Easy Number Game With Variations

Hello again! Sorry you haven’t heard from me in a few days but we needed to travel out of state for a funeral. Back home now and trying to catch up again.

So today let’s look at an easy number game that can be played different ways and only requires paper, some markers or crayons and some dice. The game also reinforces learning numbers and helps with small motor skills. Shhh! Don’t tell the kids that part! 😉 Grab 1 piece of paper for each player and 1 dice to share with all the players to begin with…and a black crayon or marker and 1 marker of another color for each player.

Basic version…

Have each player write the numbers 1 – 6 on their piece of paper. Or for the kids that are just learning their numbers, you can write the numbers for them. Leave a little space between the numbers.

Each player should roll the dice once and the player that gets the highest number will go first. To play, roll the dice once and cross off the corresponding number on your paper. Example, if you roll a 1, cross off the 1 on your paper. Pass the dice to the next player moving clockwise around the circle of players.

Continue with each player rolling the dice once and marking their paper. If you roll a number that you have already crossed off on your paper, you do nothing for that turn and play passes on to the next player.

The first person to cross off all their numbers is the winner!

Version #2…

Write the numbers 1 – 12 on each player’s piece of paper. Use 2 dice for this version of the game.

This version is played in a similar manner as the basic version, but each player rolls 2 dice. You can use the number from just 1 dice OR you can add the numbers from both dice together. In the following example, the player rolled a 2 and a 6. You could cross off the 2 OR the 6 OR the 8. You can only cross off 1 number each turn. In this picture, the 2 and the 8 have already been crossed off, so you would cross off the 6.

Again, the first player to cross off all their numbers is the winner. 🙂

Version #3…

Find something that is round in shape that you can trace around to make circles on each player’s paper. I used the bottom of a paper cup.

Draw 6 circles. (Or more, depending on how you want to play the game.)

Number the circles 1 – 6. Grab a few crayons for this version of the game.

As each player rolls the dice, they can color in the matching circle. (Sneaking in some small motor skills practice!)

You can also take the opportunity to talk about the colors the players choose to use. Some questions you might ask… What color did you choose for number 3? What is your favorite color? What else can you think of that is green? (Or whatever color they are using.)

First one with all their circles colored is the winner!

Version #4…

Draw 6 circles for this version of the game, but make the number inside each circle smaller. When the player rolls the dice, they draw/color that number of objects in the correct circle. For example, if you rolled a 6, you might draw 6 dots in the number 6 circle.

The winner is the first one to complete all their circles. I can see this game getting rather silly when players draw crazy things in their circles! 😉

I’m sure you can think of even more ways to play this game, but hopefully these ideas will get you started on your way to having fun with the number game! 🙂

Hide & Seek With a Twist

Do kids still play Hide & Seek? You know, where some kids go hide and one person tries to find them? Well, what happens when there aren’t enough kids around to play? Or maybe the “big kids” have gone off to school and only the youngest is left at home? You can try this new twist on the Hide & Seek game! You don’t need anything but a few toys that are already in your house. All you do is collect up a few favorite toys and hide them for your child to find. I know…too simple? But it can be lots of fun!

Here’s Clifford the Big Red Dog hiding under the covers.

Here’s a little shoulder buddy hiding among the boxes of cereal.

Depending on the age of the kids playing how hard you make the hiding places. If younger kids are playing, make sure to leave a little of the toy visible.

Matchbox Jeeps love to drive on books!

Sock monkeys go bananas for bananas!

You can give little hints if the hunt goes on for too long. Maybe Tommy Turtle got too hot and decided to find a place to cool down. (Yes, he’s in the refrigerator.) 😉

This gorilla must be wanting to help make supper!

The older the kids are that are playing, the smaller the toys might be.

Or just for fun, ask your child to set the table for supper and hide a fun toy in the silverware drawer.

