are an excellent opportunity to engage your children in social activities and interact with new friends. These game evenings aim to educate, enhance skills, and create lasting memories for your children and their friends.
What makes a good family game?
Family game evenings are an excellent opportunity to engage your children in social activities and interact with new friends. These game evenings aim to educate, enhance skills, and create lasting memories for your children and their friends.
How to Plan a Family Game Night
It is not difficult to organize a family gaming night at home. Simply concentrate on the following to have an enjoyable night for your kids:
1. Select a Date
Choose a suitable date for a family gaming night. Before deciding on a day, check the schedules of all your family members. Avoid school evenings, since family game nights often extend beyond your children’s sleep.
The majority of families favor Friday nights for game night. However, you may choose any day within a month or week that works best for you and your children.
2. Set the Rules Before Game Night
Games have the ability to bring out the best (and sometimes the worst) in people. Create three to five rules on which all family members may agree. Keep the rules visible throughout game night, and make sure younger children understand the repercussions of not taking turns or being a poor sport.
3. Let Everyone Participate
Plan to play one or two games, depending on how long your game night is. This keeps the night from being boring and gives players with different skills a chance to shine.
4. Don’t Forget the Snacks
What goes best with game night with the family? Food! Have something ready to go, or order something from a service that delivers. Taking a break to eat dinner or a snack is a great way to get ready for the next game or activity.
5. Award Prizes
Get fun prizes for the winners by going to a discount or dollar store in your area (and losers). Make sure that everyone gets a prize at the end of the night.
6. Think Ahead
For the next family night, ask everyone to come up with their own game.
Top 20 Games for Family Game Night
Since games are the main part of family game night, it’s important to choose games that are fun and interesting. You can play a lot of different games together as a family. In fact, you can pick a theme, like board game night, outdoor game night, etc., to keep your kids more interested.
Here are some fun ideas for a family game night:
Board Games for Family Game Night
1. Clue
Clue is a great board game for you and your family to play if you all like to figure out who did it during game night. Your kids can try to figure out who killed Mr. Boddy by becoming little detectives. By moving the game pieces around, you can find clues about who killed Boddy that are hidden in his house.
2. Candy Land
Candy Land is a sweet and comforting way to remember being a child. If your kids are young, do introduce them to fun characters like Mr. Mint and Princess Frostine. Your little guy will be very happy to see the famous gumdrop mountains and candy cane forests. There are a lot of colors and squares in the race to find King Kandy, which will keep adults interested as well.
3. Monopoly
Every family needs to play the classic board game Monopoly. To buy or sell real estate properties, you need to be able to think analytically and make smart moves. This game helps your kids learn how to handle money and take risks. Monopoly is a great board game for you and your teenagers to play together.
4. Scrabble
Scrabble is the best game for family game night because it’s fun and teaches you something at the same time. With Scrabble, you can teach your child new words and help them learn more words. In some ways, it’s a fun way to help your child learn new words.
5. Chess
Chess is the best game for challenging your mind. Adding chess to your game night is a great way to get your child interested in chess or challenge their mind. Since chess is a game for two people, split your family into two groups and have a battle of wits.
Card Games for Family Game Night
6. Gin Rummy
Gin Rummy is a great game for the whole family. In fact, many families make it a holiday tradition to play this card game. It’s a game of strategy where you take cards from a stack to make pairs, like four 2s, jacks, etc.
7. Kings on the Corner
This card game is great for six people, like a family. In this game, the deck is in the middle, and four cards are on each corner. The first player has to get rid of all of their cards by following the pattern of black/red cards from highest to lowest.
8. UNO
UNO is a card game that teaches kids how to win by using different card strategies. This card game is based on four strategies: reverse, draw two, wild, and skip card.
9. 99
99 is a great card game for teaching kids how to add and take away. Each person who plays 99 gets four cards. Every player will get a chance to put a card in the middle and draw another. Since a deck has 99 cards, your kids had to do a lot of math to figure out what cards their opponent had.
Activity Games for Family Game Night
10. Scavenger Hunt
A simple outdoor game is a hunt for things. But if you don’t want to take your kids outside at night, you can play it inside. You can hide things around your house and give clues about where to look for them. This game could turn your house on its head. But for a fun night, that’s not much to pay.
