First, I made a generic safety notice poster that I printed on 11×14 cardstock. It made for a fun decoration, especially with the lab coats I splurged on!

Since the escape room takes place in an office building, I also made four motivational posters you might see in an office or workplace. These were also made to be printed 11×17 size.

And finally, since we set up for the activity in the morning but didn’t host it until the evening, and since there were other people in the church building when the activity was going on, I made these door hanger signs I left outside the door to keep people out. They worked great, and I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to design a “please keep out” door hanger for an escape room!

I added these three new documents to the Science Lab Breakout download, so if you purchase it from now on they’ll come included. But feel free to download them if you’ve already purchased the game, or to use in any DIY escape room you host!

What it is: An easily adaptable game seen all over for all age groups. Here, it’s a game played on paper cards. The free printable cards I provide are animal themed.

Best for: Children in small to large groups (great for classrooms).

What you need: A printed game board for each child playing and a way to mark off squares that have been called. You can mark squares with something physical like cereal or candy. This is fun (especially if it’s M&Ms instead of Cheerios), but make sure children are old enough not to bump their boards and get things out of order (or eat their square markers!).

If you don’t want to use something physical that can get bumped or moved, use markers or stickers. The downside of this method is it will destroy your game boards – unless you laminate them first! Then you can use stickers that are easily removable, or dry erase markers, so you can use the same boards and play again and again.

How to play: In Bingo, each child gets his or her own Bingo game board. The boards have a 5 by 5 grids of squares, with each square being a unique item or number. Here, they are unique animals. Typically the center square is a free space, so each board has 24 different animals. There are 54 different animal pictures in this version of the game, so each game board is unique, and each game board has a 50/50ish chance of having any given animal.

The game moderator then starts calling out the 54 animals in the game in random order. Children must listen closely, because when the game moderator calls out an animal a child has on his or her game board, the child gets to mark it off.

The goal of the game is to get five marked-off squares in a row, either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.

As soon as a child does this, they call out, “Bingo!” The first player to call out “Bingo!” wins. If more than one player calls out Bingo at the same time, they tie for first place. You can continue playing for second, third, etc., place.

Variations: In addition to winning a Bingo round by marking off five squares in a row, you can make the game more exciting by adding in rounds requiring players to win by marking off other formations on their board, like the ones pictured. (Players will have more than these squares marked; these are just the minimum to win.) Some are shorter than a normal round, and some are longer.

• Four corners – Mark the four corners
• Blackout – Mark every single square
• Outer border – Mark all the squares in the outer border
• Middle square – Mark the eight squares that surround the free space
• Letters – Mark off squares to form a letter, like T, L, X, or M
• Specific Bingo – Require players to get a specific five-in-a-row to win (like the first column, or the second row)
• Double Bingo – Players need two five-in-a-row’s to win
• Plus sign – Mark the middle row and the middle column
• The last to Bingo – When players get a Bingo, they are eliminated. The player who goes the longest without getting a Bingo wins.

Another way to make your Bingo game more exciting is to offer prizes to the winners, or have players swap their cards with each other randomly during a round.

Printables: Now that you know how to play, here’s everything you need to print and…well, play!

This PDF has the actual game boards (54 unique cards, which means you can play with up to 54 people at once).

This PDF is for the moderator or person running the game. It has strips of words with the all the animals in the game that you can print out, cut up, and read out loud. It also has 60 different sets of the animals in the game in random order, so, instead of drawing names and reading them, you can just read down the list (and play 60 unique games).

There’s also a PDF with each animal on a separate page, in case you want to show your class or players a visual of what each animal looks like, either digitally on a screen/projector or printed out. (You can also download this with 4 animals to a page.)

And, as a bonus, I have all of these translated into Spanish! (If I got anything wrong in the translation, please let me know and I’ll fix it.)

This would be an excellent activity for language learners, either English language learners of any age from any language, or English speakers learning Spanish. Introduce the vocabulary with the visual cards and use the Bingo game as a review.

Even more variations: “I spy” Bingo is another fun way to play. I have a Fourth of July and a Halloween version.

Any fun Bingo experiences or variations to share? I’d love to hear! And happy playing!

What it is: An alternative way to set up a white elephant gift exchange, where you basically set it all up yourself. Sounds less fun than the normal way? It doesn’t have to be!

Best for: About 10 to 20 people

What you need: A very generous host!

So rather than looking at this as a white elephant gift exchange, think of it as a fun way to give a gift to a group of people (co-workers, family members, etc.). If it’s Christmas or some other gift-giving occasion and you want to give a gift to everyone in a group in a fun, unique way, this might be it!

This game works the same way as a white elephant gift exchange, with all the same rules. The only difference is, you will supply all of the gifts yourself.

The gifts can be whatever you want. They can be inexpensive or they can be nice. It’s often fun if they’re all the same type of gift with different patterns or themes, but they don’t have to be.

We played this most recently at a family Christmas gathering. My husband and I decided to set it up as a fun game for everyone. We bought a bunch of pairs of wacky/unique socks, enough so everyone would have one. Then we wrapped them all with different wrapping paper, put them in the middle of the room in the evening after Christmas dinner, and played! Everyone ended up with a pair of silly socks. We tried to include a variety, so some were laughable, some were cool, some were neat, and a few were pretty undesirable but in a funny way.

It was a good game because everyone (kids and adults) could participate together. And because we didn’t have too many kids, and there wasn’t too much overlap in the socks the adults wanted and the socks the kids wanted, there were minimal tears. (Minimal. Unfortunately not no tears.)

Like a good white elephant exchange, it’s fun if some of the items are kind of eccentric (there were many options for that when it came to silly socks). We’ve also done it with wall calendars. Wall calendars are another great gift idea, because you have a huge range of styles to choose from, from serious (motivational quotes) to beautiful (beaches and mountains) to specific interests (movies and video games) to just silly (cats doing yoga).

You can also set up the game with items that are unrelated to each other. My mom has done this for our family’s Christmas gifts for the past few years, and we all have a blast. Each gift is unique (exercise equipment, kitchen supplies, just funny stuff), but they’re all nice, and people still steal and scheme, but everyone walks away with a gift in the end.

It’s a neat activity that turns a group gift into a game (so not only do your family/friends/co-workers get a gift, they also get laughter and memories, which are probably even better). Other theme ideas for gifts might be candy, treats or food, gift cards, nostalgic toys, or even more “boring” things like office supplies. Have a variety of pens and pencils of varying quality, and shake it up by throwing in a few truly absurd writing utensils that are sure to make everyone laugh. What other ideas can you come up with?

Variations: You can read about the normal white elephant gift exchange here. There’s also some other activities, Christmas gift pass and mystery gift pass, that involve less stealing and conniving and might be better suited for young children. You could easily adapt the mystery gift pass to play with adults as well, and it might also be a fun way to give a group of people a group gift. Have fun!

I think this is my very first translated printable offered on this website! A family member requested a copy of my game Three Deep in Spanish to play with a mixed group of native Spanish speakers and native English speakers learning Spanish. So now I’m giving it to you! I called the game “Uno, dos, tres,” and it works like the 1-2-3 variation of Three Deep, so head on over to that post to learn how to play. It should be very doable for native Spanish speakers, and doable for many Spanish language students, depending on the level. If you’re teaching a Spanish class, it could be a great way to incorporate a fun game while practicing some Spanish vocabulary!

Get the Spanish printable

Espero que todos se diviertan!

(If you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints like me, the family member I made this for is serving in a Spanish-speaking mission. I made a second version of the Spanish Three deep printable specifically for missionaries. It has some church- and mission-specific terms on it, so if you are in a similar situation, maybe it’ll help you out!)

What it is: Yet another time-killing game with an alphabet theme

Best for: A small group of players, good for young children as long as they have some knowledge of the alphabet

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: I guess our family has been in a lot of time-killing situations lately, because we came up with this game and have played it many times.

First, choose a topic or theme. You could do something like fruits and vegetables, or names, or places. But we’ve had more fun with things like Zelda or Mario or Harry Potter, video games or movies or books that have been built into a large franchise. Because the more content you have to work with, the better luck you’ll have.

Next, think of something in your topic that starts with the letter A. Say we’re using Zelda as our topic. The letter A might be Akkala. Then move on to letter B (Beedle), then C (chuchu).

(Yeah, our family is super nerdy.) And so on until you get to the letter Z (Zelda, duh!). Can you make it to Z without skipping any letters? How long does it take you? Work together as a group and find out!

Oh, the one rule we’ve tried to stick to is, we’re not allowed to look things up online because that would be too easy (unless we’re really stuck on Q or X). Sometimes you might need to get creative and use adjectives with your nouns, and that might be OK!

Our kids get excited about this, probably because it involves their favorite books, games, and movies. Sometimes they choose a topic my husband and I aren’t as familiar with, so we let them do the thinking, but it’s still been a fun family activity.

What topics would your family have fun with?

Variations: For other alphabet brainstorm time-killing games, check out alphabet chant or first letter/last letter, or, if you are in the car, alphabet car I spy or the alphabet game. You can also find a ton of other talking time-killing games perfect for families or small groups by using the game finder feature on my site. Just check the boxes “killing time,” “none” under equipment, “talking only,” and any other age or group number requirements you might have. Have fun!

What it is: A talking game with a pretty good potential for giggles

Best for: A small group of players (3 or more), any age

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: If you’re familiar with Twenty Questions, this game will be easy to learn because it’s very similar. The main difference is, in Twenty Questions, players think of nouns. In Poodle, it’s all about verbs.

To start, one player (say Dolly) thinks of a verb, like skateboarding. She keeps the verb a secret, and other players then ask Dolly questions and try to guess her verb, like in Twenty Questions. But the twist is, any time a sentence would have skateboarding in it, players replace it with poodle. (That’s where the potential for giggles comes in.)

So some sample questions might be:

• Has anyone here poodled today?
• Does it take a lot of skill to poodle?
• If I wanted to get up and poodle right now, could I?
• Do you need any equipment to poodle?
• Do you poodle outside or inside?
• Is poodling hard?
• Who’s the best poodler in our family?

Dolly can answer the questions, and provide some additional clarification or hints, also using the code word poodle. So, she could say things like, “No, you’d get in trouble if you poodled at school,” or “Yes, you need something specific to poodle,” or “No one in our family can poodle very well.”

Unlike Twenty Questions, it’s fun if Dolly says more than just yes or no (because sometimes you can’t help but laugh when you say a sentence with poodle as a verb in it). It’s fun for her to give extra hints, too. If you have a larger group, it can also be fun if more than one person is in on they clue word. That way they can both answer questions and offer opinions (since a lot of times the questions aren’t as clear-cut as they are in a game of Twenty Questions).

Our family has had a lot of fun with this game. Again, for some reason, you just can’t help but giggle when you say some of the sentences or give some of the answers. Some of the verbs we’ve played with are trick-or-treating, doing the dishes, fighting, reading, eating, and (my four-year-old’s idea) burping.

We found the game a long time ago online, and I wish I had the source for it. (If you know it or have played the game before, leave a comment!)

Variations: Some very similar games are 20 questions, no/because, and breakfast combo. Some other word-guessing games include password and three things.

What it is: A car game, perfect for killing time on long (or short) rides.

Best for: A carful of players, from 2 up to 8 or however many fit in your car or van (or bus!)

What you need: A car trip!

How to play: This game is a variation on the alphabet game you play in the car, the one where you look out the window and try to find words that start with each letter of the alphabet, in order. Well, on a recent car trip when our family hit some traffic through a sparsely populated area and were crawling along and needed a way to entertain ourselves, we decided that, instead of looking for signs with words on them, we would just look for objects that start with each letter of the alphabet instead.

So instead of looking for a sign with a word that starts with a letter A, you just look for any object that starts with the letter A, like an arrow, or asphalt. Then move on to B, then C, and see if you can get to Z before the trip is over.

I think the game is best played cooperatively as a group. It’s fun because it’s a little more creative than the other variation. For example, you see a hamburger wrapper lying by the side of the road. It could be paper (P), maybe a wrapper (W), or even litter (L). Use your vocabulary and think creatively and see how far you can get!

It also moves faster than the other version. My daughter and I keep trying to get through the whole alphabet during the trip to pick up the older kids from school, and we’ve almost done it! One of our trickiest letters is I (it was easiest at Christmas time when there were lots of yards decorated with inflatables). (I’m sure letters like U or Q would be even trickier, but we usually don’t make it that far )

Rules: The rules we’ve played by are that the items must be outside the car, and they must be nouns that you can see (so “air” doesn’t count). We also don’t count adjectives (so “blue mailbox” wouldn’t fly for the letter B). But pictures of items do count (so a billboard with a penguin on it counts for P). But feel free to add or adapt your own rules!

Variations: Besides the normal alphabet game, another car I-spy game is the license plate search. Or, if physical objects are too hard, you can always play with brainstorming items in your head, too!

So I love writing the escape rooms I sell on my website, but designing them can be a little restrictive sometimes. I want to only use supplies that are relatively cheap or easy to get, I need to be able to replicate and explain the game easily, and I can’t use any standard measurements (darn Imperial/metric system dichotomy).

Writing escape rooms for my friends and family is fun because it isn’t so restrictive. This summer I decided to do one for my kids and their friends. They’re into the Harry Potter and Wings of Fire book series, so I did a dragon/wizard theme. It was a ton of fun, for me and for the kids!

What follows is a detailed (and lengthy, sorry) explanation of everything: how I set up the game, how running it went, and the clues I created (which you can download for free). It also serves as a bit of a model to how you might create your own DIY escape room using the techniques I lay out in my book, The DIY Escape Room Book, so check that out if this intrigues you. Hopefully this post can help or inspire you as you create your own dragon, wizard, or Harry Potter escape room!

Index

• The Players
• The Room
• The Game
  • Puzzle 1 – Glow in the dark paint
  • Puzzle 2 – Searching through a cauldron for a lock and combination
  • Puzzle 3 – Using a touch box
  • Puzzle 4 – A potion, a cryptex, and a physical puzzle
  • Puzzle 5 – A scrambled word
  • Puzzle 6 – A secret code
  • Puzzle 7 – Mixing a potion
  • Puzzle 8 – Solving a riddle
• Lessons learned
• Resources you can download
• Online purchases I made, or had made in the past
• Tutorials I used
• Credits

The Players

I made the game specifically for my kids, and we invited some neighbors/friends/siblings of friends to play too. I ended up running it five times: once with my eight-year-old daughter and my husband as a daddy-daughter activity, once with my nine-year-old son and two of his friends, and three more times with other friends and neighbors, with ages varying from 10 to 18.

The Room

The setting of the game was an evil wizard’s tower. We have a guest bedroom upstairs, which I converted into the escape room. It was very convenient because it could sit undisturbed for weeks while I slowly worked on the clues and decorations. My kids (and me) got into the habit of calling it the “Chamber of Secrets” because I wouldn’t let them inside. (That was a lot of fun to hear around the house: “Remember, you’re not allowed in the Chamber of Secrets!” “Has anyone been in the Chamber of Secrets?” “When you play hide and seek, make sure your friends know not to hide in the Chamber of Secrets!”)

To decorate, I used a lot of stuff I had on hand, like Christmas lights and Halloween decorations. I also had some brick-patterned temporary wallpaper, and I used that to cover all the drawers and cabinets I didn’t want the kids to waste time searching through. It worked great. It was very clear to everyone that they didn’t need to search through the drawers, and the wallpaper looked a lot cooler than blue painter’s tape would have looked (which is what I usually use to mark things that players in an escape room shouldn’t open).

