Fun writing games for kids

Fun Writing Games to Encourage Your Kids to Write

No one ever said that parenting was easy, especially if you’re one of those parents who is struggling with helping their kids with school work. Many children are not fans of writing or any activities that involve writing. Luckily for you, this list is a lot of different and exciting writing games to create a love of writing in your kids so they can write more and have fun doing it.

1. Telephone Pictionary

This game is really engaging and will promote creativity with your children while at the same time pushing them to write. If you have more players it will go better, and all you need is paper and pencils. Every player simply writes a sentence on the paper and passes the paper on. The next player will draw what is represented by the sentence and fold down the paper so only the drawing is visible, then passes the sheet.

The next player will write a sentence that describes the drawing and fold the sheet to keep only their sentence visible. The paper keeps going around in this way until it’s full. Then, all players can compare the original sentence with what happened later for laughs.

2. Story Telling

In this game, you also only need paper and pencils, and all kids will get to write a story together. Onboard, you can write the first sentence of the tale. Then, over the next two minutes, the children will write down the next step of the story. After two minutes, their paper goes to someone else who will continue the story. These papers go around a few times until such time as the story is done. Then, you can enjoy sharing the different and funny stories that were created.

3. Fill in the Blanks

For this game, you need some story sheets with blank spots. According to Rick Steele, an educator at Academized and Ox Essays, “to play, you just have to give the sheet to your child and they will fill in the blanks however they want by using their imagination. Then, you can read the finished story together afterward. ”

It can be difficult to get your children to write if they don’t like it, but there’s a lot of writing games that can make the process more exciting.

4. Birthday Cards

Every time there is a family birthday or special event, or during the holidays, you can get your children to write the birthday card. This will make them speak their thoughts about their family members as well as encouraging them to write in the process.

5.Cursive Name Writing

This game can be exciting to learn to write in cursive. You can take a sheet and fold it in half. Ask your children to write their names in cursive in large script, along the top of the folded crease. They can trace over the writing time and time again, then they can go over the folded piece until they create a mirror image on the other side of the sheet. Then they can cut out their names until the writing looks like a large bug.

6. Challenge for Vocabulary Terms

This game is better for children that can write comfortably and are more than six years old. You can give your child a new word and tell them what the meaning is. Then, Henrietta Fillon, a tutor at Big Assignments and Elite Assignment Help, says “you can challenge them to write a sentence with the new word in it. You can also ask your child to write a complete story about this word if you have time for it. You can also ask for drawings if they don’t enjoy writing much.”

7. Comic Strip Fun

This activity is better for older children who already know how to read and write, especially if they like storytelling. You can get some comic strips for your children and ask them to fill out the dialogue bubbles (which should be blank, to begin with). Then, challenge them to make it more exciting. They can also draw with crayons to make more colors and liven up the comic strip.

It can be difficult to get your children to write if they don’t like it, but there’s a lot of writing games that can make the process more exciting. By spending time with your children to focus on learning to write, they will prosper and learn to enjoy writing.

About the author: Ellie Coverdale, a writer for UK Writings and Essayroo, shares her thoughts and opinions on education and writing. She loves fostering a desire to read and write in children and stresses the importance of writing skills for all people, regardless of age. In her spare time, she teaches writing skills for Boom Essays.

12 Writing Games To Help Kids Learn To Write And Have Fun Doing It

Writing can feel daunting to young learners — there are so many letters to memorize, sounds to recall, and words to spell! You might be wondering what the best writing games are to help your child learn to write.

HOMER has got you covered with these simple and engaging writing games! With minimal equipment required, these activities can be set up within minutes and provide unlimited fun.

Before we dive into our favorite writing games, let’s discover why writing is important in child development.

Why Writing Is Crucial To Development

From their early scribbles to drawing recognizable letters, writing is a useful form of self-expression for children and allows their ideas to flow more easily.

What’s more, the alphabetic code is reversible, so children who use sounds to determine words for writing are simultaneously advancing their ability to sound out words and read coherently. Win-win!

This is a lifelong skill that your child will use every day, so it’s important to know how to best nurture and develop these emergent literacy skills from a young age.

By playing the writing games outlined below and taking the time to practice, your young writer will be an expert in no time!

Why Games Are Important For Learning

You know that it’s important for your child to develop writing skills, but you may be wondering why you should incorporate games into their learning.

Why can’t your child just sit down with a pen and paper to practice writing?

Less Stressful Learning

Here’s the stitch: Being asked to sit down and practice writing skills can be daunting for some kids. It can also be frustrating when they come across letters or words they struggle with.

Games, on the other hand, decrease stress levels and get children excited about learning.

While playing learning games, your child will not only be practicing their writing skills, but they’ll also be more focused on completing the fun activity than on getting frustrated that they can’t write the uppercase Q, Z, or J.

When children see that learning doesn’t have to be tense or highly stressful, it can also change their perception of educational activities. In fact, they may be more willing to participate in future educational games.

Motivation

Motivation is one of the biggest advantages of playing writing games.