11. Hide and Seek
This game doesn’t need a start-up. We can all play “hide and seek.” So, you can change the game of hide-and-seek by making up some new rules. For example, to find a person, you can set a one-minute timer.
12. Obstacle Course
This is the ultimate game night for your family if your children are addicted to their smart devices all day. Make a fun obstacle course in your living room and see who can pass it the fastest. Create obstacles like pillow towers, blanket tunnels, sprint to the mailbox, etc.
13. Charades
Charades may seem to be a straightforward movie name guessing game. However, it is a wonderful family game night concept for improving reflexes, promptness, and attentiveness in your children. This game will help your children become more aware of their surroundings.
TV-inspired Games for Family Game Night
14. Chopped
You can organize a gourmet game show at home, inspired by the famous TV program Chopped. You may take on the role of judge and challenge your children to prepare something wonderful in 30 minutes using goods from your pantry.
15. Minute to Win It
This is an engaging game in which your children may put their creativity and quick thinking abilities to work. In this game, a player must issue 10 challenges to his opponent in one minute. This game is available at your local grocery or online. However, it would be beneficial if you allowed your children to utilize their imaginations to come up with ten tasks to accomplish in one minute.
16. Shark Tank
If your children are teens or teenagers, have a family game night in the style of the renowned TV program Shark Tank. It would be beneficial if you requested your children to create a one-of-a-kind business plan that included all presentations, papers, and other research. This simple game might spark a brilliant company idea.
Online Games for Family Game Night
17. Pictionary
Pictionary is a traditional guessing and drawing game. Instead of pen and paper, you may play this game on your family game night using your smart device and numerous Pictionary applications. Many Pictionary applications, such as Drawize and Sketchful, are accessible on app marketplaces.
18. Heads Up
After appearing on “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” this internet game became viral. It’s a basic game in which one person places a cell phone on their head and several names display on the screen. Other individuals must submit hints in order to guess the name that appeared on the screen.
19. Mario Kart Tour
If your children like video games, you may put up a PlayStation in your living room and let them play games like Mario Kart Tour all night.
20. Virtual Bingo
Your whole family may download the same bingo software on their phones and play virtual bingo together. If one of your children is already in college, this virtual bingo may include them into your family game night tradition from afar.
5 Benefits of Family Game Night
1. Family game night brings everyone together
With today’s hectic lives, it’s more crucial than ever to be deliberate about what’s important. Spending time as a family should be one of those objectives, but it isn’t always simple.
In a world where everyone is always rushing from one thing to the next, family game night is a terrific opportunity to intentionally set out family time – and enjoyable family time at that!
2. Family game night draws everyone away from their screens.
There’s nothing wrong with a little TV or computer, game console, or tablet gaming for the kids or us grownups, but too much of anything isn’t good.
Family game night is a terrific method to encourage everyone in the family to switch off their gadgets at the same time. When the whole family is playing a game together, there will be no “Well, he’s still on the computer!” bickering. And guess what? With time, your children will understand that there is much more to life than screen time!
3. Family game night teaches good sportsmanship
One of the pros and cons of game night is that you can win or lose. It’s hard to teach kids to be nice when they lose or not to brag when they win, but it’s an important life lesson that they might not learn on the soccer field.
I’ve been surprised by how upset some kids get when they lose a game, but then I realized that this is even more reason why families need game nights. It’s much better for kids to learn this lesson when they’re young.
4. Family game night teaches flexibility
There are times when a new game just doesn’t work. It could be too hard or not interesting enough. Kids should also learn that it’s okay to stop and try something else.
At the same time, it’s fine to skip a family game night if you’re too tired and would rather watch a movie. Game night should be fun, not hard (aside from a few teaching moments.)
Game night is very important, but it shouldn’t cause stress or guilt.
5. Game night results in hours of fun!
It’s a great way to spend time with your kids and a fun tradition. In this age of technology, some kids might be hesitant, but they have no idea how much fun they are in for. This simple night of fun will give you hours of opportunities to laugh, play, learn, and grow together.
Conclusion
On family game night, everyone puts away their phones and tablets, stops what they’re doing at work or school, and focuses on having fun together as a family.
Before you know it, the kids will be grown up, and you won’t have as much time to do things together. So, if your family doesn’t already have a tradition of playing games on Friday nights, now is a great time to start one.