I will say that the temporary wallpaper did a little more damage to the furniture than I was hoping. It chipped the paint in a couple of small spots and left a sticky residue on the metal drawer handles (though the residue did come off). Nothing too bad, but just something to keep in mind if you do ever use temporary wallpaper somewhere other than walls.

I did buy some new supplies for decorations for the escape room (like flickering LED lights). I also bought some feathers that I made “quills” out of. Combined with some manila paper I cut and rolled to look like scrolls, they made for a fun decoration/note-taking tool.

For any escape room that takes place in the past (even a fictitious past), a thrift store is an excellent place to shop for decorations or clues. I found some way cool stuff at a small-town thrift store, like some pewter cups and a variety of jars and candle holders.

I was really happy with the way the room ended up looking. For the things in the room that didn’t have such a “wizard’s tower” vibe, I did the best I could. I put a plain brown blanket on the bed instead of the modern gray one that’s usually there. I got rid of the pillows and all the other decor normally in the room. I used Christmas lights instead of the bright overhead light.

To make the vanity bathroom in the room feel more like part of the game, I didn’t use the vanity lights but instead used strand lights, and I used the counter and sink as the location for a potion puzzle. It was a perfect place to hold all the jars, most of which were filled with liquid, and it kept any messes contained. Plus I think it ended up looking really cool!

The Game

The plot of the game was pretty simple: there’s an evil wizard trying to control the dragons, you’re protectors of the dragons, the wizard locked you in his tower, you need to find a way out and, if you can, a way to keep him from taking over the dragons. Not the best plot, I admit. Usually I like to create a detailed story and set up my games with an intro I read out loud, but this time I actually really liked the minimal plot. I could say it in a couple sentences without reading it from a paper. For kids, it felt easy and natural that way.

The game was structured around a spell book. It had both a spell and a potion inside that the kids needed to complete to escape the room. I left two blanks in the spell and four blanks in the potion recipe. Various puzzles in the room led the kids to fill in the six blanks.

To make the spell book, I used a 4×6 leather photo album I gave to my husband as an anniversary gift years ago (he was nice enough to let me borrow it). It was perfect – it felt old-timey and fitting. I designed and printed the spell book pages and cut them all to be 4×6 so I could just slide them into the photo album.

The spell book had a few pages that were important (the pages with the spells, for example), and the rest were pages with Latin-sounding placeholder text and pictures of various dragons, animals, and plants. I used a very tiny hard-to-read font so the players wouldn’t waste time thinking they had to translate all the text in the spell book (they didn’t). The extra pages were there just to make the spell book feel more complete and fun.

If you don’t have a leather photo album, the download has a cover page you can use with an inexpensive plastic photo album, or you can bind the pages however you want.

Since the game was for kids, I wanted it to be fairly straightforward, so I marked each blank in the spell book with a number. The clues in the room were all marked with numbers in the same style, making it clear which clues went together.

This did help, but I think the fact that the room was non-linear (no exact order to work in) still made it difficult, even for the teens.

Puzzle 1 – Glow in the dark paint

The first blank was a word (indago) to complete the spell. I hid this clue in the closet of the bedroom. I painted the word in glow-in-the-dark paint on a piece of cardboard and taped it above the door in the closet.

I also cleared all the other stuff out of the closet to keep the kids from thinking they had to search through it. To give the kids the hint to look at the clue in the dark, I taped a note on the wall so it was the first thing the kids saw when they opened the door. It said: “Come inside, turn off the light, and close the door.” So mysterious!

I chose to tape the glow-in-the-dark clue high above the door to keep the kids from noticing it in the light, because you could still read the glow-in-the-dark word fairly clearly even with the lights on.

I tried hard to prevent this by using layers of other white and pearlescent paint, and it was a little disappointing that the neutral glow-in-the-dark acrylic paint came out so visible, but it ended up OK. It was a fun reveal for the players, looking around the pitch-black closet until they looked up and saw the glow-in-the-dark word.

Taping the word up high close to the light (which I left on during the game) also helped it glow extra brightly because it could soak up a lot of light.

To make this puzzle longer, I locked the closet door shut with a chain and keyed lock (securing the chain around the bed fame and the doorknob of the closet).

Then I hid the key pretty well in this jewelry box filled with jewelry and fake gems. The outside of the jewelry box was marked with a 1, so it was clear that the key went to the closet door (which was also marked with a 1).

Puzzle 2 – Searching through a cauldron for a lock and combination

The second blank was another word (colligo) to a spell the kids needed to say out loud. For this word, I folded up a piece of cardstock multiple times and drilled a hole in it. Then I unfolded the paper and wrote the word on it. Then I re-folded the paper and locked a combination lock on it. Because the paper was folded so many times, it was impossible to read the word without opening the lock. It was pretty impossible to even tear the paper because it was so thick.

Handy tip: Locking paper, especially cardstock, is a good inexpensive option if you don’t have a box or container you can lock easily.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this lock at first. My idea was to have the kids search through something like beans or rice. I thought it would be a fun tactile experience. I had a cauldron from our Halloween decorations which I thought would make a good container. I just needed to find something to fill the cauldron. I thought about beans, shredded paper… I couldn’t really find something good, not too messy, and inexpensive until I was cleaning up a craft my kids had just done. We made diorama-type boxes with animals and rocks and fake plants and all sorts of nature items. I ended up just dumping them all in the cauldron, and I think it actually worked pretty well. I hid the lock at the bottom, so the kids had to search through the moss, leaves, and rocks until they found it.

The combination to the lock was hidden in the cauldron, too. I made clay circles that had the five numbers of the combination written on them. I was planning on hiding them in a separate location, but I ended up just hiding them in the cauldron, too, and I think that worked well, especially because the numbers kind of looked like rocks and weren’t super easy to spot right away. I think it was the perfect difficulty level.

Puzzle 3 – Using a touch box

The third blank the kids had to fill in was an ingredient in the potion: powdered bat bones. This clue was probably the most labor-intensive and costly to assemble, but it was fun and I really wanted to do it. I made a touch box out of a cardboard box and black fabric. Inside there was a prop bat skeleton (another borrowed Halloween decoration).

To make the touch box, I used an old Amazon box. I cut a hole in it big enough for a hand to go in, then I lined the inside in black fabric. I put the bat skeleton in, closed the box, and wrapped it in more black fabric. I also used thread to secure the bat to the cardboard box. It was too big to pull out of the hole, but I didn’t want the kids to try to pull it close to the hole to peek at it. So I used a huge thick needle to punch through the cardboard and made extra sure the skeleton was secure. (Well, almost. It turns out one of the last groups was able to yank the bat free and pull its head out of the hole.)

The second part of the clue was this foam board with these animal skeletons. I wrapped the foam board in black fabric, duct taping it in the back. Then I used the same needle and some fishing line to sew the skeletons securely to the board.

I was really happy with the way the puzzle turned out. It felt appropriately creepy for an evil wizard’s tower, and I found a way to tie the whole board to the bed so the kids could feel the animal bones but not pick them up and carry them around. This was partly to increase the difficulty; players would have to feel the touch box, then move to the other side of the room to feel the other skeletons and identify the right one. Securing it to the bed also conveniently hid the back of the board, which was not-so-prettily covered in duct tape and knots of fishing wire.

Everyone figured out without too much trouble that it was a bat inside the touch box. A couple of the kids were a little hesitant to stick their hands inside a mysterious dark box, which is always fun. But I think it was the perfect difficulty level.

Puzzle 4 – A potion, a cryptex, and a physical puzzle

The next blank was another potion ingredient: unicorn milk. For this, I printed off a stylized outline of a unicorn and mod-podged it onto little popsicle sticks to make a mini puzzle. There were only eight pieces, so it wasn’t too difficult or time consuming for anyone to put together.

I put the pieces in this cryptex, a cylindrical vault locked with a six-letter password (secret).

Then I read about an idea online that I loved involving a pretend potion. I printed a paper label with “Insight Potion” on the outside and, on the reverse side, a message that said “the password is secret.” I taped the label securely to the bottle. Then I needed to fill the bottle with an opaque liquid so the message wouldn’t be revealed until the kids drank the “potion.”

The drink I settled on was mango nectar; I didn’t want soda because it would be easy to identify, and I didn’t want anything kids would think was “gross” like tomato juice. I thought the mango nectar would be unusual enough so the kids weren’t like, “Yep, that’s root beer,” but still taste OK. For extra fun and to make it look less like an orange juice, I put some food coloring in it.

It was fun to see the various reactions to this clue. Many players were hesitant to drink it. Some of them only took a sip, and it took a while (or a hint) for them to realize they needed to drink the whole thing.

I think one of the fun parts of an escape room is coming across something where you think, “Am I supposed to…? Is this really part of the game?” And you’re not exactly sure if you should proceed. But then you hesitantly go ahead with it and it turns out there was a clue there all along. That’s how this clue felt for many of the players. Which made it just as fun for me to watch.

There was only one group where all the players thought the potion was so disgusting, they wouldn’t drink it at all. I tried to tell them someone needed to take one for the team and just drink it, but in the end they poured it down the sink. [Eye roll] I think the green food coloring threw them off. Or they just really hate mango nectar.

Anyway, after the kids drank (or poured out) the potion, they were able to read the message, unlock the cryptex, and put together the puzzle.

Puzzle 5 – A scrambled word

The fifth blank was another potion ingredient: squid eggs. For the clue, I made some dragon eggs (mostly because I saw this tutorial online and they just looked so cool I had to make some). I thought they turned out great.

Then, in the same spell book with the spell and potion recipe, I added a bunch of different pages with illustrated dragon eggs.

The five eggs I made were all illustrated in the book (and lots of others eggs were too, many drawn by my children, who were eager to help). Each egg page had a letter on it. The five eggs I included in the room had the letters S, Q, U, I, and D, which unscrambled to spell “squid.”

This puzzle ended up being a little too tricky for the younger players. The oldest players figured it out by themselves, but I’m not sure if the younger ones would have been able to get it without a hint.

Puzzle 6 – A secret code

The last blank was the last potion ingredient, which I called “alpaca fluff.” (I wanted to put tasty things into the potion, and I thought that cotton candy varied it up some from liquids.)

This was probably the hardest puzzle for the first two groups, and they needed help from me to solve it, but not because it was difficult. It was more due to the puzzle design.

To make the puzzle, I found a cool font of mage-script-looking characters and switched the letters for symbols. I printed the translated-into-symbols text and hid it in the room.

Perhaps I hid it a little too well; I taped it inside the rim of this box.

It did take a lot of searching. For some groups, after lots of searching it made for a fun little “a-ha” moment when the players finally found it. Other groups needed a hint. I also learned that leaving the box empty (as opposed to containing a red herring) made it easier.

I wanted the decoder to this text to be something different and physical, so I got six strings and attached an English letter to one end and its corresponding symbol to the other. Then I put them all in a chest. The kids just needed to separate the strings to see which letter went with which symbol.

Unfortunately, the strings were a huge mess and took forever to untangle. Maybe I just made them too long. When I did the room for my husband and daughter, I intentionally jumbled them up a little before putting them in the chest. But when my husband found them, they had magically worked themselves into such an awful tangle, I sat on the floor and worked on it while they continued solving the room. It took forever to separate it out.

So for the next game, I tried to jumble the strings less…but somehow I think I made an even bigger mess than the first time! It also didn’t help that when the kids opened the chest, they just grabbed the wad of string, held it, tossed it around, and passed it back and forth a few times, just making the tangled mess even bigger without attempting to undo it.

By the time they got around to working on the puzzle, I offered again to untangle it for them. But it was taking forever (seriously, those strings were a huge, huge mess), so I instead gave them a hint to look at the letters in the decoder and see which potion ingredient on the counter had the same letters. One of the kids found it pretty quickly. (There was actually one other ingredient that had the same letters, calf pulp, which sounds disgusting but was the only thing I could think of with those same letters to make a distracter with. Luckily, they didn’t even notice the distracter, so I didn’t bring it up.)

The other times I ran the room, I tried really hard to lay the strings in the chest as neatly as possible. That worked great. The strings were so long, there was still some untangling involved, but it was much more manageable. A good lesson on always testing your individual clues, I guess!

Puzzle 7 – Mixing a potion

After all six blanks were filled in, the kids were able to mix the potion. This was one of my favorite parts of the game (and actually most everyone else’s favorite part, too). I’ve been wanting to make a puzzle like this since I saw this video of a magic-themed escape room for adults (caution, the video does have some language). So I’ve been collecting cool glass bottles and jars for a few years now, making assembling the puzzle a lot easier. It was just super fun to put together, making up all the ingredients and labels and finding things to fill them with.

(For tips on collecting jars like this, try craft stores, dollar stores, thrift stores, and even jars and bottles from food in your fridge or pantry, removing the labels and washing them well after you’re done with them. Goo Gone is my best friend when it comes to repurposing food bottles and jars, because sometimes the sticky residue from the labels is really hard to get off. At craft stores, you can buy loose corks of various sizes to go with glass bottles you might already have.)

It was actually a little challenging at first to come up with fictional potion ingredients, so I ended up making this spreadsheet, which I now offer to you! I listed out all the animals, animal parts, plants, and plant parts I could think of, making it easier to create unique ingredients (some of them sound pretty gross, so use whichever ones you want).

These are the ingredients I ended up using in the potion, and what real-life ingredients I used to represent them:

These are more ingredients I added as distracters. The kids didn’t actually add them to their potion:

My science-loving son informed me that some of my ingredients were off—like apparently scorpions don’t have bones and platypus eggs are a lot smaller than the potatoes I used to represent them—but I was OK giving up some realism for the overall effect of the puzzle.

Making the homemade “caviar” for the catfish and iguana eggs was a lot of fun. I followed this tutorial, which worked pretty well. Instead of coffee, I used pomegranate juice or water with food coloring. It took a little trial and error and I wasn’t any good at getting all the little drops to be the same size and shape, but it worked well enough for what I needed it to do. Definitely a fun ingredient on the counter, and if you’re up for a little food crafting, something that would be really fun for any wizard or Harry Potter escape room prop, especially because it’s safely edible. (Since mine was just a distracter, I left them coated in vegetable oil, but if I had wanted the kids to actually eat them, I would have tried to wash the oil off and made them taste better.)

I didn’t want the potion to be too gross, so all of the ingredients the kids had to add were sweet or flavorless. Not that the end result was tasty (kind of a watered-down Kool-aid taste–I know because I tested it in advance to make sure), but at least it wasn’t disgusting. Still, you would have thought it was made of actual moonwort slime, bat bones, and squid eggs based on the way some of the kids acted when they had to drink it, going on and on about how gross it was. So dramatic!

The last part of the potion recipe was that the potion had to be sipped through “the hollow bone of a griffin wing.” I used gold paper straws for this, and I did this mostly for cleanliness reasons; if more than one child wanted to taste the potion, they could use their own straws and not put their lips on the cup. Plus without the straws they probably would have had difficulty drinking out of the oddly-shaped pewter mug the recipe called for (which was just too cool not to use). Plus I think it gave a hint to the kids that they only had to take a sip of the potion and not drink all of it.

Included in the potion bar were some tiny metal measuring spoons and some little glass pipettes (which I think I got in the pharmacy section from Walmart). I think these helped the potion puzzle feel more realistic and cool. When you’re measuring out drops of intestine juice with a pipette or tiny spoonfuls of moonwort slime, it’s just really hard not to feel like you’re in a Harry Potter movie.

My last tip on doing a potion puzzle like this is making sure no one in your room has any food allergies before you start. It wasn’t something I thought about until one child started asking questions about the ingredients during the game. I ended up telling her what all the ingredients were, and everything was safe for her, but from then on I started the room by asking, “Does anyone have any food allergies?” I found this was also a nice way to work in a subtle hint that they would be eating or drinking things in the room, without having to tell them directly (contributing to that, “Wait, is this part of the game?” feeling I think is so fun).