Kids are more likely to pay attention to the instructions and participate when they see the activity is fun. This is much more effective for teaching writing (and other) skills than simply handing them a worksheet.

Some educational games also allow children to play in pairs or groups. Interacting with peers or family members in this way is an excellent opportunity to develop critical social skills, such as listening to others, communicating effectively, and taking turns.

Friendly Competition

Kids can be very competitive — with their friends, siblings, and sometimes even with mom and dad. Playing writing games can foster a spirit of fun, healthy competition.

If you involve multiple children in these activities, the child who wins can learn to congratulate their fellow competitors and not just brag about their accomplishment. And the one who loses can learn to celebrate another person’s win and try harder next time.

Problem-Solving Skills

By nature, most games require participants to incorporate problem-solving skills, planning, and creativity. That’s a lot of mental work!

Playing writing — and other types of educational — games can help your child develop these essential life skills.

Now that we’re clear on why writing games are important, let’s get into the activities you can introduce to your child today.

We’ve divided these into three sections — writing games for preschoolers and kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders. So, feel free to scroll to the relevant section for your child (or children), and let the games begin!

Writing Games For Preschoolers And Kindergarteners

1) Disappearing Letters

What You’ll Need

A chalkboard
Chalk
A paintbrush
A cup of water

What To Do

Start this activity by writing a repeated letter, a word, or your child’s name on the chalkboard using your chalk. If you’re writing a single letter, start by writing it five times in a row.

Dip the paintbrush in the cup of water and have your child trace over each of the letters, erasing them one by one.

Once your child has mastered one letter, move on to multiple letters until they’re comfortable using this activity to “write” their name and short consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words such as dog and cat.

This activity is great for working on developing your little one’s fine motor skills as well as their spelling abilities, which will aid them as they take pencil to paper!

2) Hands-On Writing

What You’ll Need

A tray or bin
A fun material such as sand, flour, or shaving cream — anything that can hold a shape
A pen and piece of paper (optional)

What To Do

To start this activity, grab a tray or bin that’s deep enough to hold your chosen material.

Fill your tray and bin with sand, flour, shaving cream, or anything else that can be used to form a shape. This is what your child will use to develop their writing skills!

Say a letter to your child (or write the letter on a piece of paper for them to copy, if needed) and have them write the letter into the sand, flour, or shaving cream with their finger.

Eventually, you can work your way up to having your child write whole words, like their name or things they love (the names of their friends and family or even their favorite foods or toys).

Don’t worry too much about what the letters look like — even scribbles are OK! Whatever your child writes to produce a letter or word is great progress.

This activity lets you make writing a fun, sensory experience! Try using different materials to keep your child engaged and to learn more about the world around them while they practice their writing skills.

You could also use a fingerpainting method for this game for some colorful fun — enjoy getting creative with this writing game!

3) Yarn Letters

What You’ll Need

Blank sheets of paper
Pencils
Yarn
Child-safe scissors
Glue

What To Do

Grab the blank sheet of paper and help your child draw a letter of the alphabet with a pencil. Then, hand them the yarn, scissors, and glue, and help them trace the letter by cutting and gluing the string onto its shape.

Performing this task is an effective way for your child to develop their fine motor skills, a key component of writing. In addition, this hands-on activity allows children to continue learning their letters.

Writing Games For First Graders

4) Roll The Dice

What You’ll Need

A piece of paper
A pen or pencil
A dice

What To Do

This writing game is all about creating a fun story with your child using dice to determine how many words you get to add each turn!

Start by having your child choose a main character, a setting, and a problem. For example, your character might be a cat, your setting might be a garden, and the problem might be that the cat needs to find some food.

Write the first sentence of your story based on the character, setting, and problem you’ve chosen with your child. Using our example above, the first sentence might be, “Once, there was a cat in a garden who couldn’t find any food.”

After you write the first sentence, have your child roll the dice. Whatever number the dice lands on is the number of words they’ll add to the story — not one word more or less!

You can assist your child by sounding out tricky words and helping them write if needed. Once they’ve added their words, it’s your turn to roll the dice and write your next round of words based on the dice number.

Take up to five turns each before finishing your story together by choosing an ending. Then read your story aloud to see how it all flows!

5) Speech Bubbles

What You’ll Need

A piece of paper for drawing or a printed cartoon
A pen or pencil

What To Do

For this activity, start by having your child draw a picture with a character or two. You could draw this scene together or even print off some characters from the internet to color and decorate together.

Once you’ve finished drawing and decorating your characters, it’s time for each of you to draw and fill in a speech bubble to create thoughts for your character (or a conversation if you drew more than one character).

For example, if your character is a dog, maybe he’s standing by an empty bowl. What might a hungry dog say? Some options could be, “Where’s my food?” or “I hope they bring pizza!”.

Let your child’s imagination run wild with possibilities for filling in the speech bubbles and enjoy this writing activity together by writing down the silly suggestions, too!

Speech bubbles are one of the most fun options for writing games as they’re quick, easy, and short for young writers.