You can make a whole game out of this idea or just randomly make things disappear to places the kids will come across them and be surprised. Or start with a new toy that you hide and whoever finds it, tells everyone where they found it and they get to be the next person to hide it. This can be an ongoing game that keeps everyone grinning. Hope you’ll have fun playing Hide & Seek a new way! 🙂

Cute Fishing Number Game

I made a quick run to Walmart yesterday and I found this cute fishing number game for only $3.00.

Each fish is a different color and has a certain number of dots on it. There are fish with dots that number from 1 to 10. (I just realized that the fish in the picture are NOT in the correct 1-10 order! Lol That little pink fishy swam out of line!)

The little fishing pole has a magnet on the end and each fish has a little strip of metal on the backside of it. The idea is for your child to use the fishing pole to catch a fish and then say what color the fish is and/or count how many dots the fish has.

I added one thing to this game. I wrote the numbers on the backside of each fish so the kids playing can also see the number written to help them learn what the numbers look like.

A small red bag for storing all the fish and the fishing pole is included in the set.

Little ones will have fun going fishing for these colorful fish and be learning at the same time. 🙂 I hope these are available at your local Walmart store too. Have fun and while you’re at it, sneak in some learning! 😉

Valentine Tic Tac Toe

Are you looking for a super fast and easy game to play with your kiddos on Valentine’s Day? They don’t come any easier than Valentine Tic Tac Toe! Grab your Valentine’s Day candy and a piece of paper and a marker and let’s play!

Draw a tic tac toe board with 4 lines. You need two players for each game. Each player takes 5 pieces of the same color of candy. For example, 5 pink hearts for one player and 5 green hearts for the other. Taking turns, each player will lay 1 of their pieces of candy on a square on the game board. The winner is the first one to get 3 of their hearts in a row. In the following picture, the player with the green hearts won.

If nobody gets 3 in a row, its a tie game, as you can see in the following picture.

Since we can’t be with our grandkids this year, I’ve sent them a package of goodies for Valentine’s Day. This game is one of the things I included. Here’s enough colored hearts to play 3 separate games. 🙂

Can’t stand conversation hearts candy? (Me either!) You can play the same game using Valentine M&M candies! Yum! I guess they are called Cupid’s Mix M&M’s. (Chocolate! NOW we’re talking!)

Looks like white won!

And pink won this game! 😉

OR you can use the candy heart decorations made for topping treats!

It’s a tie! Play another round.

Red’s the winner this time!

No matter if you win or lose the game of Valentine Tic Tac Toe, everyone is a winner because after you are done playing…you can EAT the candy! (That’s the best part!) Have fun! 🙂

Games For New Year’s Eve

Are you planning a party for your family to welcome in the New Year? This year we will be having a quiet evening at home, just my husband and I, due to Covid restrictions. It’s not what we would like to be doing, but we will make the best of the situation. Our family likes to play games together on New Year’s Eve. In fact, I remember many special New Year’s Eves as I was growing up that my family got together with good friends and played games until the New Year arrived. Playing a game is a great way to have some quality time together as a family. So what games do you like to play? Here are some of the games we have at our house:

#1.) Pit – This is seriously one of my all-time favorite games. It’s not hard to learn but it is a lively game of trading cards while you try to get the corner on one grain.

This is an older version that we’ve had for years so the new game probably looks a lot different. It’s a blast to play but its rather loud, so don’t play it when the baby is sleeping. 😉

#2.) Uno. This is another great game for families. The idea is to be the first player to run out of cards. It’s great fun to make someone “Draw Two” or “Skip” them. Even better is giving them a “Draw Four”. But just be sure that when you dish those cards out to someone else that you are prepared for paybacks! ha!

#3.) Crazy Eights. This is a good game for younger kids that involves matching numbers or shapes.

#4.) Battleship. This is only a 2 player game but still lots of fun. See who can sink the other person’s ships first.

#5.) Scrabble. This game is all about making high scoring words so you need to be able to read and spell to play this one.

