What is family game night
5 Reasons Why You Should Do Family Game Night
You’ve heard about family game night. It’s when everyone sits down to enjoy a good ol’ board game together. But it’s so much more than that! Family Game Night has been amazing for my family.
Here’s 5 reasons why you should consider Family Game Night too:
#1 Family game night brings everyone together
With busy lifestyles, it’s more essential than ever to be intentional about what’s important. Spending time together as a family should be one of those goals, but it’s not always easy.
In a culture where everyone is running from one activity to another, family game night is a great way to purposefully set aside family time – and fun family time at that!
#2) Family game night gets everyone off screen time.
There’s nothing wrong with a little time spent watching TV or playing games on the computer, game console, or tablet for the kids or us adults, but too much of anything isn’t good.
Family game night is a great way to get the family to turn off the electronics together. There won’t be any arguing “Well he’s still on the computer!” when the whole family is playing a game together. And you know what? With time, your kids will realize there’s a lot of fun beyond screen time!
#3) Family game night teaches good sportsmanship
The winning-losing aspect is one of the pro’s and con’s of game night. It’s not easy to teach disappointed children to be kind when they’ve lost or excited winners not to gloat, but it’s an important life lesson that they won’t necessarily learn on the soccer field.
I’ve been amazed at how upset some of my children have gotten over losing a game, but I realized this was more reason we needed to continue; it’s much better for kids to learn this lesson now when they’re young!
#4 Family game night teaches flexibility
Sometimes a new game just isn’t working. Maybe it’s too hard or just boring.
It’s okay to stop and try something different and that’s another good lesson for kids.
At the same time, it’s okay to skip a family game night if you’re just too tired and would rather watch a movie. Game night should be fun, not stressful (aside from a few teaching moments.)
We usually do game night 3 out of 4 nights a month because there’s almost always one night when we’re just too tired or someone in the family has to do something.
Game night is a priority, but not at the cost of stress or guilt.
#5 Game night results in hours of fun!
When I was growing up, my family had Friday night game night every week. Thought it was a little too competitive sometimes, I have great memories of those fun times.
When Nate and I started this tradition with our family, the kids were a little reluctant and I wasn’t sure how well it would work out. (Especially because my oldest has autism and board games can be a challenge.) But I had no idea just how much fun was in store! We’ve spent HOURS laughing, playing, learning, and growing together as a result of this simple night of fun.
Now, my kids will often ask to play a game beyond game night. I’ll frequently catch them playing Rack-O
, Ticket to Ride, Labyrinth, or one of our other favorite games.
Sometimes one of our chickens even joins in!
A photo posted by Erika Bragdon (@livingwellmom) on
Family game night is a wonderful tradition you shouldn’t miss out on with your family. If you’re too busy to commit to once a week, try setting aside a night every other week. Even once a month is something! Your family will benefit so much from family game night. Try it!
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Many families have turned game night into an ongoing tradition to keep everyone bonded. These evenings filled with fun adventures, delicious food, energetic music, and lots of laughing are a perfect way for families to create everlasting memories. With the below game night ideas for all ages, you can transform your standard living room into the ultimate fun zone.
How do you make a fun game night?
When creating a fun family game night, the first thing you should think about is what game to play. Consider some games that are engaging for both younger kids and older kids so that everyone can have a great time. You’ll also want to supply plenty of food and refreshments to keep everyone full. Alongside that, you should set the mood with ambient gaming lights and music to tie the whole evening together.
Why is family game night important?
Aside from being interactive and entertaining, there are many benefits of regularly hosting family game nights, such as the below.
- Family bonding. Studies have shown that families who engage in frequent get-togethers such as game nights maintain a strong line of communication. Game nights can help build positive parent-child relationships with an emphasis on emotional well-being, open communication, and life satisfaction.
- Valuable skill teaching. While in a safe and playful environment, your children can learn soft skills such as rule-following, taking turns, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Depending on which games you choose, kids and teens can also learn vocabulary, math skills, spelling, and other general knowledge.
- An outlet to share interests. Every family member likely has their own unique interests. Allowing each person to pick their favorite game and teach it to the other family members can let them know their passions are important.
It can also help boost confidence and develop leadership skills. - Screen-free fun. Too much screen time can cause eye strain. Taking a break from tablets, phones, and TV screens can help you and your family connect on a deeper level and improve your overall health.
- Challenging everyone (even parents) to be fully present and engaged. Life can get pretty hectic, so sometimes, you might struggle to fully pay attention to the task right in front of you. A dedicated night for family fun can solve this since it brings everyone together for the same purpose. No multitasking or juggling different worries at once – just slowing your mind and being present with your loved ones.
Tips for hosting a successful game night
Ready to start planning your family game night extravaganza? Check out these tips to host an enjoyable night for the whole family right from your game room.