This may help your child feel less intimidated as they explore more words to add to their vocabulary and practice forming their letters correctly.

6) Birthday Cards

What You’ll Need

Colored pens or crayons
Pencils
Blank birthday card

What To Do

Birthdays are a day most people look forward to. For kids, this day usually means lots of gifts, games, a birthday cake, and, of course, a birthday card.

Help your child create a unique birthday card for their friend, neighbor, cousin, sibling, mom, or dad — whoever they want! Once they select the recipient, get the supplies you need and help them write a sweet message for their loved one.

This is a wonderful activity for your child to practice putting their thoughts on paper. They can also add flowers, hearts, and anything else that will help to make the card extra special.

Note: This activity can be used for any occasion, not just birthdays. Is it the holidays? Has the family been invited to a graduation party? Do you have a family member who’s not feeling well?

All of these are excellent opportunities to create a special card for a loved one.

7) Map Out The Story

What You’ll Need

A blank sheet of paper
Colored pencils (or crayons)

What To Do

The aim of this writing game is simple: create a setting for a story.

Children love when a storybook they’re reading includes some pictures and a map to bring the story to life. With this activity, they get to create their own!

All your child needs to do is draw a map of the story setting of their choosing, labeling the different areas. This can be a story they’ve read or one that’s just popped into their head. It really doesn’t matter as long as they’re excited about it.

To help them get started, you can ask prompting questions, like:

Does your story take place on land or in water?
If it’s on land, what and who lives on that land?
If it takes place in water, what types of interesting creatures are there?
What’s the weather like?
How many characters are there?
Where do these characters live?
What do the characters do?
Are there any landmarks?

Once your child is clear about the world of the story, it’s time to draw and create it. Now you can also help your child write a story that takes place in their invented world.

For this activity, we’re not expecting incredible artwork or penmanship. Instead, the main focus is to have kids practice gripping pens or pencils and writing.

Writing Games For Second Graders

8) Grocery List Writing

What You’ll Need

A piece of paper for making your list
A pen or pencil

What To Do

Make the task of writing your grocery list into a game!

You can do this as part of a make-believe or role-playing game with your child, or you can create a real grocery list together before the shopping gets done.

Try planning out some meals for the week ahead, and then make a list with your child for each of the ingredients needed. Explain that writing a list helps us to remember all the things we need to buy, and discuss what items you might need to purchase.

Keep it simple and help your child by sounding out words as they write. Once the list is written, your child can enjoy checking off each item one by one after it’s been put in the cart!

9) Household I-Spy

What You’ll Need

Two pieces of paper, one for you and one for your child
Two pens or pencils, one for you and one for your child
A timer or timer app

What To Do

One of our favorite writing games is this version of I-Spy with a twist!

Grab your paper and write each letter of the alphabet down the left-hand side. Once you and your child have both written the alphabet on your paper, set your timer for 10 minutes.

You’ll then race from room to room to find and write down as many objects as possible that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Write each object next to its corresponding letter and fill in as many as you can within the time limit.

You could also set a handicap for this writing game to raise the stakes! For example, if your child’s time limit is 10 minutes, cut yours in half so that you have to find as many objects as possible in five minutes.

10) Accordion Storytelling

What You’ll Need

A sheet of paper
Pen
Ruler

What To Do

The first player will start the story at the top of your clean sheet of paper by writing two sentences on separate lines. They can write about any topic they want.

When they’re done writing, they’ll need to fold the paper over the first sentence and pass the paper on to the next player. This means that the first sentence won’t be seen. The next writer will only be able to see the second sentence on the page.

This player will need to write their own two sentences based on the line they can see. After that, they’ll fold down the first line of what they wrote and pass it on to the next player, too. The paper will continue to be passed around and folded like an accordion.

The round ends once all the paper has been folded up, and there’s no space left to write. Once you’ve reached this stage, open it up and read the story aloud together.

What interesting story did you come up with? Get ready to have a good laugh!

Note: You can take turns reading one sentence each, or you can nominate one person to read the whole story to everyone.

This is a great game to play with the whole family or even just two people, although it is the most fun with at least three people. And it will encourage creativity and writing skills.

11) Pen Pal Writing

What You’ll Need

Paper
Pens or pencils
A pen pal

What To Do

Writing letters to pen pals is very traditional. In a nutshell, it involves two people in a long-distance friendship who communicate by writing letters to each other.

Now, with the advancement of technology, very few people still do this via snail mail. But it can be a great way to encourage children to write.

Who can your child write to? They can choose a friend who’s moved schools, a cousin who lives in another state, or their grandparents. It can be anyone they’d like to send a message to!

This is a fun way to help children learn about mailing letters and how the postal system works. They also get to create memories and can keep the letters their pen pal writes to reflect on for years to come!

12) Rewrite The Ending

What You’ll Need

Paper
Pen or pencils
Storybook

What To Do

Children will need to exercise their imaginations to play this game.

To get started, read a book aloud to your child. (This can be an old favorite or a new story.) Once you’ve finished reading, encourage them to create their own version of the ending.

