By SarahB | Leave A Comment
There is a pretty big gap in the ages of the kids in my house. My daughters are three and six and my stepson is thirteen. That means unless we’re glued to the television playing Wii, it’s sometimes hard to find things to do that the whole family can enjoy together.
I am not a fan of board games in general. Candy Land gets tiring after one round (and when have you ever gotten away with JUST ONE round of Candy Land?), Chutes & Ladders bores me. But, when I got a chance to test drive some games from OUT OF THE BOX GAMES, I was very pleasantly surprised. We had a LOT of fun playing these games.
Two of the three games I received are so compact, I can toss them in my purse. And I did. My oldest occupied herself while waiting for dinner at a restaurant with Zen Benders and we’ve had a few rounds of Rock (one round takes only TWO MINUTES!) while waiting in the car. Both games were easy to explain to my kids and true to their name, we were playing within minutes of taking these games out of the box.
The third game I received, Back Seat Drawing, was the big hit with the kids. There’s a deck of cards with a picture – one person is the Director, who instructs the Artist how to draw the picture (directions could include, “Draw a rectangle in the center of the board” and not “Draw a door.”). The Artist and the other players need to try to guess what the picture is. Is it fun? You bet. We played several rounds and even my three year old was able to get in on some of the fun (though the game is for ages 7 and up).
If you would like to win an awesome game from Out of the Box Games, please let a comment below sharing some other ideas for family fun to bridge the age gap between kiddos. An extra chance to win will be given if you tweet the contest (leave me the link, below). A winner will be chosen at random Friday, March 6. Game on, folks!
ABOUT SarahB
Sarah is a wife, and a mother to two daughters, aged 8 and 5. She's is the stepmother to a 14-year-{read more}
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Our boys are 5, 3 and 1 but we also almost always have at least one or two of our nieces and nephews over every weekend. They range in age from 1-13! The best way to get them all together is to cook together. Even the older kids enjoy cupcake decorating while the little ones love to make a mess! And the older kids can manage chopping, and using the stove with us while the little ones man the measuring cups.
I have a 16-year-old and a two-year-old, and one on the way. I’ve found anything that gets us active and moving bridges that gap. Whether it’s running out in the yard, or playing in the wading pool. As long as we’re moving around, everyone has fun!
We LOVE games at our house, but my 4 year old does not understand some of the games as well as my 7 year old, and of course the 1 year old just tries to put everything in her mouth.
We just bought Blokus, which is kind of like a puzzle game that our whole family (sans the baby) enjoys. It is even fun for adults, and my husband and I have played it a couple times after the kids go to bed. It is kind of like Tetris with a board game, where you try to play all your strangely shaped pieces and block others from being able to lay theirs. I really think it is helping the kids with their spacial thinking skills and they love it because it has simple rules. Even my 4 year old understands the game, although he does need assistance every now and then. I would totally recommend it.
We also really like UNO, and have a good time with that one too!
My girls are 4 years apart & I’ve been pretty lucky that they get along really well & enjoy the same things so far. My oldest is 11 though & starting to get that tween attitude, etc. I have found that outdoor activities work the best ~ park, beach, riding bikes, etc
Now that my youngest is 7, board games are getting easier as well for the family to enjoy.
Art projects work for our two girls (two years apart). We start with something simple, and we can always add in more complex elements to challenge our older daughter.
What a fun giveaway! My kids love, love to play games! If it were up to them I think we would play games all day. One thing that I have found helps to make it fair for the kids is to rotate games. If the game is a little too hard for my youngest he usually gets help from me or his dad. It makes it fun for him and everyone is happy with the game selection.
We are a game family. If we have 15 minutes to kill you can bet a deck of card is coming out. Thanks for the chance to add new games to our game closet.
Awesome, Sarah! We’ve got quite a gap here, too (18, 10, 5). It IS hard to find games for all of us. You rock!
We are a total game family and these sound that alot of fun!
I’ve been looking for games to play with my two small kids. There is a large gap when all the cousins get together (age 12 all the way down to a brand spankin new one) and we’ve found that anything to get them all moving is a great one. We play tag, or twister or have relay races. New board games for the whole family would be great. Thanks for the chance to win!
We play games, too. Our kids are 12 and 5, so it;s often hard to find games we all can play. So many times, we end up playing teams. If our 5 year old daughter is paired up with one of us, it evens it up a little and she doesn’t;’t feel bad because she can’t get answers right. She loves being on a “team”, too.
Anything outside – hiking, playing hide & go seek or teaming up. Put a younger one with an older one & do things in teams – even board games can work this way too.
Out of the Box Games is a great company. We love Apples to Apples. It gets played at least once on almost every game night!
We love to have family game night. My girls are ages 6 and 8 and love, love, love games. We recently got a Wii, so we’ve thrown that into the mix, and have Wii bowling night right along with our game night.