Child's Play

Raise your hand if you are already plotting out things to do during this upcoming holiday break. I don't mean winery tours, book reading, or Netflix binges. I mean ways to keep your children entertained while school is out.

I thought I'd lighten things up this week and offer some relatively low-cost ideas for games to play with your children over this upcoming break. Even if your children are not of preschool (and above) age, you can find fun in some of these ideas too and put them into your daily mix with toddlers.

The best part of thinking about games to play over the holidays is how it evokes for me memories of winters in the Canadian Rockies. Sitting by the fire in a lodge after a day outside in the snow. There are so many grand warm feelings associated with winter,wood fires and games. I hope you might create some of your own with your family this season.

Memory—we got a free deck when staying at the Homestead Resort three years ago. This was a good first card game to introduce to Clyde. Just the right level of difficulty, having to remember where certain cards are once flipped back over. To ease him into it I started with only 5 pairs at a time, building up from there.

Puzzles —we started playing puzzles with Clyde at a very early age. Doug and Melissa offer a rich array of wood-based puzzles with as little as 5 pieces, starting for the age of 2 years. Now that Clyde is almost six, we've been attempting more complex ones (500+ pieces). We have a whole system to it: opening up a folding table and sticking it in a corner of the living room; taking all the pieces out of the box on the table and turning them picture-side up; tackling the frame of the puzzle first; and then zeroing-in on certain distinguishable forms. Over the last 2 months as fall and winter have approached, we've been doing quite a few of them. The best part is hearing Clyde waking up in the morning before school, slipping downstairs in his sock-feet, and then coming back up about 20 minutes later to our bedroom where he jumps up on the bed to tell us how many pieces he 'got.'

Uno—I (re)discovered this delightful card game some months ago when a neighbor was babysitting her grand-daughter. The 7-year old introduced Clyde to the game and ever since it's been an obsession in our household. Uno after breakfast before going to school, Uno before dinner, Uno after dinner. Basically Uno at any time of day. The really neat thing about Uno is that it is all about matching colors and numbers, and then a bit of strategy mixed-in for finding the opportune moment to throw out those wild cards.

Dominoes—in Canada two Christmas' ago, while up at Emerald Lake Lodge, we rummaged through the games box to discover dominoes. I still recall vividly the evening: sitting by the fire sipping some wonderful B.C wine, learning the real rules of dominoes with my parents, my husband and little Clyde all gathered around the large rough oak table.

Magna Tiles—I think I love these more than my son. Magna Tiles came into our lives about 2 years ago and still hold a Top 3 place in the pecking order of games. You can see your child's brain working fervently as they construct the wildest of structures, held magnificently together by magnetism. What I really like about Magna Tiles is how you can combine them with other favorites —cars, trains—to make extravagant play scenes.

Lego—those of my generation (and before) will recall Lego with perhaps a rather lackluster feeling. Big, clunky, primary color pieces. Not anymore. Lego has achieved a level of sophistication that consistently amazes me every time we open a new challenge. Porsches, McClarens, Mount Jefferson's home, Advent calendars of barnyard scenes. Each replete with booklets that are over 100 steps. The shelves are accumulating with finished forms.

Battleship—12 hours before a massive rainstorm swept through our little part of Maine this summer, my husband and I raced off to the local CVS to stock up on items to keep us going for 48 hours. The weather prediction was quite bad, and indeed we spent the better part of 36 hours in the house watching the rain pelt down on the conservatory roof and windows. One of the stock up items from CVS was Battleship, an absolute classic in our household. I can't say there is much strategy to the game. A lot of random calling out of coordinates. But Clyde quite enjoyed it.

Tic-tac-toe—the best part of this game is that you can use a napkin and pen in a restaurant or a recycled piece of paper and a pencil at home. No matter where you go, tic-tack-toe can easily be incorporated into your time with your kids.

Hangman—I tried this one out at Thanksgiving with our son. It didn't quite stick. But I suspect if I had kept at it, he would have gotten the hang of it (no pun intended). I'd suggest starting with simple 3 letter words and working your way up from there.

Here's to happy gaming over the holidays!