It can be challenging for children to imagine their favorite stories in a different way, so you might need to help your child think outside the box:

What if the frog never turned into a prince but into a big elephant instead?
What if the three little pigs learned karate and decided to fight the wolf?
Could the little mermaid have a twin sister she just discovered?

This activity lets your child exercise their imagination while also practicing their writing skills. If this is done with multiple children, it will be fun to see what exciting versions of the script each child comes up with.

Enjoy Learning To Write With HOMER!

We hope you’ve found some new favorite writing games from our activities in this guide!

From creating sensory play activities with sand and fingerpaints to writing a grocery list together, there are so many ways to get creative with your child and make writing a fun shared activity.

For even more writing fun, unbox a learning adventure with our Explore Letters Kit. Watch your child build their literacy skills, using their imagination to lead them through a variety of writing and spelling activities!

Author

90,000 games on paper for two or more: Rules for 22 games

Content

Simple games on a sheet of paper
DRISSISS
Treasure Map
CLASS
9000
Cross-tanks
Balda
Silent artist
Bulls and cows
Capturing the field
Strategy games on paper for two or more
Sea battle
Scrabble
Code of
bridges
Scessions
Snake
Troomino
Games on a piece of paper with letters
Games on paper - a selection of books
National games on paper

Games on paper: For children and adults, simple and complex, creative and strategic, fun and educational. New games from around the world that you have not heard of!

Life with children can be boring or fun, and it does not depend on any external circumstances!

Zhenya Katz "Games for Beginner Moms"

Simple games on a sheet of paper

Drawings

The player thinks of a picture and draws part of it, and then passes it on to another player.

Treasure map

You need to draw a schematic plan of the apartment - a treasure map and indicate the place where the treasure is hidden.

Chain

Enrich vocabulary, develop imagination and laugh a lot! We take a word of 3-4 letters and, changing 1 letter at a time, we turn it into others, and so on, until it turns out. The chain can turn out from 3-5 to 50 words. And then, according to the recorded words, we compose a story. Impossible not to laugh, checked!

Many words

Choose 1 long word and use its letters to make many short words. Whoever has more - he won!

Tic-tac-toe

An old unforgotten game. To make it more interesting, play on a large field - 4*4 or 5*5 cells.

Doodles

The game stimulates the imagination. One draws any squiggle with his own color, and the second turns it into anything with the help of fantasy.

Troika

Tic-tac-toe game, only with letters. On the 3 * 3 field, two players put any one letter each, and the one who, by the end of the game (when all the fields are filled), will be able to write diagonally, vertically or horizontally more well-known words of 3 letters wins.

Balda

A square playing field is drawn on a piece of paper with 5*5 cells for the word BALDA or another number of cells corresponding to the number of letters in another word. Write a word in the middle row. Players take turns making moves. In one move, a letter is entered into a free cell in such a way that a new word is formed each time.

Words can be read in any direction. For each word, the player receives as many points as there are letters in the word. The game ends when all the cells are filled with letters or none of the players can come up with a new word.

Silent artist

Develop imagination and associative thinking! Non-reading children receive an oral task from their mother: how would you depict a holiday (lake, mirror, mother cat, stars)? The drawing needs a schematic, only a contour, the main thing is figurative thinking.

The older the child, the less specific the words are - not “pan”, but “dinner”, not “five in the diary”, but “end of the quarter”. You will be surprised how interesting children's thinking works!

We prepare leaflets with an arbitrary number of words (difficulty by age) and draw, and then guess.

A game without competition, the main thing is to convey the meaning.

Bulls and cows

The player thinks of a four-digit number. All digits in the number must be different. His opponent must guess the number. Each time he also calls a four-digit number with different digits. If the figure from the named number is in the guessed number - this is a cow. If the figure from the named number is in the guessed number and stands in the same place - this is a bull.

Capturing the field

In addition to a piece of paper and a pen, this game will require a dice or two (to speed up the game and develop quick addition skills in children). The first player rolls the dice(s), adds up the numbers that have fallen (if there are 2 dice) and paints as many squares on his playing field as he received as a result.

The first person to color all the squares wins. You can also play 3 dice! Those already familiar with the multiplication table can play with multiplication instead of addition!

Paper strategy games for two or more

Naval battle

The goal of the game is to sink all enemy ships. We arrange the ships and "shoot" in turn.

Ships are placed on a field of 10*10 cells. The letters and numbers along the sides of the square are the coordinates. Each player has 10 ships: 4 one-deck (1 cell), 3 two-deck (2 cells), 2 three-deck (3 cells), 1 four-deck (4 cells). There must be at least 1 empty space between ships.

The second similar field is drawn for clarity of "shooting" at the enemy's field. The player names the coordinates, for example, "K5", the enemy honestly answers: "past", "wounded" or "killed". The victim shoots again. The one who misses passes the right to shoot to the enemy.

Scrabble

The game is widely known in the world under the name Scrabble. From separate letters it is necessary to make words and put them on the field. You can buy a field for playing Scrabble or play on a piece of paper.