Puzzle 8 – Solving a riddle

At this point in the game, I needed a way to give the kids some information (a combination to a lock), but I didn’t want to just tell them the combination out loud. I tried to keep myself as removed from the game as possible; I was only there to give hints. So I planned to use our HomePod Mini and wirelessly play the combination over the speaker during the game, once the players mixed the potion correctly and drank it.

To do this, I needed to find something to cover the HomePod and disguise it (so it didn’t look like a HomePod). I went back and forth on this, searching for the perfect thing and feeling like I just couldn’t find it. I envisioned something kind of see-through so you could see light shining underneath (I thought I’d add some more lights to make it more mysterious). But it couldn’t be completely see-through. I was thinking at first of coming up with some metal frame and lining the inside with tissue paper.

It took a while, and I wasn’t completely satisfied with the result, but I ended up using the glass cover to a ceiling light fixture I had taken out of another room a while ago. It was big enough to cover the HomePod and some color-changing LED lights. The only problem was the hole in the top of the glass dome, so I used a cheap glass cup coated with mod podge on the inside to make it not transparent, but still able to show light.

Again, I wasn’t thrilled with the way it turned out, but I think it worked OK. The players didn’t seem to think it was too odd or lame looking. My husband thought it was awesome though, and was quite impressed. I called it the “Glowing Talisman” and put a sign by it that read “HIGH CONCENTRATION OF MAGICAL ENERGY: DO NOT TOUCH” to keep the kids from touching it or taking it apart.

It worked well; all the players were all obedient—well, with a few exceptions. Someone thought it was funny to touch it and pretend to get zapped by the magical energy and thrown across the room, and someone else seemed to think the paper sign was a trick and I had to stop her from taking the clue apart. But since the majority of the time it worked, I think it shows that, as long as there’s an in-game reason for a rule or guideline, players are likely to keep it.

The spell book explained what to do with the Glowing Talisman: it holds the answers to all questions, and if you drink the right potion and say the right spell, it will give you the knowledge you seek.

The potion in the spell book was labeled “Lock Combination Potion,” which I hoped would make it pretty clear to the kids what they needed to do.

So once the kids drank the potion, they stood before the “Glowing Talisman” and recited the spell from the spell book, then stood and waited for it to give the answer. At this point I surreptitiously used my phone to play a pre-recorded riddle over the HomePod mini:

The lock’s three digits are found in this riddle:
Count a spider’s legs for the one in the middle.
The first is the number of wings on a bird.
Hold the dragon eggs for a clue to the third.
The lock will open with these digits three;
Solve this riddle and the scissors you’ll free.

And, to make this riddle even more fun, I decided not to record it myself since everyone would recognize my voice. Same with my husband’s. Since I wanted to use a voice none of my kids were familiar with, we ended up hiring a voice actor on Upwork. This is a website my husband uses for his private consulting business all the time. You can hire great freelancers for all sorts of contract work, like graphic design, coding, and even voice acting. Such a small project wasn’t that expensive either ($5 to $15, depending on the actor). I was really happy with the way it turned out and really pleased with the actor.

Some groups needed to hear the riddle more than once, but eventually they all got it. Once they solved it to get the combination (285), they could unlock a combination lock that secured a pair of scissors, then use the scissors to cut a cable tie on a bottle.

Once they did that, they could open the bottle and find two things: 1) a magical amulet that, according to the spell book, will allow them to free the dragons, and 2) the key to the room.

And then they were out! I made the amulet with polymer clay (the look is inspired by the one from Mrs. Brisby and the Secret of NIMH—anyone else remember that surprisingly-creepy-in-retrospect movie from their childhood?)

Lessons Learned

Every time I run an escape room I learn valuable lessons on hosting DIY escape rooms, and this time was no different.

1. Instruct players how to open unfamiliar locks before the game starts.

There were two types of locks in my escape room that the players had never seen before. One was called a push button lock, which had buttons labeled with numbers that needed to be pushed in for the lock to work, but the order didn’t matter. The other was a number combination lock, but it had a button to press once you entered the combination to make the lock open.

Unfortunately, for the first two games, I didn’t think to tell players about these locks before the game started. Instead I had to give some hasty instructions during the game once the players found the lock, afraid that they would get the right combination but not know how to work the lock and get frustrated. This felt out of place. It interrupted the flow of the game and made the experience feel less real.

The other times I ran the game, I had pictures of the same type of locks in the room that I showed the players before they went in. They weren’t the exact locks in the room, but they were similar enough that I could explain how the locks worked before the game started, which worked perfectly.

2. Smaller groups are better (especially with kids). Larger groups increase the difficulty.

Watching my husband and daughter play the game was a lot of fun. He was there to guide her, so they didn’t get stuck a lot, and she clearly had a lot of fun. In fact, when they opened the final bottle, she was disappointed that the key was inside because she didn’t want the room to end. Then she wanted to stay and play in it for a while, which I was fine with

Since she was disappointed that they finished early (in about 40 minutes), I vowed that I wouldn’t say a thing in the boys’ room unless they asked for a hint (I’m awful at that). However, that didn’t last. I ended up giving a lot of unsolicited hints, and if I hadn’t, they wouldn’t have finished in an hour.

I thought that since the boys were all older than my daughter, they would find the room easier. But it was definitely more of a challenge for them. This might be because they didn’t have an adult helping them, but I also think that with children, the larger the group, the harder it is (slash–no offense to anyone–the dumber they are). In this case, even a group of three changed the dynamic. I could see it, watching my son with his friends. His personality changes a little. He’s more excitable, more apt to show off a little by being silly. They all were, just kind of loud and rushing around the room and not using a lot of critical thinking. They’re all very smart boys; I just think having them work together in a room without an older player made the game harder. Maybe even one older teen in the room would have helped a lot.

All the other times I ran the room, there were only two players at a time, which actually felt perfect.

From all this, I came up with some advice to players (especially kids) who are doing an escape room:

• Take your time to think carefully.
• Keep your clues organized.
• If something doesn’t make sense or is frustrating, leave it alone for the time being or give someone else a turn with it, then find something else to work on.
• If you don’t know what else to work on, use a hint.

3. Use distracters carefully.

On a multiple choice test, a distracter is one of the wrong answers—something that looks like it could be the right answer but isn’t, to test if a student really knows the information.

You can use distracters in an escape room, too. For example, in the potion puzzle I set up, if I only included the ingredients needed for the potion in the room, it would have been pretty easy. There wouldn’t have been any ingredients the players needed to eliminate. So instead I doubled the amount of ingredients in the room, making the puzzle harder (and also a lot more fun to set up).

But distracters make a room harder, and I think it’s important to know your players when you’re using them. Another distracter I used in the room were some extra potion recipes in the spell book. They were meaningless to the game, and I tried to make that fairly clear. (They were labeled specifically to find hidden treasure or the lost city, and none of the ingredients they called for could be found in the room.)

I put the extra spells in for a few reasons. One, like I said, to increase the difficulty. But I also wanted the spell book to feel more “real,” and it wouldn’t be super realistic to have a spell book with only one potion in it, right? So I included the two distracter spells (it originally was going to be more).

For some players, I think this proved to be too hard. They saw the first potion in the book and focused for a long time on trying to make it (which was hard considering they didn’t have any of the ingredients). It took them longer than I thought it would for them to move on to something else (and they needed a hint).

4. Watch out for accidental red herrings.

A red herring in an escape room is something that misleads the players, something they might think is important but actually isn’t. Usually I try to stay away from them, but I accidentally left one in the room that one group got hung up on for a long time.

Inside the jewelry box where I hid the key to the closet, I left a bunch of jewelry I found from a thrift store to make finding the key more difficult. But one of the necklaces had a decorative key hanging from it. I didn’t even think about it when I left it in the room, but it was enough to distract one group of players. As soon as they found it, they searched all over for the thing it unlocked. I felt so bad because they were wasting their time!

5. Make sure players can’t cheat.

The most disappointing moment in hosting the room came when one group played, and they realized that with patience, they could slowly cut through the cable tie on the bottle even with the scissors locked shut. This was at the beginning of the game, and I quietly let them work on it for a while, thinking they wouldn’t be able to open it and would eventually move on to the actual game, but when I saw that they were about to open it, I stepped in and said no; not allowed. That didn’t feel super cool to have to do (interrupting the game and interfering with the realism), but I didn’t want them to miss the whole game! I don’t think they would have wanted to, either. But I should have been smarter in my game design and made sure there was no way the players could have cheated (probably by buying cable ties somewhere other than the dollar store).

6. If you’re hosting a room more than once, keep in mind how much setup the game will take.

I ended up running the room five times, and for almost everything, the setup was pretty easy. I had to rinse and refill the Insight Potion and put a few things back, but by far the hardest part to set up was the potion puzzle. Since I hosted the five games on four separate days, many of the potion ingredients had to be thrown out and then added again the next time the game was played (since they were perishable and I didn’t want them to spoil). By the last few rounds of the game, I decided not to throw them out but just store them in the fridge. Kind of fun(/annoying) because it left our fridge looking like this for a day.

9. Keep readability of numbers and letters in mind.

I always forget to do this. In my room, I had capital I’s that looked like lowercase L’s that looked like the number 1. I had 6’s and 9’s that got mixed up. For the older kids, this felt like it appropriately added to the difficulty. But for the younger kids, it felt too hard. I didn’t even think about it when I was putting the room together. So, as a tip, if you want to be extra clear, underline numbers and letters that might be confused with other numbers or letters, or use fonts that reduce confusion.

8. People still have fun.

I was worried when some groups played that they would have a bad time, because of various reasons (the potion was too gross to drink, I had to stop them from cheating, they got hung up on a red herring, one puzzle was just too difficult). But when everyone got out of the room, they all said what a great time they had and how much fun it was.

I’ve seen this in other escape rooms I’ve hosted, too. I feel like I keep chasing that one room where everything goes perfectly, but it rarely does. But even when it’s not perfect, more often than not, people have fun and make memories, and that’s what matters.

Resources you can download

Below you can download any of these resources separately right now.

If you want to get them all in one zipped file and sign up for my email list for when I release new escape rooms, click the button below. (You can still get them for free when you click the button, but you’ll also see a name-your-price option if you’re feeling generous. No pressure, though!)

…Or download separately:

• Clue map—This flowchart summarizes the whole flow of the room. A clue map is a handy thing to have on hand for any escape room host.
• Spell book (PDF)—The game-specific pages I made probably won’t fit into your escape room exactly, but you can use all the other pages, printing and binding as many as you want. You can write or hide your own clues on those pages or just use them as a prop.
• Circled numbers that match the blanks in the spell book (various sizes)—If you use a version of the spell book with the circled numbers, you can mark the clues that fill those blanks in the room with these circled numbers.
• “Come inside” sign for the glow-in-the-dark clue in the closet—If you’re using a glow-in-the-dark clue in a closet or somewhere dark, you can print and use this as a clue to your players to turn off the lights.
• An “escape room construction in progress” sign—I didn’t have this, but I totally would have used it, putting it outside the door the whole time I was setting up the game.
• Some “We escaped!” signs—After your players escape, it’s always fun to hold up signs and take a picture. These fit a wizard/magical theme, and some include some medieval-sounding vernacular. If some of it sounds random, it’s because it comes from one of our family’s favorite shows, Dwight in Shining Armor, which we highly recommend. A great show to watch for medieval/wizard/magic themed game/decoration/prop ideas, too!
• Mythical creature puzzles—You can print these stylized pictures of mythical creatures and make physical puzzles out of them. The small ones fit on the mini popsicle sticks that I used. The medium ones fit on standard sized popsicle sticks. The biggest ones fit on the giant popsicle sticks. You could also just cut the image up with scissors. You could write a message on the back, or have the image itself be the clue, like I did.
• Insight Potion label—To use this clue, print, cut, write a message on the back, and attach to a glass bottle or cup. There are several different sizes to accommodate different sizes of bottles.
• Mage script—An alphabet with the “mage script” symbols and the English letters they correspond to. You can also just download the font here.
• Mage script specific clue—The papers I used to make my “alpaca fluff” clue, if you want to use those specific letters.
• Potion ingredients list—A printable to make it easier to come up with fictitious potion ingredients. You can also see the online version here.
• Potion ingredient labels—You can print these, cut them out, and attach them to bottles or jars holding pretend potion ingredients. I printed them two-sided so the back also looked like old-style parchment paper.
• Do Not Touch sign—You can use this to mark any prop you want to call “magical” and don’t want players to touch (like something that sneakily disguises a HomePod).
• Audio riddle—This riddle gives a three-digit combination (285) that unlocks a pair of scissors, and works best if there are five dragon eggs somewhere in the room to hold. (On the page that opens when you click the link, right click the audio file and click “Save Audio As…”)
• Tips for players—A printable sheet of tips for escape room players (especially children).

Online purchases I made, or had made in the past (no affiliate links)

• Temporary wallpaper
• LED candle lights
• LED rainbow lights
• Leather photo album
• Push button lock
• Animal skeletons
• Cryptex
• Old-timey combination lock

Tutorials I used

• Painted dragon eggs, a tutorial from Becca Beach
• Fake “caviar”—edible fish-egg looking food that would make a great potion ingredient, from Sprinkle Bakes
• A video of a magic-themed escape room for adults, from the show Escape! with Janet Varney from Geek & Sundry. It gave me some ideas for the potion puzzle (and was fun to watch)

Credits

• Dragon drawings in the spell book were from Poci16 (here and here).
• Mukundwa K. was the voice actor who recorded the lock combination riddle.
• Dragon outline for the spell book cover
• Mage script font

What it is: A fun variation on normal dodgeball.

Best for: A big group of players in a gym, or a big room without breakables inside

What you need: Dodgeballs! We have been playing with these Rhino Skin balls, which are great because they have enough heft to travel well, but they’re made of foam and don’t hurt at all. You can play with other balls, too.

How to play: The name of this game pretty much says it all. It’s dodgeball, but instead of playing on teams, all players are playing for themselves.

To start, put all the dodgeballs on the floor in the center of the room. It’s good to have more balls than players. Have all players start the same distance away from the balls on the floor. Someone yells “Go!” and everyone rushes for the dodgeballs (make sure you don’t run into each other).

All players are free to grab as many balls as they want, then they usually back away from everyone pretty quickly.

Let’s follow one player, Nina, on her journey through the game. At “go,” Nina rushes forward and grabs two balls. Then she quickly backs away from the other players. According to the rules, before she’s allowed to throw a dodgeball at anyone, she has to touch one of the walls.

She does so, backing up until she feels the wall behind her. Then she is on the offensive, ready to strike. And on the defensive, too, because there’s a room full of players who could strike her at any moment.

Say Nina gets a good throw in and pegs Ralph. Ralph immediately sits down in place and tosses away any balls he was holding in his hands. Nina pauses for two seconds to smile and give an excited little hop, but it was two seconds too many. Another player named Duncan throws a ball that hits Nina in the arm. She is out.

Nina sits down right where she is, rolling away the ball she was still holding. At the same time, Ralph, whom Nina pegged a few seconds ago, gets to stand up and rejoin the game. That’s the main rule of the game: if the person who pegged you gets pegged and sits down, you can pop up and play again.

So Nina, who was pegged by Duncan, watches him closely. A few minutes later when a player named Kelly pegs Duncan and he has to sit down, Nina jumps up, grabs the nearest ball, and starts playing again.

Play continues like this. When you get pegged, you sit down. When the person who pegged you sits down, you get to stand up and keep playing.