Take turns choosing the perfect game
When everyone gets to take turns choosing the party game, the whole family can stay interested in keeping up with the tradition.
For example, maybe one child always wants to play Apples to Apples, but their sibling always wants to play Candy Land. When you make it a tradition to take turns, each kid can pick their own game without any complaints. This way, your family can cycle through games without getting bored, all while pleasing everyone.
Select games that everyone in the family can play
When hosting family game night, it’s important to choose games everyone can play regardless of their ages or skill sets. If a game requires complex strategic skills, your little ones might get frustrated and feel lost. The evening won’t be as fun if they don’t feel like they can participate. Many board and card games are great for all ages, so check first before immersing yourself in the magic of family time.
Add prizes
Get your kids even more pumped up for family game night with prizes for the winners. Young kids might love winning stuffed animals, small toys, candy, or coloring books. Prizes such as gift cards, headphones, chore passes, and clothes can incentivize your older teen to join in on the family game night experience.
Create the perfect atmosphere
Creating an awe-inspiring atmosphere can take your game night experience from ordinary to out of this world. Setting the perfect atmosphere can get everyone in exactly the right mindset for making memories together.
With the Sky Lite Evolve, you can transform your living room into a galactic scene filled with vivid nebula clouds drifting across shimmering stars. You can discover all kinds of color, effects, and brightness possibilities for your game night atmosphere through the BlissHome app. It’s a small bit of everyday magic right in the palm of your hand.
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Turn on the tunes
Complement your perfect atmosphere with some of your favorite tunes to get the party started. When your kids’ favorite song comes on, their excitement will grow, and they might get a bit more energized for game night.
You can also try to match the music to your game. For example, if you’re playing a fantasy game, maybe some epic movie soundtracks will fit the bill. Putting together a Disney puzzle? You can’t go wrong with Disney music to create a marvelous fantasyland right in your home.
Consider a theme
Themes are a great way to make the night even more immersive. If you decide to create that fantasyland for Disney games, consider making some Mickey Mouse cupcakes to go along with them. Playing a Harry Potter board game? Dress up in your house colors and robes, dim the lights, and supply plenty of snacks perfect for witches and wizards of all ages.
Take your theme one step further with the BlissRadia ambient mood light. Choose from a myriad of glistening colors to match the theme of your game night. Then, use the BlissHome app, Amazon Alexa, or Google Home to adjust the settings to your liking. Beautiful moving gradients or solid colors will glow around your family, letting your imagination soar.
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Relax and have fun
Family game nights are meant to be fun, relaxing, and enjoyable for everyone. You might feel more at ease if you don’t get caught up in having the evening go absolutely perfectly. Kids will be kids, so it’s important to go with the flow to keep everyone in a playful mood. Let yourself unwind, laugh, and take joy in these special moments with your family.
The ultimate list of family game night ideas for all ages
From minute-to-win-it games to hours-long Monopoly matches, there are so many great family game night ideas for all ages. The below list is just a starting point.
1. Paper Telephone
Paper Telephone is a combination between the game Telephone and the game Pictionary. The first person writes down a phrase such as “the girl is eating ice cream” on a piece of paper.
They then pass it to the next family member, who then tries to draw out the phrase. While hiding the phrase, the drawing gets passed to the next person, who tries to write out what’s happening in the picture. The process repeats until everyone has gone. By the end of the round, your original phrase will likely have completely transformed.
2. Balloon tennis
All you need for balloon tennis is a couple of balloons and tennis racquets, DIY racquets, or just your hands. Split yourselves up into two teams and start volleying the balloons back and forth. You can keep points or just see how long your family can keep the balloons floating in the air for unforgettable amusement.
3. Indoor bowling
House-friendly bowling only requires 10 empty plastic bottles, a ball, and some open space for jumping and cheering. Find an open spot inside or outdoors to set up the plastic bottles the same way you’d find them in a traditional bowling alley. Everyone can take turns bowling and setting up the pins so that you can bring this beloved game into the comfort of your own home.
4. Escape room-inspired games
Escape rooms have become a popular family outing, and you can create your own escape room right under your roof. With printable escape room games, you and your family can enjoy a unique evening full of puzzles, strategic thinking, detective work, and twists and turns. Even hard-to-please teens might get a kick out of this activity that goes above and beyond the typical game night.
5. Bingo game night
You can’t go wrong with a classic game of Bingo. Family members of all ages can have fun, and you can mix it up so that it’s a little different each time. One night, you can play for real money, and the next, you can play for candy. You get to decide what the prizes are, and you can make them as big or small as you want. It’s a great way to keep family game night simple yet astounding.
6. Family scavenger hunt
Scavenger hunts are an excellent way to get your family up and moving while on a mission to win. Split up into teams or have everyone go around independently to find items on a scavenger hunt list.