Knight move

We work with logic and spatial thinking! We teach a child how a chess horse walks. We draw a small field of play on a sheet in a cage. We start the game from any cell: “we walk”, we take turns putting a cross in a cell one after another (older - numbers from 1 to ...), while it is possible to walk.

First, you can show the trajectory, then the child can already “draw” it in his mind. Task: fill the field as much as possible. With older children - who will have nowhere to go - lost.

Bridges

The players are trying to build a bridge from one side of their bank to the other. Red has red shores and crosses as stones, Green has green shores and zeros. The game can start anywhere on the field.

In one move, a player can connect two adjacent stones with a vertical or horizontal bridge. Red and green bridges must not intersect. The winner is the one who builds a continuous bridge from one of its banks to the other.

Lines

It is necessary to put several points on a sheet of paper (at least 8, the more the more interesting). Two players play by connecting any two points in turn with a line segment. You cannot capture the 3rd point, and each point can be the end of only one segment. The segments must not intersect. The one who cannot make a move loses.

Dots

This is a paper strategy game for two or four people. The goal of the game is to connect the drawn lines into squares. The player who draws the most squares wins.

It is necessary to create a field of dots, 10*10 is enough to start with. But you can play with any field. Each player takes turns drawing lines by connecting 2 adjacent dots.

As soon as the player finishes the square, he fills the square with his color or puts his sign inside and can make one more move.

Snake

Two players must use different colored pens or pencils. A square of arbitrary size is drawn, for example, 9*9 cells. 2 sides of one color and 2 of another. Each player chooses points and begins to draw his snake, lengthening it alternately by 2 cells in one move. You cannot walk diagonally and cross your own or someone else's snake. You can lead the snake on the side of the opposite color. The one who cannot make a move will lose.

Tromino

This is a simple pen and paper puzzle that trains visual perception and spatial reasoning. The goal of the game is to be the last player to successfully place a tromino on the game board.

Tromino is a figure consisting of three squares connected by sides. You can either play straight pieces only, corner pieces only, or both versions at the same time.

The goal of the game is to be the last player to place a tromino on the board, thereby blocking the opponent's ability to play.

Read more about the tromino game in the next article.

Games on a sheet of paper with letters

Games on paper - a selection of books

Games on a sheet of paper published by Bely Gorod. A whole encyclopedia and almost a complete collection of such books! To the labyrinth

Games on paper. Tic-tac-toe, sea battle, dots and segments - a budget book by the Phoenix publishing house, in Chitai-gorod.

National games on paper

When these strategic games were played on the ground or sand with stones, sticks, flowers, etc. These days, playing has become easier, but no less interesting.

Dara is a cool match 3 game from North West Africa. The goal of the game is to capture your opponent's tokens so that he can no longer place his tokens at three in a row . Read more here.

Tiger and Leopards or Len Choa is a traditional game from Thailand in which a tiger (hunter) fights six leopards (victims). The tiger tries to catch the leopard by jumping over it (as in checkers).

The leopards are trying to surround the tiger and block it so that it cannot move. The game is dynamic, there is not enough pen and paper for it - chips are also needed (coins, buttons, scraps of paper - whatever). About the strategy of the game here.

Fox and Geese is a traditional board game from Northern Europe. This is a variation of Halatafl, a Viking board game mentioned in the early Icelandic sagas. Read more here.

Korean game Kono resembles Chinese checkers. Objective: Move quickly across the board and place all of your pieces on the dots previously owned by your opponent. Description of the game

What kind of paper games for children do you know? What games did you play as a child?

fun games for children and adults

Children's party at home: fun and entertaining fun games for children and adults. Old games of the 19th century, long forgotten and now being revived. Interesting ideas for a joyful mood during the holidays.

New Year and Christmas are coming soon! And of course, these days we meet with friends, relatives, go to visit, receive guests. Games at home are one of the oldest and traditional winter activities for children and adults. What games can you play with kids and friends? What did our great-great-great-grandmothers and great-great-great-grandfathers play in winter? How to give yourself and your children the joy of a holiday and fun? Why does a child need fun, and not just “serious” educational games? You will learn about this from this article. And also take a trip to 19century, having played old pre-revolutionary children's games.

Educational games are what every family knows now, what they write about in magazines and books, what they show in videos and TV shows. But fun games ... Do we know fun games for children? How often do we play them? Do we include them in our family holidays? For some reason, these fun games for children are often forgotten and are not so common in modern families. It's a pity. After all, they not only create a special atmosphere of a family holiday, comfort, warmth, emotional support, interesting communication, but also develop a child no worse than “serious” educational games. And besides, it is so nice to play them for both adults and children! It is fun games that develop ingenuity, imagination, speed of reaction, flexibility of behavior, independence, the ability to quickly find a way out of a new situation and give the child a cheerful, cheerful mood - the basis of his successful development.