When does it end? When there’s only one man standing. Essentially this means that the last player has personally pegged every single other player in the game. That player wins, and you can start a new round! Heads up, the rounds can get pretty long.

All the normal dodgeball rules apply. If you catch a ball, the person who threw it at you is out. Throwing balls above the shoulders is not allowed.

If you want to see a sample game, here you go! We played at our parents’ place, which includes a giant warehouse room perfect for playing dodgeball in. (Queen music is optional.)

Another name for the game that I just made up is Hunger Games dodgeball (pretty good though, right?). I like this game better than normal dodgeball because there’s a little less pressure; you’re not going to let any teammates down if you mess up because you don’t have any! Have fun playing!

Variations: For another spin off the classic game of dodgeball, try glow in the dark dodgeball! Or for little kids, try playing on a playground for fun.

So the exciting news: I wrote a book! I’m so excited!

I’ve always loved writing, and writing and publishing a book is something I’ve always dreamed of doing. Through the years I’ve found other outlets for my writing, like the games on this website and then the DIY escape room kits. And this book combines my love for writing with all the fun of escape rooms. It’s been an amazing opportunity!

Here’s the story. In late 2019, I was contacted by Skyhorse Publishing, asking if I wanted to write a how-to book for people making their own DIY escape rooms at home. Um, YES!

(Actually, my thoughts at the beginning alternated between a terrified “Me!? Write a whole book!? With photos?! I can’t do that!” to a super excited “I am going to write a BOOK! LET’S DO THIS!”)

It is definitely the biggest project I’ve ever done, with the writing, photography and images, and lots of clue and puzzle ideas in the book. But it was so fun to write! For months I was in total escape room mode, and anything and everything I came across in everyday life, my brain tried to twist into, “How could I use this in an escape room?”

So, more about the book: Basically I break down my whole process, everything I do and have learned from the DIY escape room kits I’ve made. I also provide lots of clue and puzzle ideas.

The hope is that, with this book, anyone with creativity and a desire can make an awesome escape room. Probably better than mine! I actually have a lot of restrictions when I write the escape rooms that I sell on my website: I have to use relatively inexpensive or easy-to-get items, I can’t use any specific units of measurement because some of my customers are from the US and some aren’t, my clues have to be printer-friendly, the rooms need to be easy to run multiple times, etc. You, writing your own escape room, would be free to use whatever props you want and customize it however you want! That’s what the book is designed to let people do.

The book will be released next Tuesday, March 16, in a little over a week. I’m so grateful for Skyhorse and for how great they were to work with, and for this opportunity they gave me. I hope that this book will be a great resource for many DIYers/escape room enthusiasts!

It’s Thanksgiving week! Let’s play a game called “gratitude.” What are you grateful for?

Right now I’m grateful for this amazing husband and father.

Specifically, I’m grateful for what a wonderful cook he his. Josh cooks dinner, like, every single night. I don’t think it’s necessarily that he loves cooking (though he’s great at it). I went through a period that made cooking really hard for me, and without complaining or even mentioning it, Josh picked up the slack, making sure our family was always fed.

Josh cooks so much that, around the dinner table the other night, our seven-year-old daughter must have thought she overheard something about me cooking. With her voice filled with genuine, innocent surprise, she asked, “Mom helped with dinner? What did she make?” When Josh and I started laughing, she must have realized something she said wasn’t accurate, so she tried to amend: “Thank you for dinner Dad, and Mom if she helped!” It was how sweet and genuine she was that made me and Josh laugh so hard.

Your turn! What are you grateful for?

I know this isn’t really a game, but I know it’s a great thing to do.

I’ve been thinking about this because on Friday, the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shared a message with the world on how we can have hope and healing through expressing gratitude. One of the things President Russell M. Nelson encouraged everyone to do was to use social media to share messages of gratitude for the next seven days.

You should join in! Since I’m not on social media very often, I wanted to share my message of gratitude here.

I hope you can recognize what you are grateful for and share it with others this Thanksgiving week!

Introducing the Alien Threat DIY virtual escape room kit!

As far as I know, there’s nothing quite like this out there. The game is made of five different rooms with 1 to 3 players each. Those five rooms have unique clues and custom websites (and really cool ones, too, thanks to my husband), and everyone needs to communicate and share information to beat the game. In addition to using websites, players do things like cut and manipulate paper, sculpt things out of clay, and solve problems on paper.

And, even better, you can still run this game as a traditional escape room with all players in one room. It works great that way. Of all my rooms, it’s the easiest to prep. And instead of a large PDF of instructions to read, for the first time I have a video tutorial that walks through the whole game for hosts.

This game has been really fun to work on and test, and I’m excited for others to play it, too! Also I’ve discovered that it’s apparently impossible for me to write a non-science fiction themed escape room – but I am trying to branch out! I have a fantasy game in the works, promise!

So go and download the game, just in time for Halloween! It’s so easy to prep, you can totally get the game ready in time for a fun and safe Halloween night with your family or friends, no matter how far away they are! Oh, but don’t worry, despite the alien theme, it’s G-rated and not scary.

What it is: A name-the-song-title trivia game where knowing song lyrics is key

Best for: Anyone in any group size! Or at least anyone old enough to identify songs based on their lyrics. Since my three-year-old can do this with Disney songs, I’d say the age range is pretty inclusive. It’s also an especially great game for music lovers.

What you need: Bits of song lyrics. I provide a huge list (free!). You can also think of your own.

How to play: Basically, one person reads a line or two from a song and everyone else tries to guess the name of the song. There are three ways you can play.

Version one: Free-for-all

Before you play, if you’re using my printable song lyrics, there is a particular way you can prepare them to make playing much easier. Just watch this video:

Now that your slips of paper are prepped, let’s play!

To play competitively, have everyone sit in a circle. Take turns drawing a song lyric from the cup. The person who draws the song lyric can peek at the answer, then reads (NOT sings) the lyric of the song.

As soon as the reader starts reading, everyone else is able to start guessing the name of the song. But once someone shouts a title out loud, they are not allowed to guess again that round. So, for example, say Elijah starts reading, “Tranquil as a forest but on fire within.” Then Juan might shout, “Be a man!” Elijah knows, however, that this is not the correct name of the song because he’s looked at the answer (it’s actually “Make a Man Out of You” from the Disney movie Mulan). So Elijah would tell Juan no and either continue reading or, if he’s read the whole line, wait for other people to guess. Juan is not allowed to guess again, even if he remembers the right name of the song.

If the reader wants, they can wait to look at the title of the song until after they’ve read the lyric out loud, if they want to give themselves a chance to guess (to themself).

Whoever guesses the actual song title (the one written on the paper) first gets to keep the paper slip. If there is a tie, see who can name the artist first. Then the next person in the circle draws a paper and reads it aloud. Whoever has the most paper slips at the end of the game wins! 

If no one can name the song, Elijah can sing the lyric or recite more of it, if he knows the song. He could also, if he wants, provide hints on the artist (like, “It was sung by Donny Osmond”) or song (like, “It’s from Mulan“). If there’s still no one who can name the song, no one gets the paper and play passes to the next player.

If you want to play not-as-competitively, let the reader sing the song lyrics if they wish. It’s easier to guess, but some people might enjoy getting to sing a little Also, when you’re playing not-so-competitively, the best part is when a song lyric is read, no one can remember the title, and everyone bursts into song as they try to remember what it’s called. You might not be able to stop your players from doing this!

Version two: One at a time

Another way you can play is have one person guess at a time. So, for example, if it were Juan’s turn, someone else (like Elijah) would read him the song lyric. Juan on his own would get a chance to name the title of the song. You could even give him a certain time limit like 10 seconds. If Juan can’t name the song in time, play can open up to other players. The first to name the song title (or, if there are ties, the song title and the artist) gets the slip of paper.

Version three: Single player

If you are on your own, you can still play this game! Just prepare the printable slips of paper as shown above (and REALLY make sure you don’t peek as you do). Then draw yourself a paper one at a time and try to guess the song! Unfold the paper to see if you’re right. It’s actually a pretty fun trivia game on your own. This would work great as a two-player game, too.

In my printable, there are four categories of songs: Disney songs, 80s songs, songs released before the 80s, and songs released after the 80s up to the present decade (which right now includes the 2010s). I tried to stick with top 40s or well-known songs so, if you are at least a little familiar with a certain era of music, hopefully you have a good chance. There are a few tricky ones thrown in there, though!

We played this at our last family reunion and it was a lot of fun. I printed off papers from each of the four categories and put them in separate cups. We did one round of each. Again, my favorite part was when everyone would burst into song (and possibly dance), as shown at the end of the video below:

Have fun playing (and singing!)

Free printable: Song lyrics and titles

Variations: Some similar games are Name that tune or Sing a song

So we’ve finally reached the end of the school year, and the end of our unexpected little adventure in homeschooling. My kids love their end-of-year parties so much and they were both super bummed to miss them. So I wanted to give them the best little at-home end-of-year-party I could. I wanted to try a game, something fun and new, so enter…the human piñata.

What it is: An activity involving candy and running. Don’t worry! No one gets whacked with a stick. Instead, kids chase around the “human piñata,” someone with tons of candy attached to their shirt.

Best for: Kids! And one grown-up who’s a good sport

What you need: A cheap or old t-shirt, individually wrapped candy, a hot glue gun, and a piece of cardboard; also, small buckets or bags for children to collect candy in

How to play: Before you play, prepare your shirt by gluing the pieces of candy all over it. There are some tips and techniques to this:

• Use a tiny dot of hot glue for each candy.
• Use a low-heat glue gun, or give the glue just a second to cool down before you stick the candies on.
• Try not to press the candies on too firmly; you want kids to be able to pull them off fairly easily.
• Slide a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt before you glue so the glue doesn’t stick to the opposite side.
• Use individually wrapped candies. Sealed candies like mini bags of Skittles work better than loose-wrapped candies like Smarties, Starbursts, Dum-dums, or Hershey’s kisses; the loose wrappers can easy tear or fall off.
• If you’re using small individually wrapped chocolates, especially if you’re playing outside, consider throwing the whole shirt (candies and all) into the fridge for an hour or so before you play, just to try to minimize the melting/smushing of the chocolates.

When your human piñata is set, dressed in their candy shirt and ready to run, say “Ready, set, go!” and the kids go crazy! Depending on the age and number of children you’re playing with, you might want to set up some rules (like no tackling the piñata). Make sure you have enough candy for all the children. For large groups, you might even have more than one human piñata. You also might want to give the children buckets or bags to collect the candy in.

This was a lot of fun for us! I think it’s just something so different than what kids usually do, it should create some memories.

Happy summer!

What it is: A simple two-player math game to review “greater than/less than” number sentences (Does anyone else’s child have to stop every single time they draw a greater than/less than sign so they can turn it into an alligator?)

Best for: A young child learning math and an older sibling or parent

What you need: A printable number chart and a crayon or maker

How to play: Start with a number chart on the table in front of both players. (The printable charts I included have four versions that go up to 100, 120, 150, and 200.) Player 1 (who can be named Mom) silently chooses a number on the chart and says, “Guess my number.” Player 2 (whose name can be Ben) then guesses any number, saying, “Is it 25?” Say Mom’s number is 56. She would say, “It is greater than 25.” Ben would then be able to use his crayon or marker and cross off any number on the number chart he knows the answer isn’t (so 25 and everything less than 25). Ben then gets another guess. If he says, “Is it 73?” Mom says, “It is less than 73.” Then Ben gets to cross out all numbers 73 and higher. Play continues like this, with Ben guessing and getting closer and closer until he finally guesses Mom’s number. Then Ben gets a turn to think of a number and Mom gets a turn to guess.

If you’re playing competitively, you can say that the person who had the most un-crossed-out numbers when they finally guess the right number wins. You could also keep track of guesses and say the winner is the one who gets the answer in the least number of guesses.

It’s a simple game, but it can be a good way to work in number practice and reasoning, too. Make sure to give your child a turn both guessing and thinking of a number.

If you want to use the printable number chart again and again, laminate it and use a dry erase marker. Happy playing!

(For you older people playing, my husband informed me of a strategy called binary search that greatly increases your odds of winning when it’s your turn to guess. Basically, if you’re playing up to 100, you guess 50 first. If you’e told the number is less than 50, guess 25. If you’re told the number is more than 25, guess 37. Basically keep cutting the un-eliminated numbers in half and you’ll get it faster. Just be careful not to crush the confidence of the younger players you’re playing with.) 

So, crazy time in the world, right? Lots of people are staying home, avoiding going out and trying to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. If you’re stuck at home, perhaps you’re trying to come up with things to do as a family or things for your kids to do to keep them busy? A while ago I posted about photo scavenger hunts, which is an activity where you’re given a list of things to find and take pictures of. While there is one at-home printable list in that post that would work great for right now, a lot of the rest of the lists are out-and-about items to take pictures of, like things at a shopping mall. Not many people are able to do that these days, are they?

So I made a few new around-the-house photo scavenger hunt lists! These would be great to print out and do around the house. You could give the lists to your kids along with a camera and have them complete them on their own, or you could take the photos together as a family. You could compete or play with extended family members or friends in another house. Just give the same list to your kids and to their friends or cousins, have them all take their photos, and then share and compare. You could make it competitive or not, perhaps giving awards to the most creative or best photos. You could make it a race where speed is important, but personally I think it would be more fun for the kids to take their time and set up some fun photos, going for quality over speed (because there’s nothing wrong if this activity takes up more time than less, right?)

A note on the lists: I made them extra long instead of short, so if there are some items on the list that don’t apply to your family, feel free to skip them or cross them out. You could even pick and choose and compose your own list, or tell your children to choose 10 items from the list to take pictures of.

I also put together a few different versions:

Main list

This list is great for older kids and has quite a few items on it (two pages’ worth). There are some items to take pictures of, but a lot of actions (like taking a picture of someone dancing) and a lot of things that kids would have to assemble or gather before they could take a picture (like making a stack of something or spelling something out in blocks). Caution, if they did everything on the list, there would be some cleaning up they would have to do. Maybe you can roll that into the activity and take even more time? There are also a few sneaky cleaning activities on the list itself, like a picture of an empty sink or a rug or carpet with neat vacuum lines on it. He-he.

Non-messy list

This list is the same as above, but with all of the “mess-making” items removed, so that kids won’t be so prompted to move things around the house or get things out.

One-player list

If you only have one child playing, they can do this list that doesn’t involve taking pictures of someone else doing something.

Little kid list

This list is geared toward younger children and things they would be able to do or have fun with (caution, there are some mess-making ones).

However you play, I hope you have fun! And stay safe and healthy!

What it is: Another simple card game involving numbers; a great way to teach math and have fun while homeschooling

Best for: Young children learning to add or compare the values of two- or three-digit numbers

What you need: A deck of cards with the face cards removed (or we’ve been playing with Rook cards with everything over 9 removed)

How to play: This game is a variation of War, the classic two-player card game where you divide the deck of cards evenly and players each turn over a card at the same time. The player with the higher cards wins both cards, and the person who wins all the cards first wins.

In this game, you have to do some math first. There are two main variations.

Addition

If you want to teach addition, have each player turn over two cards at once. Each player adds their two cards together, and the player with the higher sum wins all the cards. You could also add three cards together.

Place value

If you want to focus on place value, each player turns over two or three cards at once. Players can choose how to order their cards to create the largest number they can. The player with the largest number wins all the cards.

Other variations

You could combine the variations and have players create more than one two- or three-digit numbers and also add them together. If you do this, you might need more than one deck of cards because you’ll go through them more quickly.

