With everything going on with coronavirus (COVID-19), it might be a good idea to get the family together for some fun to ease their minds. Perhaps you’ve retired Monopoly or are bored with all the games you currently own. Electronic games are fun, but not all are free and easy for everyone to be involved in. Here are some great ideas that don’t require a charger, use your creativity, and all you need are simple items that can be found in nearly every home. I cannot wait to try number nine. Enjoy!
1. Make your own scavenger hunt.
Create rhymes and riddles that act as clues to certain places in your apartment or house. Try to be creative and make them difficult. Make sure to include a prize at the end!
2. Quarter-Flip Game
All you need is a piece of cardboard, a quarter, and a pen or marker! That pizza box from your recent delivery will work just fine. If you don’t have any cardboard laying around just tape some paper together to make a large square. Each person takes a turn flipping the quarter, drawing a circle, and writing in a rule, truth, or dare. (Some examples: Do 10 pushups! Sing a song for 30 seconds. Flip the quarter with your non-dominant hand and if you miss the board you lose a turn.) Before you know it, the board is filled up and every time you take a turn flipping the coin, you never know where you are going to land, and what you’ll have to do or say!
3. Create your own board game.
Using paper, flashcards, and an old set of dice you can make an original board game. You’d be surprised what you might come up once you set your mind to it. Get everyone around the table to play when you’re done.
4. Charades
Split the family into two teams. Each team gets about twenty or so pieces of paper and writes down things for the other team to act out. Create a point system and how long you’ll be timing each player. You can also use a notepad and turn it into Pictionary if you are feeling more like an artist!
5. Homemade Cards Against Humanity
You just take a big stack of white cards and give everyone a single card at the start of the round. The clue giver starts by writing CLUE in big letters on his card, while the others write GUESS on theirs, then everyone flips their cards over. The clue giver then writes a clue of some kind on their card. I generally like the clues to take the form of a “fill-in-the-blank” sentence where the blank is a noun. So, for example, you might write “____ is my favorite secret ingredient in a breakfast burrito” or “Pizza makes me_____.”
Everyone thinks of a humorous response and writes it on their card, then the clue-giver takes all of the guesses, mixes them up, then reveals them all, choosing the one that is the funniest or the most fitting. That player gets the CLUE card, which is worth a point. All cards are saved, but then the game repeats again with blank cards. Keep playing to some specified point total – say, seven points.
6. 21 Questions
This one doesn’t require any materials! One person thinks of something or someone and writes it down. For example, you could think of a planet, a type of food, a record player, or a tiger. You can make it difficult by deciding nothing is off limits or make it a little easier by thinking of something in your home. For example, you might think of a pencil sharpener. Then everyone takes turns asking YES or NO questions. The people asking the questions get 21 chances to guess what is on your mind. Take turns. This is also a great one to do over a video chat with a few friends!
7. “Who am I?”
Pick one name—a celebrity or public figure, someone well-known—for each person playing and write that name on a card stuck to the player’s back or forehead. Each person gets to ask the others 20 “yes or no” questions to find out who they are.
8. “Who said that?”
Everyone takes five or so pieces of paper and writes down things they like, they dislike, or they think no one knows about them. Shuffle all the papers in a bowl and take turns picking out cards and try to guess who said what.
9. True Confessions—Tonight Show Style
You only need two people to do this, but you can absolutely play with more. You will each have two envelopes. In one envelope, you will have something written down that you have done that is true and in the other something you have done, that is not. The group then chooses which envelope you open. Next, the group gets 60 seconds to interrogate you. Be careful if you opened the envelope with the lie in it not to get tripped up, because after the 60 seconds each person will decide for themselves if it’s true or not. If you have tricked them, you get a point and if they guess correctly then they get a point.
Sources: https://www.thesimpledollar.com/save-money/20-great-games-to-play-with-stuff-you-already-have/