Why does a child need fun funny games? Why does a child need games with other children or games in a friendly circle of children and adults? Why won't the "educational game" of the child "alone" (with a computer or with chips and a playing field) replace games with other people? Let's look into history and find the answers to these questions.

Here is how Egor Pokrovsky wrote about children's games in the 19th century in the book “Children's Games, Mostly Russian. In connection with history, ethnography, pedagogy and hygiene "(1887):

“There are also views that are practiced in relation to education in some part of the public and have a lot of harmful influence on the success of the development of children's games ... Due to these views, for example, fast, impetuous movements of children during play are recognized as impossibly rude, too provincial, masculine; heartfelt fun in games, which only children are capable of, about which even the saying “Rejoices like a child” has developed, is considered completely inappropriate, indecent, trivial. Simplicity in dress, which is required for the most part for many free children's games, is also considered unacceptable, degrading the child to the level of a craftsman, etc., but meanwhile, it is dressed-up children, like dolls, according to a fashionable French magazine ... and you can’t send them to the game, because such clothes will interfere and run freely, and wrestle, etc.

Obviously, there are no joys in the games of such children.. Meanwhile, look at the sad consequences from absolute abstinence from games: reasonable attitudes towards their own kind, and in the end they often turn out strange, inept, often evoking only laughter and mockery at themselves. It is rightly said that “he is more likely to be cut with a knife who has not learned how to handle it from childhood ...” Along with this remark, let us recall the caustic mockery of the ancient Kornsad, who expressed the idea that the sons of wealthy parents can do nothing by way, except for riding, and this is because only the horses do not flatter them, but, on the contrary, immediately throw them off if they do not comprehend the art of riding. The deep meaning of this mockery has been fully preserved to this day.0003
There are relatively few games that are designed for a solitary activity, on the contrary, most games require the participation of more or less other children. In this distribution of games, no doubt, lies that goal , so that with the help of them, on the one hand, it is better to accustom children to communication among themselves, mutual services, mutual preservation of their interests; on the other hand, to accustom to the excitement of competition, mutual criticism, recognition of dignity or shortcomings, encouragement of those who showed greater dexterity, art, dignity in the game, and vice versa, censure of those who somehow blundered in the game.

Often here a well-gifted child leads a less capable one, one helps another to improve, and in the end everyone helps each other; but at the same time, in essence, everyone remains in the same rights ... In the end, all this leads children to the closest mutual communication, unity and friendly work . ..

No family circle, no school can give anything like that, but that in games this is achieved so easily and simply”

Let's play! And let's give each other a good mood!

Children's games at home: old Russian games

Today I want to share with you my favorite fun games of the 19th century. You will be surprised how interesting and modern they are and discover many new ideas on how to spend a family holiday evening or how to captivate your little ones or your guests during the holidays. All these are traditional Russian winter games that amused our ancestors on boring dark winter evenings. And why don't we follow their example and give ourselves a holiday, especially since these games do not require any special equipment or preparation. And you can play in a small group, and in a family, and in a large company of children and adults. Good luck to the world of old Russian games!

Twitch game

A “water” is chosen (now we call it “leader”, and even now children often speak in the old fashioned way with the accent on the first syllable - “water”). The vodir is blindfolded.

Other participants in the game are players. In this game, they are called "twitchers".

Rule of the game: Players are not allowed to leave their seat. If this rule is violated, the player becomes a "Water".

Game progress: The blister stands in the center of the room blindfolded. Players enter the room and sit near the walls. The viper begins to walk around the room.

Players attract the attention of the waterman, "pull" him. For example, they say "Derg-derg" or rustle their feet on the floor or rustle their clothes in turn. Here someone pulled the vodka by the hem. And then from the other side they whispered: "Derg-derg", and after that a new sound - someone slaps on the knees. The vodir needs to guess who pulled him (that is, he said or clapped or made some kind of sound). If he guessed right, then he transfers his role to the tugger. Then the twitch, who was unraveled, becomes a water-dweller in a new game.

The task of the players is to confuse the vodka so that he cannot guess who it is. Therefore, they may not speak in their own voice - squeaky or vice versa bass, etc.

Blinds and Bluffs against the Wall

Very fun and funny game. Such a fun game is very good in the New Year! After all, it is carried out with a candle and in the dark. And it brings unforgettable impressions, laughter and joy. In addition, children so enjoy playing with shadows and coming up with their own ideas about how to “trick” the leader of the game. Whom only they do not dress up! And how they laugh when they are confused with ... their mom or dad !!!

This is how the old game is played. In the “blind-blind against the wall”, the leader is not blindfolded, on the contrary, he will need to look very carefully “in both eyes”.

You will need a light wall (this can be a wall in a hallway or in a room). If your walls are dark, then you can hang a sheet. A table or chair with a burning candle is placed at a distance from the wall. A chair for the driver is placed between the candle and the wall.

Players will walk past the candle behind the driver so that their shadow appears on the wall. Players take turns walking slowly along the wall, and the driver must guess by the shadow who passed it.