If your child is more advanced, you could even play with multiplication. That might be a great way to teach that in multiplication, it doesn’t matter which order the numbers go in.

Winning

Oh, first, on the rare chance two players flip over the exact same cards, a war happens, which, in this game, simply involves players flipping over another two or three cards (however you’re playing), and the winner of that round gets all the cards from both rounds.

During play, have players put the cards they win in a separate stack off to the side.

If you want a shorter game, play only until players’ main stacks are gone. Then count up how many cards each player has in their stack of won cards, and the person who’s won the most wins.

If you want a longer game, after players’ main stacks are gone, they shuffle and reuse the cards they’ve already won, repeating each time they use up all the cards in the stacks in their hands. (However, I’ve found that, even though it’s disguised as a game, my kids are smart and realize it’s still math, and they’re usually not up for a long game.)

If you want to encourage even more math, have the child write down each math addition sentence or greater than/less than fact on paper.

Can you come up with any other variations? Are there any other games you’ve created using math? Please share!

Still looking for ways to engage with friends while you’re social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic? Here are a few ideas of games you can play over text message!

GIFs

Share funny GIFs with each other (this is a favorite in my family!). There are some keyboard extensions that let you add GIFs right from the Messages app. You can also use a site like Giphy.com to find humorous GIFs to share. You could take turns having people on the text message thread share the hardest/funniest/scariest/worst/best thing that happened to them that day and have everyone respond with a GIF. Someone could post a funny/random GIF and everyone could see who can write the best/funniest caption for it. What would you caption this?

You could tell everyone to post a GIF of an animal that starts with the first letter of their name, or a GIF that represents their most embarrassing moment. Check out any of the questions in the “Get to Know You” game of the Word Generator and see if they could be answered with a GIF! (You can go for humor over accuracy.) For example…

1. What’s the food or dish you can cook the best?
   

2. How patient would you say you are?
   

   

3. What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?
   

Photos

• Share time lapses of completing projects (folding lots of laundry, doing the dishes, painting a wall, crafts, etc.).
• Play a scavenger hunt: Have one person text the name of an object, and everyone else sends in a picture of it. Who can send one in first? The “Around the House” subject in the Word Generator could come in handy!
• Similar to captioning GIFs, take turns sending funny/random pictures and see who can think of the best caption. You could even vote on the best.

Trivia

Trivia is an easy game to play over text because there’s no dispute over who answered first. I have some Harry Potter trivia on my site, or you could use any trivia from any game you want! Below are some trivia facts about a few older Disney movies (in the style of a certain trivia game that I think is a lot of fun but doesn’t have a family-friendly enough name for me to mention). Text your friends one bullet point at a time. The first one to name the right movie wins, but if someone texts in an incorrect answer, they can’t guess again that round.

• I was released in 1960.
• I was filmed in Tobago.
• I’m an adventure movie.
• I star John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran.
• The 1812 novel I’m based on has inspired many other adaptations, including a 1960s science fiction TV series (and its 2018 reboot).
• Some of my main characters are Fritz, Ernst, Francis, and Roberta.
• My plot features a family, a shipwreck, an island, and pirates.
• Animals that were brought in for my filming include dogs, giant tortoises, monkeys, elephants, ostriches, zebras, flamingos, hyenas, anacondas, and a tiger.
• My initials are S. F. R.

Swiss Family Robinson

• I was released in 2000.
• I’m a fantasy comedy-drama film.
• At the end of my credits, there is an explanation for why the moon appears orange when it rises.
• I star Bruce Willis and Spencer Breslin (older brother of Abigail Breslin).
• I’m about an unhappy and unlikeable image consultant meeting a younger version of himself.
• My initials are T.K.

The Kid

• I was released in 1997.
• I star Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler, and Jeffrey DeMunn.
• I’m a comic science fiction film.
• One of my characters is Ulysses, a trained chimpanzee.
• In one of my scenes, the president of the United States and all of NASA joins in on a sing-a-long of the song “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”
• I’m about a computer programmer-turned-astronaut on the first manned mission to Mars.
• My initials are R. (sometimes written as R.M.)

RocketMan

• I’m an animated movie released in 1988.
• I’m a musical.
• I feature the voice talents of Billy Joel and Bette Midler.
• I’m about talking cats and dogs.
• I’m based on a Charles Dickens novel.
• My initials are O. & C.

Oliver & Company

• I was released in 1989.
• James Horner won an award for composing my music.
• I have two sequels and, for a while, had a Disney Parks attraction.
• I take place largely in one backyard.
• My main characters are four kids from two neighboring families (a teenage girl and her preteen brother and a teenage boy and his younger brother).
• One of my antagonists is a scorpion, and one of my heroes is an ant.
• John Candy was considered for one of my roles, which was instead given to Rick Moranis.
• The two families I’m about are the Szalinskis and Thompsons.
• My initials are H.I.S.T.K.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

• I’m a 1998 remake of a 1961 movie.
• Both me and my 1961 original movie feature product placement by Nabisco (in 1961, Fig Newtons; in 1998, Oreos).
• I took eight months, three weeks and two days to shoot.
• I was filmed in London and several locations in California.
• I star Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson, and, in her film debut, Lindsey Lohan.
• I’m about eleven-year-old identical twin sisters separated at birth and reunited at a summer camp.
• My initials are T. P. T.

The Parent Trap

• I’m a 1993 comedy sports film.
• I star Leon Robinson, Doug E. Doug, Rawle D. Lewis, Malik Yoba, and John Candy.
• I was John Candy’s last film to be released during his lifetime.
• Some songs on my soundtrack include “I Can See Clearly Now,” “Wild Wild Life,” “ Countrylypso,” and “Rise Above It.”
• I was filmed in Calgary and Jamaica.
• I’m loosely based on the true story of a bobsleigh team in the 1988 Winter Olympics.
• My initials are C. R.

Cool Runnings

If you have any other games you like to play with family and friends over text, please share!

What it is: A simple and educational math game

Best for: Young kids who can (or are learning to) add single-digit numbers, two to five players. It’s a great game for addition practice!

What you need: A deck of face cards (or we’ve been playing with Rook cards)

How to play: First, shuffle the cards and deal six cards to each player. Place the remaining cards in a stack face-down in the middle of the table.

In “Addition Go Fish,” players collect cards and try to form sets. In regular Go Fish, sets are formed by finding cards that are the same, but in this game, sets are formed by gathering cards that add up to a certain number. For example, we’ve been playing with Rook cards and searching for sets that add up to 15 (because the cards are values 1 to 14).

Players get sets by asking another player for a specific card. So, for example, say it’s Carson’s turn. One of his cards is a 9, so he knows if he gets a 6 he can add it to the 9 and get 15. He might say, “Annelise, do you have a 6?” If she does, she gives it to him, and Carson lays down his 6 and his 9 (now a set) in front of him. If Annelise doesn’t have a 6, she says, “Go fish,” and Carson draws a card from the deck in the middle of the table. Then it’s the next player’s turn. Players take turns until the deck is gone and no one can make any more sets. The player with the most sets wins.

Some rules and points:

• A set can consist of any number of cards. (For example, a 9 and a 6 could form a set. So could an 11 and a 4; a 7 and two 4s; or a 2, 4, 3, and 6.)
• Any time a player asks someone for a card and gets the card they asked for, the player gets to go again; they get another turn. This can happen more than once per turn; it happens as often as a player gets a card they asked for.
• Say Carson had a 9 and asked Annelise for a 6, she didn’t have one, she said “Go fish,” Carson drew a card, and he just happened to draw a 6. He can still lay down the 6 with his other card for a set, but he doesn’t get to go again.
• If for some reason a player asks someone else for a card and gets it but doesn’t yet form a set, the player still gets to go again. For example, say I have a 4 and I’m looking to make 15. I know I need an 11. But I’ve asked everyone for an 11 and I know no one’s got one. However, I have a high suspicion Carson has a 9 (because he’s been asking for a 6). I can ask Carson for his 9; then I’ll get a card and, even though I don’t yet have a set, I’ll get to go again, and now I can start asking for a 2 (because 9 plus 4 equals 13, and I would need 2 more to make 15). (Though the children playing this game most likely won’t be using that level of strategy, and maybe you won’t either, if you’re playing with kids like mine whose feelings get hurt if they lose by too much.)
• If a player has a set in their hand, they lay it down immediately; this can happen when they first get dealt cards, if someone gives them a card, or if they happen to draw a card that makes a set.
• If a player runs out of cards, they draw two from the deck and keep playing.
• Unlike regular Go Fish, if Carson asks for a 6 and Annelise has two of them, she only has to give Carson one.

If you want to play with regular cards, take out all of the Kings, Queens, and Jacks and only play with the cards with number values (1 to 9; Aces can be 1s). Play for sets that add to 10. You can add to sets of any number you choose. You could play with Uno cards. You could even incorporate subtraction, or create two-digit numbers and add or subtract those. What variations can you come up with?

What it is: A simple and kind of silly talking game

Best for: A small group, and kids older than about 5

What you need: Just your brains!

How to play: 

Leg of spider,
Tail of rat,
Turn your dog
Into a hat!

In this game, players take turns making up silly spells. The spells follow this format:

[Ingredient 1],
[Ingredient 2],
Turn your _____
Into [something silly that rhymes with ingredient 2]

The ingredients often, but not always, take the form:

[Body part] of [animal or plant]

So, some examples of spells…

Thorn of rose,
Foot of frog,
Turn your grandmother
Into a dog!

Tail of unicorn,
Eye of newt,
Turn your homework
Into a boot.

Grease of bacon,
Horn of goat,
Turn your bed
Into a boat!

There are two ways you can take turns. One player can make up a whole spell and then play passes to the next player. Or, what I personally think is more fun, four players make up a spell together. Player 1 says the first line, player 2 says the second line, and so on. Player 4 should be someone old enough to rhyme.

It can be a great game for kids to teach rhyming skills and encourage creativity.

So how about it? What spells can you guys come up with? Post in a comment below!

Disclaimer if magic runs in your family: The Game Gal is not responsible for any friends, family members, and/or pets being turned into items including but not limited to monsters, animals, and/or household objects.

I hope everyone’s staying safe and healthy during this coronavirus pandemic! With no immediate sign of the social distancing letting up soon in many parts of the world, hopefully games (and escape rooms) can continue to be a distraction and even an opportunity to bring friends and family closer together.

This week I’m offering my last escape room for free, Science Lab Breakout. Science Lab is my most popular escape room. It comes with two difficulty levels and is great for ages 12 and up and for groups of up to 10 players. Very versatile! Also, I never designed any of my escape rooms to be played virtually over long distances (not knowing there would be such a need for that!), but of all my escape rooms, Science Lab Breakout would be the easiest to attempt to do over video chat.

Once again, use the coupon code ESCAPECOVID to get the escape room Science Lab Breakout for free. Head over and grab it before April 13 when the deal ends. And stay safe and healthy!

How is everyone surviving COVID-19? While it’s a crazy time and there are a lot of adjustments for our family to make, I have enjoyed some things, like getting to spend more time together as a family and not feeling so busy. Games are one way to make the best of a difficult situation!

Here’s my third escape room offered for free to help parents and families find something new and fun to do while they’re stuck at home. Seafloor Escape is my newest escape room. Unlike Space Pirate Attack, the game doesn’t require a host to play a role in the room (though a host is still required to run the room and give hints). One of the downsides of Seafloor Escape is it’s designed for smaller groups (3 to 5 players ages 12 and up). But if you’re stuck at home with just your family members and not inviting others over to play, that might work out well for you!

Like usual, use the coupon code ESCAPECOVID to get the escape room Seafloor Escape for free. Head over and grab it in the next week before the deal ends and another escape room is offered. And stay safe and healthy!

I don’t know about you, but this COVID-19 pandemic has brought some major changes to our family. We’re practicing social distancing, seriously cutting down on our social time with friends and trips out of the house. My husband, three kids, and I are going to be spending a LOT more time at home (meaning…practically all our of time at home).

There have been a few times during this pandemic already that games have helped us out, providing a chance to laugh and play together, to do more than chores or jobs or worrying.

I want to do a roundup post on games of all sorts that could be good to play during this time. If any of you have games you’re playing or want to see posted, let me know! I’d love to hear about them! For now, here’s a giant list of games that might see you through COVID-19…

For so many of these games, a word list would come in super handy! My word generator has TONS! You could create whole new games with some of the word lists on the page. Check it out!

Games to play socially distanced outside

If you’re careful, you should be able to play these games with people outside your home if you stay far apart.

• Invisible frisbee – A physically active game where players can stand super, super far apart and don’t need to touch the same frisbee!
• Red light, green light – Good for little kids
• Animal signs – Very funny and kind of silly game; good for older kids and up; not physically active
• Monkey see, monkey do – Good for little kids and up
• Simon says – Good for little kids
• Photo scavenger hunt – This could spread over a large area. Use a list of photography subjects that don’t involve getting close to other people
• Charades – Play spaced apart appropriately
• Signs – Not very physically active; good for older kids and up
• Where’s Waldo? IRL – Played walking around in a big area
• Kick the can – This involves tagging players, but if you replace the tagging with “I see ____!” it could work
• Hit the dirt – A super physically active outdoor game for older kids or teens

Games to play with friends or family virtually

You could of course also play any of these games with people in your home.

Games you could play over video message (or Zoom or Google Meet or FaceTime or any video call)

• Pictionary
• Celebrities – A mix between catchphrase and charades
• Charades – Could work over video chat, too!
• In the manner of the adverb – A variation of charades
• Musical pictionary – Pictionary with a twist
• Say the same thing – A two-player cooperative game
  
• Mixtionary – Pictionary with a twist
• Reverse catchphrase
• Password – A four-person word game
  
• Catchphrase – Try to get players to guess a word by describing it

Games you could play over phone calls

(or over video message)

• Going on a picnic – Good for kids
• Alphabet chant – Good for kids
  
• Green glass doors – Good for any age
• Name that movie – Any age
• Name that tune – Any age
• Questions only – Any age
• Psychic – Any age
  
• Build a cabin in your mind – Any age; no competition involved
  
• Family trivia – Any age
  
• First letter, last letter – Very easy word game
  
• First word – Two-player talking game
  
• Fortunately, unfortunately – Storytelling game

Games you could play over text message

These are games that would also make great talking games, in person or over the phone.

• Movie title mash-up
• Photo scavenger hunt – This could be a fun thing to do over text; send each other pictures, and work cooperatively or competitively
• Get to know you questions
• Categories
• Would you rather
• This or that
• Tell a story
• Twenty questions
• Two truths and a lie
• Breakfast combo
• Actor/movie loop
• Three things
  

Games to play with family members at home

Paper games

• Pictionary – A classic, for any age that can draw; you just need something to write with and something to write on.
  