You can make your own or print out a free scavenger hunt game. Either way, this family game night idea for all ages will be an inexpensive yet fully immersive adventure.
7. UNO
UNO is a fast-paced matching card game that can help young kids with their numbers, colors, and math skills. Alongside the traditional UNO game, you can also find themed versions such as Hot Wheels, The Peanuts Movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Mickey Mouse. These are all great ways to paint family-friendly card games in a whole new light.
8. Dance charades
Get out some of that excess energy before bed with a game of dance charades. Your family will split into two teams, and players will randomly pull cards with a type of dance written on them. The player must “dance it out” while their team tries to guess what dance they're doing.
You can take your dance charades to the next level with the BlissGlow. This LED strip light can add a colorful background for all your dancing and shift to the beat of your tunes.
It’s a seamless way to transform any living room into an energetic dance club fit for the whole family.
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9. The Game of Life
If you’re looking for a game where everyone really has to think about their choices, The Game of Life could be just what you need. The actions players will choose among can be great conversation starters. Kids can learn about the ups and downs of life as well as the importance of financial planning. But don’t get too caught up in the life lessons – let your children fully immerse themselves in their fictional stories.
10. Monopoly
Similarly to The Game of Life, Monopoly can teach kids about decision-making, financial basics, and patience. Its rules can be flexible, so you can adjust them to be enjoyable for whoever is playing. This popular game can take hours to finish, but everyone will be so invested that the time might wash over them blissfully.
11. Twister
This movement-focused, hilarious game could have your entire family crying with laughter. The goal is to stay on the mat and move your hands and feet to different colored circles when each player spins. You’ll test the whole family’s flexibility and spatial skills, expanding the dimensions of your bodies – and of game night.
12. The Floor is Lava
See how agile your family is with a game of The Floor Is Lava. When someone shouts, “The floor is lava,” everyone has to jump onto something other than the floor. You can expand the game’s boundaries with variations such as regeneration or safe stepping stones. Your kids might feel like they’ve been transported right into a volcano, but with all the comforts of home.
Elevate your family game nights with BlissLights
Family game nights’ friendly competition, laughs, and jokes are a great way to make permanent memories your family will look back on fondly. BlissLights can help make these memories even more enduring with projections of enthralling stars and brilliant colors.
Browse the BlissLights collection now to find lighting that can capture your family’s attention and transport them to a game night paradise.
6 ideas for the perfect family evening
Love, tenderness, warmth and comfort - that's all that each of us needs. And all this each of us can get in his family. Psychologists are sure that just one quiet family evening a week can extend our life by six months!
Ideas for the Perfect Family Evening
But how to make an evening with relatives especially pleasant? Delicious food, quiet background music, good conversations and… family games! Yes, yes, often it is the game that helps you to unite, get to know each other better, consider some new, sweet feature in your family. And it is not at all necessary to buy mountains of board games or sports equipment in stores. For good family entertainment, all you need is a pen, paper and your imagination.
Burime
There are many variations of this old game.
The classic version - each of the players comes up with a couple of rhymes, and then, using these rhymes, all participants write poems. The winner is the one who completes the most meaningful option first.
But, for example, small children cannot write poetry. How to proceed? Try burime in prose. The first player writes a sentence on paper, folds the sheet so that the next player cannot read it, but duplicates the last two words of the sentence on a clean back. The second player must, based on these two words, make up a new sentence and repeat the same folding procedure as the first player. So the text is written in a circle. The last player, having written his proposal, unfolds the sheet and reads what happened. The result of joint creativity can be very unexpected and very fun.
Small children can play artistic burim. This variant is similar to burime in prose, but instead of a sentence, the players take turns drawing some part of the picture, tucking a sheet of paper so that only the tips of the lines are visible to the next player.
As a result, the players get a funny picture.
The Neverending Story
This game is very similar to burime. The first player starts the fairy tale: “Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess” ... The second player continues the fairy tale with his sentence, and so on, until the participants get tired of composing. The main thing in this game is not to hold back the imagination and offer the most unpredictable scenarios for the development of the plot.
Divination by book
A wonderful option not only to look into the future, but also to find out what worries a loved one - fortune telling from a book. And here it doesn’t matter at all what comes to your hand - Agnia Barto’s poems or a culinary magazine (by the way, the game will turn out to be even more fun with it). Each player can ask one question: “What awaits me tomorrow?”, “What will they give me for my birthday?”. Having decided on the question, the player must name the page and line number (top or bottom).
Then find the right line and read aloud the answer to your question. It turns out unexpectedly and very funny.
Associations
This game is a great opportunity to learn more about each other. One of the participants goes into another room (or just covers his ears). At this time, the rest of the players think of one of the relatives (it is possible from those who are sitting at the table). Returning to the room, the participant tries to guess who everyone present thought of, asking leading questions: “What kind of music does this person associate with?”, “If he were a book, then what?”, “What dish does he remind you of?” etc. This game perfectly develops imagination and associative thinking. The results are especially unexpected if very young children participate in the game.