All players try to confuse the driver. They can wrap themselves in a cloak, put on someone else's hat, go crouching to the floor or, on the contrary, go on tiptoe, stretch their neck or pull it in, hunch over, limp, bend over three deaths, mix up, intertwine arms or legs, walk in pairs, etc. The player's task is to figure out how to confuse the driver and how to pass without being recognized.

The driver is forbidden to turn his head back and, when guessing, look at the person, and not at the shadow. If the driver made a mistake, then the phantom pays (performs the task - tells a joke, sings a verse of the song, congratulates everyone, etc. ). The driver is replaced when he guessed one of the players or when everyone passed.

For the game, I advise you to prepare the necessary simple items that you can dress up in - an old sheet that you can wrap yourself in, a beret or a hat, mask, scarf, cardboard box, costume elements such as rabbit ears, etc. Or you can make it easier - to come up with your own “suit” for everyone to play together and allow you to use all the contents of the closet at the same time.

Even-Odd game

An excellent game to share gifts or small surprises for guests.

Prepare small surprises in advance - sweets, stickers, small calendars or pictures, badges or postcards, toys, pencils, cookies, waffles, etc. You can ask all guests to bring some surprises with them and use them for a common game.

So, having collected all the surprises brought and collected by you, we begin to divide them into heaps. The heaps will be different - in some heaps there is an even number of gifts, and in some there is an odd number. Heaps are covered on top with opaque scarves. This is an old version. And now we can just put the gifts in opaque bags - and then scarves are not needed.

We start to raffle gifts. The first player points to one of the heaps with his hand and asks: "Even or odd?". The second player answers either "even" or "odd". We count the gifts in this pile. If the second player guessed right, then he takes a bunch of gifts for himself and asks the question to the third player (along the chain): “Even or odd?”. The third responds, and so on. In this game, kids will not only receive surprise gifts, but will also learn to count gifts with pleasure :).

You can enter the difficulty of this game for adults or older children. If the player guessed right, then he takes the gifts for himself. But if he did not guess correctly, then he must share his gifts and give them to the person who asked the question in the same amount. For example, the first player asked the question: “Even or odd”, and the second player answered “Even” and did not guess, because there were three gifts in the pile. So he must give three gifts to the first player. Then he himself chooses a bunch and asks a question to the third player, and so on in a circle.

Previously, the game was played with small tidbit bags, where you could hide gifts earned in the game and share them with everyone.

The game "Oclap"

A very simple game. Everyone stands in a circle and throws a piece of cotton wool up (you need to fluff it up, throwing a roll of cotton wool is useless - it won’t fly :). The task is to keep the cotton from falling. The player, near whom the cotton falls, pays a fant (sings a song, crows, reads a poem, etc.). Therefore, everyone is trying to quickly blow the cotton from themselves to their neighbor. The cotton flies either higher or lower, so the players either squat, then stand on tiptoe, then bend over. Usually a very funny picture is obtained.

If there are few players, then the game is played at the table. They throw up a clap, and keep their hands under the table. Next to whom the cotton “landed”, he pays a fine - a phantom.

The game "Wing"

The leader is selected. The rest of the participants in the game are players.

The players sit at the table and under the table in a circle pass each other an object tied to a thread. At the same time, they say:

Oh, wing, hurry up,

Don’t stumble and don’t break,

Don't look from under the table,

Otherwise it will be a disaster.

It is necessary to pass the object on a thread so that the driver does not guess who has the “wing” now. Therefore, the players, even without having a wing, pretend that they are passing it, wink at each other and try in every possible way to confuse the driver.

At the last word in the text (this is the word "trouble"), the "wing" stops at one of the players. The task of the driver is to guess who has the wing, where it stopped.

If he guessed right, then this player with a wing in his hands in the next game becomes the driver. If not, then the driver pays a phantom. The redemption of a fanta is a song, dance, riddle, congratulation or trick.

It is important not to break the thread when passing the object on the thread. Who broke the thread also pays forfeit.

Birds Fly

All players sit in a circle at the table. One hand is on the table. The leader of the game starts the story:

“I traveled a lot in different countries. And I came to such a wonderful conclusion: all living beings covered with feathers fly. All birds fly." On the last words, the host raises the index finger of the hand up and everyone repeats after him. The rule of the game is reported: if it is a bird and it flies, then you need to raise your index finger up. Then the host continues: “And the ducks fly (the leader and the players raise their fingers for each correct phrase), and the geese fly, and the tits fly. And the lions fly.” Many players will automatically give a thumbs up. And they'll be wrong.

The game should be played at a fast pace, alternating birds, animals, fish, insects (they also fly, but they are not birds, and therefore you don’t need to raise your finger), flying objects - autumn leaves, an arrow (you don’t need to raise your finger, because it's not a bird)

Everyone who made a mistake at the end of the game pays forfeits - they perform simple tasks.

Push and pull game

A very simple and very fun attention game in which even adults often make mistakes and laugh at it. She is very funny and beautiful. You will need wide satin ribbons about a meter long. How many players in the game - so many tapes you need.