• Hangman – Another classic. Can be played with two or more players. Players must be old enough to spell.
• The dot game – Two players, for about ages six and up
• Draw your dream house – Any age, no competition involved
• Mirror drawing – Great for little kids, no competition involved
• Paper telephone – A funny group game for teens or adults
• Draw a monster – If you can draw, you can play!
• Tic-tac-toe
  
• Ultimat tic-tac-toe – A more challenging way to play that actually turns it into a strategic game
• 3-D triple-decker tic-tac-toe – A slightly more ridiculous way to play

Talking games

• Catchphrase – Classic. You just need a list of words
• No, because – Simple talking and guessing game
• Sing a song – Any age
• Telephone – Any age
• What if – For slightly older children to adults; can get quite funny

Active games

• Charades – Act out words and get players to guess. Classic!
• Garbage ball – You need wadded up trash and a room you don’t mind getting messy!
• Air-powered ping pong – You need straws, a ping-pong ball, and a flat table
• Marshmallow fight – You need lots of marshmallows!
• Castle – To be played outdoors at a playground, if you’re in an area where you’re able to
• Cake walk (or cupcake walk) – A simple activity you could use as a reward
• Capture the flag – An outdoor game if you have more players
• Flour bomb capture the flag – A fun variation to normal capture the flag. You could also just make and peg each other with flour bombs for fun!
• Duck-duck-goose – Any age, no supplies needed
  
• Freeze tag – Best played outside
• Freeze tag variations – They can get fun if you have enough players!
• Hide and seek – Best played outside
• Sardines (backward hide-and-seek) – Works great inside
• Hot or cold – Great for little kids
• Invisible frisbee – Yes, the frisbee is invisible, but it’s probably still best outdoors…
• Steamroller – For little kids
• Hot lava – Let’s get real; this is fun for ANY age
• Red light, green light – For little kids
• Floppy sock tag – One of our family’s favorites! You need long floppy socks; it’s quite active, hilarious, and most ages can participate
• Balloon stomp – Balloons and string required

Other games to play at home

• Cleaning games – These definitely might come in handy if you have young kids…
• Tape on the nose – Very silly, good for any age
• Photo scavenger hunt – Very adaptable!
• Don’t Eat Pete – Fun, easy little kid game
• Claps – No supplies needed, for older kids to teens, not really much competition involved
• The cup game – Also for older kids to teens, also not much competition involved
• Rock-paper-scissors
• Speed Scrabble – For teens to adults
• Animal signs – Tweens to adults; no supplies needed, and it’s fun!
• Clothespins – A game that could fill a whole day
• I spy – Great for young kids, also very adaptable
• Marshmallow toss – You need marshmallows and a muffin tin
• Monkey see, monkey do – No supplies required, but best with a slightly larger group
• Mystery gift pass – Could make a fun reward activity for kids of any age
• One hundred – Fast-paced, easy, and fun
• Simon says – Great little kid game
• Spoons – Face cards and spoons required
• The candy bar game – Some supplies required, but it can be a lot of fun! Great for kids, too
• The human knot – Need a slightly larger group
• Skittles – If you have a lot of Skittles…
• Murder (winks variation) – Tweens to adults, slightly larger group
• Murder (hand-squeezing variation) – Tweens to adults, slightly larger group
• Walk on the ceiling – Any age kid, and kind of a one-player game
• Penny in the flour – Can make a trivia game more exciting!
• Eat a donut from a string – A funny challenge game
• Water in the face – A guessing game
  
• Alliteration adventure – A type of versatile activity
• Who am I? – A guessing game; can be good for kids who can read
• Memory – Any age, various supplies required
• Play doh blow darts – Great for kids!

And finally, games NOT to play right now

• Mummy
• The toilet paper game

I’ve had lots of downloads of the last escape room I offered for free during the COVID-19 pandemic, which made me happy! Today I’m offering a new escape room for free for a week: Space Pirate Attack.

Space Pirate Attack is different from Color Crisis; it’s for teens and adults, and it’s my hardest adult room. It’s also pretty imaginative and has the host play a role in the room, but it doesn’t require the Internet. Use the discount code ESCAPECOVID to get it for free!

I’m offering these escape rooms for free because I know so many people are sheltering at home and distancing themselves socially, and if I can provide something fun to break up the monotony, I’ll feel like I’m helping, even in a small way.

I’d love to hear what you think or what you’re doing to survive quarantine for COVID-19. There are tons of other free games and printables on my site if you’re looking for more to do!

Follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook to stay updated on when I offer the next discount code. You can also sign up for my email list (look in the sidebar). And I hope you all stay safe (and sane) during this crazy time!

What it is: A kind of silly team relay game

Best for: A large group and an area with plenty of space

What you need: Two to four hula hoops

How to play: First, divide your players into teams of 8 to 15 (ish) players. Have your teams stand in a long line holding hands. Each line of players should be parallel to the others.

Give each team a hula hoop. Start the hula hoop at one end of the line, handing it to the player on the end. At “go,” the players must pass the hula hoop all the way down the line of players. The trick is, since they’re holding hands, they’ve got to do it by shimmying and wiggling their bodies through the hula hoop–no grabbing of the hula hoop allowed.

Once the hula hoop reaches the end of the line, players must return it, passing it back the other way. The first team to return the hula hoop to the original starting player wins!

It’s a simple game, but would make a great relay as part of a larger event. It’s funny to watch, too!

Wow, what a crazy time in the world! The COVID-19 virus has affected all of us, sometimes in drastic ways. As far as me and our family, my kids are out of school and we’ll be spending a lot of time at home together, as I’m sure many families will.

I hope this website can be a good resource to anyone stuck at home looking for a way to entertain or pass the time. Being intentional about the time we spend together as families may even turn a life-changing experience like this into something positive: we can create fun memories and laughter together as we play and spend quality time.

One of my favorite game types is an escape room, a kind of immersive puzzle where players are locked in a room and have to work together to escape. There are all different types of escape rooms; you can go places and pay to play, you can download kits, you can buy boxed games. As I was thinking about COVID-19, I realized that a DIY escape room at home might be just the thing to do if you’re stuck at home. Escape rooms are fun, they use teamwork, and they’re out of the ordinary.

I write and sell DIY escape room kits. They take some reading and prep work, but the goal is that for the players, the escape room feels like a commercial escape room does. During this crazy time when games might save our sanity and even bring us closer together, I want to give away my escape room kits for free.

Over the next four weeks, I’ll be offering a coupon code to get each of my escape rooms free of charge. Today I’m starting with Color Crisis, an escape room written specifically for children ages 8 to 12 (but it can be fun for even adults, too!) If you visit the page and click the Buy Now link, use the discount code ESCAPECOVID to download the kit for free. It will be on sale for the next week, and then I’ll switch to another kit.

Follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook to stay updated on when I offer the next discount code. You can also sign up for my email list (look in the sidebar). And I hope you all stay safe (and sane) during this crazy time!

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and twice a year the leaders of the church gather to deliver spiritual messages to the 15 million members worldwide and to the whole world. At the head of our church we have a prophet, just like the prophets in the Bible, like Noah or Moses, and apostles, just like the twelve apostles in Jesus’ time. (You can find out more here.)

The weekend of spiritual messages is called General Conference, and it’s a wonderful time in our house. We prepare in advance and we try to make it fun and special for our kids (since there’s 8 to 10 hours of instruction, which our kids may or may not make it through…) And to prepare, I’ve made some printables that I now share with you!

General Conference Apostle Trivia

Part of the preparation we like to do with our kids is help familiarize them with the prophets and apostles of the church who will be speaking to us. To help with that this year, I made a little trivia game. It would be great to play in seminary classes or with youth of the church, too. Just download and print; instructions are in the printable.

☆ Download General Conference Apostle Trivia

General Conference Bingo

Another thing we try to do during General Conference is to keep our kids quiet during the sessions, or, even better, keep them paying attention. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has some great material for kids during General Conference, like coloring pages and note-taking packets. This year I also made a General Conference Bingo board (which might be just as fun–and useful–for keeping adults engaged).

To play, print each person a copy of the blank board. Before Conference, everyone can use each empty square to write something that might happen during General Conference: a speaker, a topic, the color or pattern of a tie, a song or hymn, whatever you and your family/friends want. (Depending on how competitive you are, you might want to preview each other’s boards and make sure you all approve of each other’s choices.) During Conference, watch and listen carefully, and when something happens on your board, mark it off! First player to five in a row, or blackout, or however you want to play wins (but everyone who watches Conference is a winner!)

☆ Download General Conference Bingo

General Conference is this weekend. And anyone can watch it! It’s broadcast online. If you’re interested in wonderful messages about Jesus Christ, you should check it out! To fellow members of the Church, I hope you enjoy your Conference weekend!

Did you know it’s Harry Potter’s birthday today? We are well aware of it at our house. This summer I read my older two the first three Harry Potter books and they’ve been hooked. All of us together and both of them individually have read the books multiple times. We’ve been doing all sorts of Harry Potter play and pretend.

They’re even going to be Harry and Hermione for Halloween this year (we’re going to dress up our two-year-old as Dobby), and their costumes came in the mail the other day. Now my son wears his robe and his glasses all day and insists we call him Harry. It’s fine by me, though. He’s actually very polite and grateful when he’s pretending to be Harry Potter. He keeps saying things like, “The Dursleys would never let me do that” and “I can’t believe how nice everyone is here.”

One of my kids’ favorite Harry Potter activities is Harry Potter trivia. And my son is pretty good! He’s stumped us sometimes. So I came up with my own super hard Harry Potter trivia that I’m happy to share with you! There are only questions from Books 1 and 2, but there are two versions, one with just the questions and one with the questions and the answers. So quiz yourself or quiz your friends, and let me know below your score! (Or let me know if I missed anything or got an answer wrong.)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Book 1) Trivia
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Book 1) Trivia Answers
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) Trivia
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) Answers

Good luck, Harry Potter fans!

I’m excited to release a new escape room today! It’s called Seafloor Escape! Go check it out!

This one has been in production for a long time, folks. I first tested it one and a half years ago. It’s gone through a lot of changes, but I think that just makes it more polished than ever and I’m really excited about the final product!

If you’re familiar with my other escape rooms, Seafloor Escape is more like Science Lab Breakout than Space Pirates. Like Science Lab Breakout, Seafloor Escape uses the Internet and doesn’t require a host to play a role in the room. In fact, there’s a fun little Easter egg from Science Lab Breakout in this new room! I hope you enjoy it!

Feel free to contact me with questions through comments on this post or the main post, or feel free to email me. Thank you for your time!

What it is: A dress-in-disguise mall scavenger hunt modeled after the seek-and-find children’s books (which, I never knew until now, are originally the British Where’s Wally? books, only Where’s Waldo in the US and Canada. Who knew?)

Best for: Large groups divided into teams of 3 to 5 players; it would be a perfect church youth activity

What you need: A shopping mall and volunteers to dress up in disguise, stickers or stamps for each volunteer, and a paper and clipboard for each team of players

How to play: You’ll need to do some prep work before the actual event. In advance, find five to ten volunteers (like adult leaders) to dress up in disguise and walk around the mall. If you’re playing true to the name of the game, have them dress up as Waldo from the Where’s Waldo books, or with pieces of a Waldo costume, like thick-rimmed glasses, a red and white beanie, a red and white striped shirt, and a walking cane.

The night of the activity, give your Waldos and/or Wendas each a sheet of stickers or a stamp and ink pad. Then have them split up and walk around the mall. I would require them to stay either in the main hallways or in small stores right off the main hallway, stores players could quickly glance in. (So no department stores.)

On the night of the event, divide up your players into teams of 3 to 5. Give each team a clipboard and a piece of paper.

Gather all players together in the food court of the mall and explain the rules. They will walk around the shopping mall and try to spot the Waldo characters in disguise. Depending on how good your Waldo costumes are (meaning if they’re not very good), you might want to tell your players the names of the volunteers dressed as Waldo to make it easier for them. You should also tell the players how many Waldos there are. The teams have the goal of spotting all the Waldos in disguise and getting a stamp or sticker from each. You could also have teams take a picture with each Waldo. At the end of a predetermined time, like one hour, all teams will meet back in the food court. The team with the most stickers or stamps wins!

So then teams split up and do their hunting! The Waldos are free to walk around the mall. When a team approaches them, they hand out a stamp or sticker. The team with the most stickers or stamps, or the first team to return with all of them, wins!

Variations: Since the Where’s Waldo books aren’t as popular as they used to be, you might want to use another disguise. I would keep the disguises on a theme. Here are some other ideas. You could have your volunteers:

• Wear different brightly-colored wigs
• Dress up as characters from a movie like Harry Potter
• Dress up as super heroes (either real or made up)
• Wear all one color from head to toe

What other ideas can you come up with?

This game could create some great photo ops, so be sure to take advantage of them!

What it is: A fun activity where you shoot play-doh darts around the room! It’s a huge mess! So why wouldn’t it be fun?

Best for: A small group of kids at home

What you need:

• Play-doh in different colors
• A rolling pin
• Drinking straws
• A big bowl
• Somewhere to play with hard floors (NOT carpet)
• Recommended: A broom

How to play: First, let’s discuss the art of making play-doh blow darts.

Slightly old, hard play-doh actually works really well for this. As you’ll be throwing away the play-doh after you play, this is a great way to get rid of that multicolored mixed-together play-doh that no one wants to play with anymore.

First form your play-doh into a ball, then roll it flat with a rolling pin to about a quarter-inch thickness.

Take a drinking straw and press it straight down into the play-doh. Give the straw a little twist, lift it up, and, voila, there should be a little circle of play-doh stuck into the end of it.

Then all you do is blow into the other end of the straw and – zing! – out pops the little circle of play-doh and flies across the table. What fun! (If your play-doh doesn’t pop out easily, try rolling it a little thinner.)

So once everyone gets their blow dart making-and-shooting technique down, it’s time for a game!

Give each player their own color of play-doh. (If you’re like us with a well-worn play-doh supply, these colors might be varying shades of brown and gray.) Set up a bowl in one corner of the room. I recommend in the corner so the play-doh darts are contained and don’t end up all over the house.

Start a timer or play some music and tell players, “Ready, set, blow!” Everyone shoots play-doh darts as quickly as possible, aiming for the bowl. At the end of the timer or when the music stops, all players stop shooting.

Dump the play-doh darts in the bowl out, sort them by color, and count them. The player with the most darts in the bowl wins!

You could count each player’s darts, keep track of their points, and play for multiple rounds.

You could set up multiple bowls of varying sizes and assign different point values to each one.

You could give more than one player the same color of play-doh and play with teams.

You could get rid of the bowl entirely and just shoot play-doh darts at each other!

They don’t travel far and they’re perfectly harmless. It’s perfect for small kids sitting around a kitchen table.

Now, what about the gigantic mess, you ask? If you can, keep the play-doh contained to one area of the room, and shoo everyone out of the room as soon as the game is over. Keep everyone out of the room in order to keep the play-doh from getting smushed or spread around. Then just give it a few hours until the play-doh dries up and sweep the little dry play-doh bits into the trash. When they’re dry, they clean up really well.

Have fun!

What it is: An activity where you throw marshmallows at each other!

Best for: A larger group, any age

What you need: 

• Marshmallows! The big kind works best.

How to play: Really I can’t make it much simpler: throw marshmallows at each other!

Marshmallows are fun because they’re harmless, and yummy. Also relatively easy to clean up. You can play indoors or outdoors.

The first time I remember playing, we were on a family reunion and I saw my mom emptying some bags of big marshmallows into a tray. I went up to ask her what she was doing and she threw a marshmallow in my face! Once I got over the initial shock, I laughed as everyone joined in, throwing marshmallows all over the room. It was pandemonium. And a lot of fun.

Just watch out for players who try to stick the marshmallows in their mouths or bite them in half before throwing them, because then the marshmallows get sticky.

You can also play with mini marshmallows and DIY marshmallow guns made of PVC pipes. Here’s a tutorial I found online. That works well for a big group outside and is a ton of fun. Again, watch out for those people who stick the marshmallows in their mouths before shooting them, resulting in sticky marshmallow wads stuck to everyone’s clothes and hair. (Ew!) That might be against the rules for you, your call.

So grab a bag of marshmallows and organize a marshmallow fight!

What it is: It’s not the card game – it’s a quiet game of perception and memorization

Best for: Any size group, with players old enough to write

What you need:

• Paper and a writing utensil for everyone
• A tray or flat area to display items
• Items to display and memorize. It works great if there’s a theme to follow, like items from a diaper bag if it’s a baby shower, or jewelry and accessories for a princess themed party.