Fanta
This game, which came to us from the 18th century, will especially appeal to children. Sit down at the table and put one of your personal things in a hat (a vase, a bag - whatever you have at hand).
The host does not know who owns which thing. He names any funny action (jump a hare across the room; scream like a rooster; tell the funniest incident in life) and pulls out a “phantom” (object). The owner of the Fanta performs the task.
Who am I?
Another game for which you will need a pen and some pieces of paper, preferably stickers. First you need to decide on the theme of the game: it can be heroes of fairy tales, food, famous people, countries, etc. Let's say you stopped at the heroes of fairy tales. Each player writes the name of any hero on his piece of paper and gives it to his neighbor, but in such a way that he does not see what is written. It is best to stick a piece of paper on your forehead so that the rest of the participants can read it (yes, right on your forehead. We promised that you would have fun!). The goal of the game is to ask leading questions to find out what is written on a piece of paper. Questions should be such that they can only be answered with “yes” or “no”.
For example: “Am I human?”, “Am I evil?”, “Can I conjure?”, “Do I have a crown?” etc.
Play with joy, open up to your loved ones, give warmth. And then family evenings will become your most vivid shared memories! Or maybe they will grow into a real family tradition!
Other ideas for your family evening:
- Delicious family recipes
- Traditional Spanish games with friends
- Guests with children came to you
Family Games Evening - family site nсuxolog.ru
The best way for a family to unite and improve relations between children and parents is to start a tradition of family games evenings with the participation of parents and children. Put this day (once a month or once a week) in your diary and make it a must. Naturally, your activities will change as the children grow up, but the essence of family nights will remain the same - fun, games and time spent together.
Photo © Old Fashioned Families
How to organize family games?
A few tips on how to organize and have a successful evening of family games. To get started, have something like a homemade picnic with food or sandwiches on a blanket on the floor, or eat breakfast instead of dinner. Take a couple of hours for all activities (pre-prepare a variety of games). You can play two quick outdoor games, solve a couple of puzzles, and only after that sit for twenty minutes at an interesting board game. Plan an evening based on your family's lifestyle, interests, age and individual characteristics of each. Children who are just starting to walk also love to participate in family games. Toddlers will also enjoy listening and watching what is happening.
Home outdoor games
Outdoor games will help raise the morale of those present. Have a few age-appropriate games and then move on to board games.
Games at the kitchen table
Put the plates aside - it's time to play! Choose your favorite word or riddle game, creative activity or classic board game.
But almost any child will get bored with playing the same board game for an hour and a half. Therefore, board games must be alternated with active fun.
Outdoor games
When it's warm outside, take your children outside. Evening outdoors will brighten up any game (kite, soap bubbles, volleyball with a fly swatter, a holiday of colors, etc.).
The best games for a family evening
It is believed that tradition is the glue that holds the family together. Accordingly, play traditions, one of which are family games, can unite you throughout all stages of your child's growing up. You can include in your evening program one of your favorite games - the one that both parents and children will play with pleasure under any conditions.
Family trivia
Ask questions about people and events in your family. Suitable for children 3-10 years old.
Ask about small details about past or present family members, home, pets, etc.
Questions are asked to each player. You can ask a three-year-old child: “What did grandfather drink one last summer when he said. that you have never tasted anything more terrible in your life?” (Tomato juice). Believe me, you will learn more details than you might expect. Older children who are familiar with the history of the family can be asked questions like, “What was the name of our neighbor who lived in the pink house?” Children should also ask questions to mom and dad.
Animal Charades
This version of the classic game is ideal for children of all ages from 3 years old. Animal parodies are always fun. For the game you will need: paper, markers, scissors, a bowl.
Recall with the children 20 names of animals. These can be animals that live in a zoo or on a farm, pets and others. Write the names of these animals on small pieces of paper and fold them in four. Put the papers in a bowl and stir.
A participant is selected who must pull out a piece of paper from a bowl, read the name of the animal and silently depict it.
The rest of the players guess the word. the smallest actors, if necessary, can voice the animal to help guessers. All children depict animals in turn. Play just for fun, or score a point for the first player to say the correct word.
Toddlers who cannot read yet are assisted by an adult. he speaks the written word in their ear. You can also stick pictures of animals on the leaves instead of words.
Traditional Charades
If you are playing with older children (age 7+), choose the traditional charades with different categories. Instead of animal names, write on pieces of paper the names of books or movies, the names of famous people, lines from songs or quotes. Show which category the word belongs to: open a book (book), shoot a movie with an old-fashioned camera (film), put your hands at your sides (human), write a few words in the air (quote), etc. As a hint, you can show on your fingers the number of words in the name, what word you are going to show, how many syllables or letters it contains.