#6.) Yahtzee. Another of my favorite games while growing up that was played at our house quite often. It’s all about rolling dice and getting the right combination of numbers to fill up your score sheet. If you can roll the same number on all 5 dice within 3 rolls, then you made….you guessed it…a Yahtzee!

I realized when looking at our selection of games today, that we really need to add a few more! We seem to be missing some of the younger crowd’s games like Chutes and Ladders or Candy Land or Memory. What is your family’s favorite game? Tune in tomorrow when we’ll talk about some fun games you can play with kids if all you have is a deck of playing cards. 🙂

Easter Egg Treasure Hunt

Easter is this coming Sunday, April 12th! Have you made your plans? Things will be different this year, won’t they? Lots of events have been canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic but you can still have Easter fun even if you are stuck at home or stuck inside! Let me tell you what we did a couple years ago for Easter and maybe you can tweak it a bit to fit your situation. I was staying with our daughter and her hubby and kids while my hubby was gone on a business trip to China. It was cold and even snowing that week so I made up an Easter Egg Treasure Hunt for the kids. I started out with 96 plastic colored eggs and a 100 piece puzzle. I put the puzzle together, slid it carefully off the table onto a cookie sheet, put another cookie sheet on top of the puzzle so I could turn it over, then slid it back onto the table. I grabbed a pen and wrote the following rhyme on the back:

“Good job! You did it!

You stuck it out!

So now let’s see what

This hunt is about!

Could there be diamonds?

Or a brand new car?

Alas, no – we DO love you

But we can’t go THAT far!

So hidden close to where

I now reside

You’ll find the box

That holds your surprise!”

I then broke the puzzle up and put 1 piece of the puzzle in each plastic colored Easter egg. Four eggs needed to have 2 pieces inside in order to make the puzzle pieces fit in the number of eggs I had. I then hid the eggs around the inside of the house. When it came time to have the Easter egg hunt, the kids were off to find them in a hurry!

After they searched for eggs, they gathered together to count the eggs and make sure they had found all of them.

Once we made sure they had all the eggs, they took them to the dining room table and opened them and removed all the puzzle pieces. Then the whole family gathered around to work on putting the puzzle together.

When the puzzle was finished, they used the cookie sheet method again to turn the puzzle over so they could read the back and see what to do next. The part of the rhyme that says “So hidden close to where I now reside…” referred to the bedroom that I was staying in while I was visiting their family. The race was on once they deduced where the box with the surprise might be! They found it beside my bed. Inside the box was a new Tangle puzzle and a small Nerf gun for each kiddo, wrapped in tissue paper. They each got 6 “bullets”. In the bottom of the box was a piece of folded paper that read “Read this after opening gifts.” This message said…

“Oh, hey, wait! You’re not done yet!

There’s still another prize to get!

To reach your prize you must take out

Any bad guys hanging about.

But you must be careful with your aim

Because a wrong shot will end the game.

Teamwork is what you will need

To finish this task with all due speed.

3 minutes to shoot all the bad

But not 1 good guy can be had.

20 bad guys must go down

In order for you to reach the crown!”

There was a room set up with lots of small pieces of paper with stickers on them. 20 pieces of paper had dinosaurs on them which were the “bad guys”. And there were 20 pieces of paper that had puppy and kitty stickers on them which, of course, were the “good guys”. The pieces of paper were folded in half so they would stand up. The idea was for the kids to shoot and knock over all the dinosaurs within 3 minutes, but none of the puppies and kitties could be hit. If they knocked over a puppy or kitty, then they had to start all over with all the papers being set up again.

After the kids “shot” all the dinosaurs, they reached their prize – a new book for each one. I got too involved and forgot to take many pictures but here are some from after they finished their treasure hunt. This one is Grandma (me) trying to shoot a “bullet” through the Tangle puzzle hoop. Ha! (Grimacing always helps your aim…lol)

We had fun with our Easter Egg Treasure Hunt! I hope you can take the ideas that we used and tweak it to have a fun Easter at your house too! 🙂