How to play: First, assemble your items. The number of items you have will vary depending on the age of your players and how hard you want the game to be. Let’s pretend you’re playing the game at an art themed birthday party. You might gather items such as these:

• An orange crayon
• A blue marker
• Watercolor paints
• Big paint brush
• Small paint brush
• Sheet of paper
• Pencil
• A red colored pencil
• Eraser
• A purple bottle of paint
• Pencil sharpener
• One paper towel
• A piece of green construction paper
• A yellow pipe cleaner
• Two googly eyes

Seat all your players in a room. Give each a piece of paper and something to write with. Then bring out your items. It’s handy if you have them on a tray or a table. Set a timer and give your players a set amount of time to study the objects. Depending on the age of your players and the number of your objects, this might be one minute, three minutes, or even 30 seconds.

When the timer ends, remove all the items from your players’ view. If they’re on a table or on the floor, you could throw a towel or sheet over them.

Set another timer and give your players a chance to write down as many of the items they can remember. Again, you could give them one minute, five minutes, or whatever you think is appropriate.

After everyone has had a chance to write down as many items they can remember, show the items one by one. Anyone who wrote down the displayed item gets a point. You can offer two points to players who remember something about the item, too; for example, if they wrote “orange crayon” instead of just “crayon.”

After players tally up their own points, ask things like, “Who remembered at least 10 things? Who remembered at least 12? Who remembered more than 15?” until you narrow down enough players and eventually find the player or players who remembered the most. They get a prize!

It’s a great shower or party game. Have fun!

What it is: Basically a mother/daughter version of the Newlywed game where mothers and daughters are quizzed to see how much they know about each other. Perfect for a mother/daughter activity.

Best for: A group of 4 to 10 mother/daughter pairs

What you need:

• The printable game (included below for free)
• Pens or pencils

How to play: One person will need to host the game and print the file beforehand. The included printable has purple (player) pages and orange (host) pages. Print one copy of the purple pages for each mother/daughter pair. Print one copy total of the orange pages.

After you print, cut all the pages in half. Each half-sheet represents a round. On odd rounds (1, 3, 5, 7), daughters silently answer questions about themselves and mothers are quizzed aloud on the answers. On even rounds (2, 4, 6, 8), mothers silently answer questions about themselves and the daughters are quizzed aloud.

You will probably want to play at least one odd round and at least one even round. You can read through all of the rounds and choose your favorites ahead of time, or play them all!

After you’ve printed, chosen your rounds, and organized your papers, invite your players to start!

Starting with Round 1, give each daughter a copy of the purple Round 1 half-sheet. Make sure they write their names at the bottom, and have them silently write the answers to the questions (moms, no peeking!).

After the daughters fill out their questionnaires, collect them and invite all the mothers to sit at the front of the room. Use the host’s Round 1 page to ask the mothers the corresponding questions to the daughters’ questionnaire.

First, read the first question to the first mom and have her answer out loud. Then read her daughter’s answer out loud. If the mom’s answer matches her daughter’s answer, put a check mark next to the question. The mother gets a point. Move on to the next mom until all moms have had a chance to answer question one. Then move on to question two, and repeat until you’ve gone through the whole round.

The mother who scored the most out of the 6 points possible in the round wins the round and a point for her and her daughter.

Then move on to Round 2. Give the purple Round 2 questionnaires to the mothers and have them quietly write in their answers. Collect them, invite the daughters to the front of the room, and ask each daughter each question, one at a time. The daughter with the most correct answers (answers that match her mother’s answers) wins the round and gets a point for her and her mother.

After you’ve played all the rounds you wish to play, the mother/daughter pair who’s won most of the rounds wins and gets a prize!

Printable: Here’s the printable you need to play the game!

Variations: Instead of declaring a winner after each round, add up all of a pair’s points, mother’s and daughter’s, from all rounds. The pair with the highest overall points wins.

You can also declare a winner within each pair – whoever got the most questions right, the mother or the daughter, wins (and the loser needs to pay more attention when their mother or daughter talks).

I also have basically the same style of game for couples and for bridal showers.

What it is: A perfect bridal shower version of the Newlywed game – a game to test a bride on how well she knows her fiancé before their wedding. 

Best for: A bridal shower

What you need:

• The included free printable
• A bride
• A groom
• Time in advance to get questions answered from the groom

How to play: First, print the included printable. Before the shower starts, give the groom-to-be the first three pages of the printable. Either circle the questions on page 1 you want him to answer, or let him choose his favorites. Aim for at least 10 questions. Pages 2 and 3 have space for him to write his answers.

After you’ve collected the groom’s answers and during the bridal shower, have the bride sit at the front of the room. Read her the questions on page 4 of the printable that correspond with the numbered questions the groom answered. Have her give her answers out loud, then reveal what her fiancé said. She gets a point if their answers matched.

Remind the bride that she’s trying to give the answers her fiancé would give, not necessarily the answers she thinks are true. For example, for the question, “Who liked who first, your fiancé or you?”, the bride and groom might have differing opinions on this particular subject. Maybe according to him, she liked him first, but for the her it’s vice versa. If the bride wants a point, she should make sure to answer with what her fiancé would say, not necessarily what she thinks is correct.

It’s a fun bridal shower activity because it lets everyone learn more about the bride and groom and their story (and who doesn’t love that?). It gives some structure and will hopefully lead to some laughs. So have fun, and tell the bride and groom congratulations from me!

Printable: Here’s the free printable!

Variations: Besides the version for couples, I also have a version of the game for mothers and daughters. Have fun!

What it is: A game to test how well husbands and wives know each other

Best for: A group of husbands and wives of any age, whether they’re newlyweds or celebrating their 50th anniversary!

What you need: 

• The free printable included with this post
• Pens or pencils

How to play: One person will need to host the game and print the file beforehand. The included printable has blue (player) pages and orange (host) pages. Print one copy of the blue pages for each player. Print one copy total of the orange pages.

After you print, cut all the pages in half. Each half-sheet represents a round. You can read through all of the rounds and choose your favorites ahead of time, or play them all!

After you’ve printed, chosen your rounds, and organized your papers, invite your players to start!

Let’s start with the husbands. Give each husband a copy of the blue (player) Round 1 half-sheet.

Make sure they label it with their name (that’s important). Have them quietly write in their answers. Don’t let the wives peek!

As the host, gather the husband’s filled-out questionnaires. Then seat the wives at the front of the room.

Using the host’s corresponding Round 1 sheet, read the first question out loud to the first wife.

She gives an answer out loud, no hints allowed. After she answers, read her husband’s answer to the corresponding question out loud. If the answers are the same, give the question a check mark and the wife gets a point.

Repeat with the second wife. After each wife has answered the first question, repeat with the other four questions.

At the end of Round 1, count up each wife’s correct answers. The wife with the most correct answers wins the round and a point for her and her husband.

Then switch spots – the wives will write the answers on a blue (player) page. You can either repeat Round 1 and ask the wives the same questions, or move on to a new round. After the wives write their answers, collect the sheets, invite the husbands to the front of the room, and use the corresponding host’s page to ask the husbands the corresponding questions out loud. Husbands get a point for each correct answer, and the husband with the most points at the end of the round wins the round and a point for him and his wife.

After you’ve played all of the rounds you wish to play, the couple who has won the most rounds wins the game!

Printable: Here’s the free printable to grab! 

Variations: Instead of declaring a winner after each round, add up all of a couple’s points, husband’s and wife’s, from all rounds. The couple with the highest overall points wins.

You can also declare a winner within each couple – whoever got the most questions right, the husband or the wife, wins (and the loser needs to pay more attention when their spouse talks).

I also have a version of the same game to play at bridal showers and one for mothers and daughters.

What it is: A way to play pictionary that works best with specific categories, like idioms or, in this post, movie titles. It’s not as competitive as regular pictionary and takes a lot more creativity!

Best for: Older players (teens or above) because of the difficulty involved

What you need: 

• A wipe-off board and dry erase marker, a chalkboard and chalk, or a paper pad and marker; basically a surface to draw on that all players can see

How to play: Just like in regular pictionary, players take turns drawing silently, trying to get other players to guess a word or phrase.

In what I’ve dubbed “mixtionary,” it works better if players come up with their own ideas of what to draw and if you don’t have a timer. You might not even want to keep score. It’s just a fun way to see who can creatively get others to guess a word or phrase in a challenging way, because instead of drawing any picture, your challenge is to illustrate the individual sounds of the phrase, mixing pictures to put together the entire phrase.

So in this post, I’ll use movie titles as an example. (Also, mostly family/PG movie titles.) Can you guess this one?

If you need a hint, cows say MOO, and the picture of the lawn mower is pointing to the LAWN…

Mulan!

See how the pictures make up the whole phrase? Here’s another one:

In this example, you can see how letters can come into play. Considering how difficult this game can be, I recommend allowing letters (instead of in regular pictionary where letters are usually against the rules).

In this game, use a bubble letter, like the first E, to indicate that the letter should be pronounced individually, like “eee.” Use normal letters, like the “er,” to indicate that the letters should be read instead of pronounced individually, like the end of the word, oh, “Potter,” for instance.

Want another? (Excuse my sloppy drawing by the way; this is my go-time pictionary drawing style. No time for fancy pictures!)

I’m not going to give away that one… How about some more?

In this last example, notice how you can use more complex equations to dissect sounds. So you’ve got your first picture, then a little equation, a picture of the EARTH minus the H sound (leaving you with “urt”). Plus the last picture… Can you guess the movie title?

This one’s a little tricker. Remember, a bubble letter means you pronounce the letter, like “ess.” A regular letter means you read the sound the letter makes. Another point is that if there’s a plus sign or a minus sign, it indicates that those two sounds are part of the same word. But if there’s no plus or minus sign between pictures, that indicates a word break. So in the above example, since there’s no plus sign after the T, the first and second lines are separate words.

How about one more?

See how the game works? You can play with movie titles, book titles, maybe even idioms. Since you won’t be able to illustrate all movie titles this way, it’s best to let players think of their own, or if you have a big list (like my word generator provides) allow skipping until players find one they feel like they can illustrate.

OK, finally, to end, here’s one last hard one that, I admit, is a big stretch and maybe nigh unto impossible, because it’s kind of an obscure movie to begin with. Guess it correctly in the comments, or guess all of the previous pictures, and I’ll give you a free escape room kit from my site!

(Here’s your one clue. See how there’s no plus or minus signs? That means it’s three separate words.)

Variations: For more variations on the classic game of pictionary, try musical pictionary or pictionades. If you’re looking for lists of movies or other pictionary words, check out my printables page or the word generator.

Good luck, and happy playing!

What it is: An open-ended alphabet themed activity

Best for: An empty afternoon or day to fill up

What you need: It depends!

How to play: This is just a kind of silly way to throw a themed party or day. You basically choose a letter, then do as many activities, eat as many foods, and say as many words that start with that letter that you can think of! 

So if you chose O, you could:

• Eat oranges, okra, and onion rings
• Fold origami
• Listen to opera music
• Play Operation

And if you choose P, you could…

• Eat popcorn, peaches, and pears
• Make popsicles
• Play Parcheesi
• Paint pictures of pigs
• Listen to music by Phillip Phillips

That’s it! A great activity for young kids learning the alphabet. My preferred letter would be C so I could eat chocolate. Or I for ice cream…ah, I can’t decide!

If you have any letter/activity/food combo ideas, I’d love to hear them

What it is: A variation of freeze tag

Best for: A large group (at least 8 players)

What you need:

• A big, open playing area

How to play: Choose one or several people to be It – the ones who run around and try to tag the rest of the players. Let’s say June and Bobby are It. They stand still, close their eyes, and count to 10, giving the rest of the players a chance to run and scatter. When Bobby and June are done counting, they open their eyes and spring into action.

Bobby and June run around the playing area, trying to tag (touch with one hand) as many people as possible.

Say Bobby tags Raoul. As soon as he does, Raoul has to freeze, standing still in one spot, and put his hands above his head and lean slightly to the side, like this:

See how he’s making roughly the shape of a banana?

Then Raoul stands still and waits for someone to unfreeze him.

In banana tag, Raoul is unfrozen by two teammates, not just one, who come up to either side of him, each grab an arm, and pull his arms down – like Raoul is a banana they’re peeling, get it? Then Raoul is unfrozen and he can run around again, until he’s tagged again.

The game ends when Bobby and June have frozen all other players. I like banana tag more than regular freeze tag because having to have two players unfreeze a frozen player (or, in this case, peel a banana-ed player) makes the game a little harder for the players (and a little easier for It).

Have fun!

Variations: Freeze tag, and the even sillier variant, freeze tag with all your limbs bent or all your limbs straight. Another type of tag is photo tag.

Best for: Group of 8 to 12ish.

What you need: A group of people and a room they can all sit in. It’s harder to play this one on the floor, so it’s best if everyone’s sitting on chairs or couches arranged in a circle.

How to play: Before you start, everyone who’s playing needs to choose a sign—something distinct enough that it’s clearly theirs, but (usually) inconspicuous and silent. For example, let’s say Mike, Lori, Ben, and Kate are choosing their signs. Mike’s is pulling his right ear. Lori’s is touching her nose with her finger. Ben’s is making a “peace” sign with his hand. And Kate’s is a wink.

Next, choose someone to be It (this time it’s Ben). Ben stands up in the middle of the circle and picks someone in the circle (like Kate) to have the Sign. Then he closes his eyes. The point of the game is to pass the Sign around the circle without Ben knowing who has it. Kate has the Sign now. To pass it to someone else, she has to make their sign to them. So, what if Kate wants to pass the Sign to Mike? She’ll make sure Mike’s looking at her and then pull her right ear (remember, that’s Mike’s sign). For Mike to officially receive the Sign, he has to acknowledge to Kate by pulling his ear. As soon as Mike makes his sign, he has the Sign. Until then, Kate still has it. Make sense?

So that’s how the Sign is passed around the circle. Now remember that Ben closed his eyes? After he counts to ten, he opens them, and by then Kate will have passed the Sign on to someone else (and maybe the Sign has been passed a few times), so Ben doesn’t know who has it. Since he’s standing in the middle of the circle, his back is always turned to part of it, allowing the players to pass and receive the Sign when he’s not looking. But Ben can be quick. Let’s say he catches a glimpse of Lori making her sign (touching her nose with her finger) and he guesses that she just accepted the Sign. Ben can then ask, “Lori, do you have the Sign?” She has to respond truthfully, and then Lori is the new It. She stands in the middle of the circle, picks a new person to start with the Sign, and closes her eyes to count. If Lori (or any other It) guesses incorrectly, the game keeps going. She can guess as many times as she wants. So that’s how the game is played.

A few things to remember while playing signs: First, make sure that everyone remembers everyone else’s signs. It’s okay if people forget momentarily, but if none of the other players can ever remember Ben’s sign, they’ll never pass the Sign to him, and that would be sad. So it might be good to review everyone’s signs every once in a while. Another thing, sometimes the game can get confusing. If you’re not paying attention, it could be easy to lose track of who has the Sign, or multiple people could think they have it. At that point, it’s best to pause the game and have whoever’s It pick a new person to start and then count to ten. Finally, you can get pretty sneaky with passing the Sign. If Ben’s It and he asks, “Do you have the sign?” and you do, but technically you just passed it to someone else who accepted it before you have to answer, you can say “no” and you’re off the hook. So practice being sneaky and inconspicuous and go have fun with signs!