The leader of the game stands in the center of the room, and the players sit on chairs around him. The chairs are arranged in a circle. The driver in the center of the circle holds all the ribbons. He gives the second end of the tape to each player. Ribbons with rays of the sun go from him to the players.

The leader at a fast pace says “Pull”, then “Let”. And what is the "highlight" of this fun game? And the fact that the word "pull" you need to release the tape. But on the word “let” you need a tape, on the contrary, pull it! There will be many mistakes!

In this game you can collect forfeits for mistakes. And you can vice versa - play for the winner, who will receive a small prize for not making a mistake.

Game “Change apartments”

Everyone sits on chairs. The driver shouts: “Change apartments! Change apartments! At these words, everyone jumps out of their chairs and looks for a new place. And since the driver has already taken one place, then someone may not have enough space. That's all in a hurry, run, hurry. Who did not have time to take a place - pays forfeit. As soon as the phantom is paid, immediately (before everyone has time to gather their thoughts) a new command sounds “Change apartments! Change apartments! The game is played at a fast pace.

Plate game

Players stand or sit in a circle. Each player calls himself the name of some animal. For example, "I am a hare." “And I am a fox,” etc. When everyone has memorized each other's new names, the game begins.

Take a wooden (old version) or plastic plate or bowl (modern version) and twist it hard to make it spin (Many other modern items can be used instead of a plate, for example, a roll of stationery tape. The main thing is that the object can be twisted)

As soon as the plate is spun, immediately shout out the name of one of the players. For example: "Hare, catch!". The hare must have time to intercept the spinning plate before it falls. Now the hare spins the plate and calls the other player: “Catch the bear!” etc.

This game develops reaction speed, all players need to be very agile, attentive and dexterous.

The one who did not have time to grab the plate pays a forfeit.

The game "Korchaga"

The driver in the game is the korchaga. It is covered with a scarf on top and planted in the center of the room.

A senior player is selected who, secretly from the korchaga, gives names to all other players. For example, the names of flowers: “You will be a camomile. And you are a rose. And you are forget-me-not."

Players stand around the pot. The senior player calls them, calling the name of the flower. For example: "Chamomile, come here." Chamomile comes up to Korchaga and lightly touches his back with his hand, quickly returns to his place and claps his hands.

The senior player removes the handkerchief from the pot and asks: “Who held it?” If the driver guesses who touched him, then the guessed player becomes a korchaga in the next game. If he did not guess correctly, then he will still have to be in the role of korchag

Games - riddles, puzzles, charades, puns.

Such games have also been known for a long time and are ancient. They played them for fun. You won’t guess - pay a forfeit, cheer everyone up. You can also play in a different way - for the winner who guessed the largest number of puzzles. Here are some tasks from the 19th century:

1. Why would a chicken eat a portion of oats rather than a horse? (Because a chicken doesn't eat horses)

2. Is it possible for dogs to run into a room and eat up the whole floor? (pun: eaten = from spruce). Answer: Maybe if the floor is spruce.

3. “Young girls are willing to visit the first one; the second is not necessary for girls, but for boys it is necessary for many games. It’s nice to leave the stuffy room for the whole ”(Answer to the charade: ball + con \u003d balcony) Other possible charades that you can easily compose by analogy yourself: com + pass \u003d compass. Steam + hell = parade. deg+us=degree. Agility + bone = dexterity. Air + spirit = air.

Surprise

And then - a surprise for all readers of the site. And for me too 🙂 I want to introduce you Sorokin Tatyana - a regular reader of the Native Path. Tatyana works as a speech therapist teacher in Krasnodar. She prepared a small surprise gift for all of us - puzzles that can be given as a riddle at a children's party and solved by ourselves. Well, let's try to figure it out, shall we?

Puzzles for children and adults from Tatyana Sorokina.

Guess what words are encrypted in these puzzles. Couldn't solve the puzzle? Write your question in the comments - Tatyana will tell you what it is. To be honest, I did not immediately guess rebus number 5 :). And you?

Thank you very much! When I started making a website, I didn’t even think that people completely unfamiliar to me would start sending their materials, want to share with everyone, and ask questions. But what a pleasant surprise it was! And from the gratitude that I receive in letters, and especially from the letters of those readers who say: “Thank you. I also want to share my materials with everyone” and they are sent. I imagine Tatyana to be the first of such active readers of Native Path, but she is not alone. In January, another surprise awaits everyone - the materials of another reader of the site. Which ones are still a secret that only the two of us know about. And the answer to the secret will be in January.

And finally, a rebus from me: as a gift for Tatyana and for all readers of Native Path. Rebus on the topic of this article. Can you guess? Answers or questions can be written in the comments.

Are you interested in old games? Which ones did you like the most? What games do you play with your children? I invite you to share in the comments.

You will find interesting ideas for the New Year's holiday in the articles:

Family New Year: games and contests for adults and children, script, printouts.

Do-it-yourself antique New Year and Christmas toys. From our history. We craft with the kids.

New Year's traditional northern homemade gingerbread - roes.