Variations: There are many other games similar to signs that you perhaps call the same name. The games newspaper and animal signs are similar, just not as quiet. Know any others? Oh, and one of my favorites is playing signs in a perhaps less formal setting, say if you’re in a boring meeting and want some entertainment. Get your buddies to all very quietly and inconspicuously choose a sign and then pass it around without the People in Charge catching on.* Good times.

* Of course, you should be responsible. Always.

What it is: An easy game of teamwork, following orders, and posing as quickly as possible

Best for: A big group of boy/girl pairs

What you need:

• A big open area to play

How to play: I learned this game at EFY, a week-long religious camp for teenagers. Boys and girls house separately but are put in co-ed groups, attend dances together, and are encouraged to talk to and get to know each other as much as possible, so this game fit right in.

In the game, pairs of players hit poses as quickly as possible. There are three poses.

Bird on a perch, where the boy kneels and the girl sits on his knee:

Monkey in a tree, where the girl hangs on the boy’s back:

Baby in a cradle, where the boy stands and holds the girl in his arms:

To play, each pair stands together in the open play area. A caller calls out two or three poses in any order, and the pairs must hit each pose in order, ending on the last pose and holding it. The last pair to hit the last pose is eliminated. Play continues until only one couple remains, the winners!

So, for example, the caller might call out, all at once, “Bird on a perch, baby in a cradle, monkey in a tree!” Each pair must first hit the bird on a perch pose, then the baby in a cradle pose, then the monkey in a tree pose. Last pair to hit the monkey in a tree pose is out. The caller is also the judge who decides who was last.

The caller can come up with any combination, like “Baby in a cradle, bird on a perch, monkey in a tree!” Or “Monkey in a tree, bird on a perch, monkey in a tree!” For added difficulty, call out more than three poses at a time!

What it is: An easy game for young children

Best for: 4 or more players

What you need: 

• Just an area to play, a big open space you can run in

How to play: First choose one player to be your caller. We’ll call her Mom. Mom stands at one end of the room or area while all of the players stand across from her, facing her. There should be a long space between Mom and the players. It’s also ideal if the players have a wall to stand against or a line to stand behind so everyone starts the same distance from Mom.

When all players are lined up and not wiggling too much, Mom turns her back to the players and calls “Green light!”

This is the players’ cue to run forward towards Mom. But whenever she chooses, Mom says “Red light!” and turns around. As soon as they hear “Red light!” all the players freeze in place. If Mom turns around and catches anyone moving, anyone who hasn’t frozen still, she can send them back to the starting line. (So it may not be in players’ best interest to run as fast as they can, lest their momentum keeps them from stopping in time and gets them sent back to the starting line.)

After Mom has caught anyone who was moving and sent them back to the starting line, she turns around again and calls “Green light!” Players rush forward until Mom says “Red light!” and turns around.

The first player to reach Mom wins! They get to be the caller next round.

Variations: For younger children, you could play without Mom turning around. She just stands facing the players all the time saying “Red light!” and “Green light!” She also doesn’t send players back to the starting line if they don’t stop right away, but she can require players who were slow to freeze to take a few steps back.

What it is: A game where players step on balloons tied to each other’s ankles!

Best for: 5 to 12 players

What you need:

• String
• One balloon per player per round
• A big open space to play (indoors is ideal)

How to play: To set up, tie a balloon to each player’s ankle with a short piece of string. There should be at least a few inches of string from the ankle to the balloon so the balloon can bounce along the ground.

Have all your players carefully stand at the edges of the play area. At “go,” all players rush forward and try to stomp each other’s balloons so they pop. When your balloon pops, you’re eliminated from the game. Go sit or stand along the sidelines and watch until there’s only one player remaining with a balloon on their ankle: the winner!

Some rules: No touching the balloons, and you might want to set up clear guidelines up front about pushing or shoving.

Variations: This game is similar to floppy sock tag, but for sure a lot noisier!

What it is: A quiet, low-activity big-group game of speed

Best for: Older kids and up, and at least 10 players

What you need:

• A dice
• Two balloons

How to play: Divide your players into two even teams. Have one team sit cross-legged on the floor in a line, side by side, creating one long line. Have your second team sit the same way, with their backs to the first team’s backs. So you should have two parallel lines, one line for each team, with their backs to each other.

Next everyone holds hands with the two teammates on either side of them. Go to one end of the lines where each team will have an end person. Say, for example, Team 1 has Nicolas and Team 2 has Inez. Give Nicolas and Inez each a balloon to hold in their free hand. They should hold the balloon in their hand but keep their hand and balloon down on the ground beside them, not in their lap.

Go to the other end of the lines, which will be the starting point. Eric on Team 1 and Louise on Team 2 are there. You as referee sit next to Eric and Louise with a dice in your hand. Start rolling the dice, making sure to hold it where only Eric and Louise (by turning their heads) can see it.

As soon as you roll a 1, Eric and Louise each squeeze their teammates’ hand. Those teammate number 2s will pass the squeeze on to the player next to them, and so on and so on down the line, until, like an electric current, Nicolas and Inez will feel their hands squeezed.

As soon as Nicolas or Inez feels a squeeze, he or she holds up their balloon high as quickly as possible. The first team to raise their balloon wins. (You as referee make the call.)

Have everyone rotate (so Eric and Louise would move to the end of the line, holding the balloons, and those teammate number 2s move up to be the first in line, the players watching the dice). Then go again.

That’s your gameplay! Play until each player has had a chance to be both the balloon-holder and the dice-watcher, then tally up each team’s points and declare a winner!

One rule is no talking is allowed. Players should not be clued in that an electric current has started before it reaches them. (So Eric and Louise should refrain from gasping in excitement if the referee rolls a 1.)

Variations: Instead of rolling a dice, you could also flip a coin. When it lands on heads, the first players start passing the squeeze down.

And instead of having players hold up balloons, you could put only one hand-sized object, like a water bottle or a tennis ball, at the end of the line, equidistant from Nicolas and Inez. Whichever of them grabs and holds up the tennis ball first wins.

What it is: A simple game of chance where you try not to get a face full of water

Best for: A small to big group

What you need:

• Small cup
• Water to put in the cup
• Slips of paper
• Drinking straw (optional)

How to play: Fill your cup with just a tiny amount of water. You could even dip a drinking straw in another cup of water, put your finger over the top, and release the water in the straw in an empty cup.

Choose one person to be It. How about José? Everyone else sits in a circle around the room and José stands in the middle and holds the cup of water.

José chooses a category. You can use the categories list in the word generator (or the categories post has some lists, too) for ideas if you want.

Let’s say the category José chooses is mythological creatures. José announces the category to everyone, then secretly thinks of an item in the category, like a dragon. He writes down “dragon” on a slip of paper, folds it up, and puts it down where no one can read it.

José then starts with one player, like Evie. Standing in front of her with the water cup ready, he has her name an item in the category. Evie says “hippogriff” so José moves on to the next player, Sophia. She says “Big Foot.” José moves to the next player, John, who says “dragon.” So John gets a face full of water. José just tosses it in his face. Then José shows everyone the paper with “dragon” on it, to prove that he did indeed come up with that word beforehand and not just pretend he had picked dragon because he doesn’t like John.

So, in summary, the player who names It’s pre-selected item gets the cup of water in their face. Then that person gets a turn to be It and think of a new category.

You can add a rule that, if any player takes more than 3 seconds to name an item, they get the face full of water. Also, the person who’s It keeps going around and around the circle until someone guesses the item.

Enjoy the suspense that comes from hoping a cup of water doesn’t get thrown in your face!

What it is: A get-to-know-you game, a game to get people to share facts about themselves

Best for: A shower or a class or other group get-together where players are meeting each other for the first time

What you need:

• A roll of toilet paper

How to play: To start, have everyone sit down in a circle. Hand the toilet paper roll to one player and tell them to take as much as they think they will need and keep it. If they ask, “What’s it for?” just say, “Take as much as you think you will need.” Don’t give any guidance as to how much toilet paper they should unroll.

After the first player unrolls their toilet paper, tell them to hand the toilet paper roll to the next person and pass the message down to take some toilet paper, again with no guidance on how much toilet paper to take, just “Take as much as you think you will need.” Don’t tell players what it’s for. If they ask, say a game and nothing more.

Once all of your players have a wad of toilet paper, announce how the game works: each person must go around the room and share facts about themselves, one fact per square of toilet paper they unrolled. Some players might have taken big wads, while some might have taken just a few squares. Either case, each square of toilet paper equals one fact.

You could have some questions handy to ask in case people run out of ideas. Check out the word generator or the get to know you questions post for some ideas!

It’s just a simple activity to, well, trick people into sharing lots of facts about themselves.

Variations: Instead of toilet paper, you could use a jar of small objects, like coins, M&Ms, or paper clips. Still tell players to take as many as they think they will need. The toilet paper throws in a humor factor, though.

Best for: A small group of players (3 to 6), big kids to adults

What you need: 

• All-purpose baking flour
  
• A cup
• A penny
• A pie tin, cookie sheet, or baking dish
• A butter knife

How to play: To set up the game, pack the cup tightly with flour. Then carefully turn the cup over in the pie tin and gently pull it back, leaving a cup-shaped stack of flour in the middle of the pie tin. Then very carefully place the penny on top of the stack, right in the middle, like this:

To play, players take turns slicing a chunk of flour away with the butter knife while everyone watches. If a player tries to slice away a chunk that’s too thin, the rest of the players can vote to make the player go again.

Eventually the penny will fall. The last player who touched the flour stack before the penny falls loses and, as punishment, has to dig the penny out of the flour using only their teeth. They’ll inevitably end up with a white powdery face, so you might want some paper towels (and a camera) handy. If you want to play again, set up a new stack with new flour and go for it!

I’ve played this game as part of a trivia game, too. Players had to answer questions, and if someone answered a question incorrectly they had to cut away a slice of flour. If you answered the question correctly, you didn’t have to cut away the flour and so didn’t have to risk getting flour all over your face/in your mouth. 

If you don’t like the idea of putting a piece of money in your mouth, you can play with a piece of candy like a Sweet Tart or a jelly bean. The money is just more difficult, resulting in more laughs (except for the poor person with their face in the flour).

Speaking of the poor person with their face in the flour, someone inevitably will try shoving their head from behind as they bend over the flour pile, pushing their face into the flour, making an even bigger mess, and possibly losing the penny even more. If you want your players to play nice, make sure you set up your rules (like no touching the flour-digging player) at the beginning.

What it is: A talking guessing game perfect for young children

Best for: A small group of children plus some adults

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: Players take turns naming three things in a category. The rest of the players then guess the category.

For example, Matt says “Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, Procompsognathus.” It’s pretty each to guess that the category is dinosaurs (this is why it’s a good game for small kids).

(Yes, I know, you’re like, “A good game for small kids? What small kid is going to know Procompsognathus?” But I just saw Jurassic World so I had dinosaurs on my mind, plus I wanted to draw a compy. Cute, right?)

Here’s some more examples, ranging from easy to more difficult:

• Katerina, Prince Wednesday, Daniel (characters from Daniel Tiger)
• Daisy, rose, violet (flowers)
• Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle (types of cookies)
• Shoes, candy wrappers, rocks from the playground (things found in the backseat of our family van)

You can adjust the limit to 5 things instead of 3, or you can let the item-namer come up with an unlimited number of additional items, until the category is guessed.

If you want ideas of items in categories, check out the post three deep – that’s essentially all it is, groups of 3 items sorted into categories. You’ll have to figure out the category on your own, though

What it is: A small-group (even two-player) playground game my son and I invented at the park the other day. (Since my son invented the game, I let my five-year-old daughter contribute to this post by drawing the post artwork. So the cat doesn’t have anything to do with the game, but it’s cute, right?)

Best for: A grown-up and some kids at a playground

What you need:

• A camera or smartphone

How to play: The other day at the park, the weather was nice and all I wanted was to take some cute pictures of my kids. My one-year-old, I could understand how it would be difficult. It’s hard to get her to sit still. I didn’t have much luck. My five-year-old, she obliged me a little bit. But my seven-year-old, he’s old enough to know to sit still, right? Old enough to cooperate and let his mom get a good picture of him? Nope, not at all. I couldn’t get a single good shot of his face.

But, on the plus side, it led to us creating a new form of tag that my son loved and was a lot of fun.

We call it photo tag!

It’s kind of like hide-and-seek, and it’s best played somewhere players can hide, like on a playground. One person (the grown-up with the camera) is It. We’ll call her Mom. All the players run and scatter throughout the playing area while Mom counts to ten, then opens her eyes and, armed with her finger poised over the camera button, starts searching for the players.

Mom’s goal is simple: capture a photo of a player that clearly shows the player’s whole face. The players are allowed to run, hide, and evade Mom, but are not allowed to cover their faces with their hands.

At the end of your playing time, Mom can show all the players the pictures she took. The player with the least photos of their face wins. Or, Mom can show players pictures as she takes them.

This probably isn’t a game where you’ll want to take turns being It. Better just let Mom handle the camera, unless you’re playing with teens or above.

Variations: If you are playing with teens or above, let everyone hold a phone/camera, and everyone can be It at the same time. Then at the end of an allotted time, everyone shows any picture they got of someone else’s whole face. The player with no photos or the least photos of his or her face wins! For more creative versions of tag, try banana tag or freeze tag with all your limbs bent or straight.

Samples: Interestingly enough, this game actually led to some of the cutest pictures of the day, candid ones I shot as my son was trying to evade me. Since he was having so much fun, his smiles are genuine. Mom wins!

What it is: An active game involving hopping and rock-paper-scissors

Best for: A big group (at the very least 8 players) in a gym

What you need:

• 20 to 30 hula hoops
• Optional: Painter’s tape to secure the hula hoops to the floor
  

How to play: This game is easily demonstrated through a video, so let’s just start with one right off the bat:

Now that you get the idea, lets talk specifics! First, setup. Place or tape your hula hoops on the ground, creating one long trail of hula hoops that can wind and curve across the gym. There should be room on each end of the trail for a line of players to stand.

Divide your players evenly into two teams and send each team to line up at either end of the hula hoop trail. Then you’re ready to start the game!

Let’s say on Team 1 we have Simon at the front of the line, and on Team 2 we have Mary. At “go,” Simon and Mary start hopping down the hula hoop trail, landing once in each hula hoop. When they meet each other, they play a quick round of rock-paper-scissors. (If they tie, they play again quickly until someone wins.)

Say Mary wins. The loser of rock-paper-scissors (Simon) then leaves the hula hoop trail, going back to the end of his team’s line. Mary gets to continue hopping up the hula hoop trail, trying to get to the opposing team’s starting point.

As soon as Simon leaves the trail, the next player in Team 1’s line (we’ll call him Jacob) starts hopping down the trail. When Mary and Jacob meet, they play rock-paper-scissors. Say Mary wins. Then Mary continues hopping down the trail, Jacob goes to the end of his team’s line, and Jacob’s team sends another player hopping right away.

The game ends when someone reaches the end of the hula hoop trail (the starting point for the other team).

It’s a great game because it works for any age. If your players are too young to play rock-paper-scissors, have a buddy walk with them and play rock-paper-scissors for them. And there’s really not much skill involved. Sure, some kids might be faster hoppers than others, but anyone (even the youngest players) can win at rock-paper-scissors. So it’s a great mixed-age group game.

Also, it’s so fun! For some reason players just get so excited when a teammate wins at rock-paper-scissors. Much cheering occurs. So much suspense! So much intensity! So much hopping! This game is a keeper.

Source: I learned about the game from Eric Branch. His video of his gym class playing is great! It went viral. Thanks for the great game, Eric!

What it is: A long-term game of stealth and elimination

Best for: A big group of players at an event or place together over several days or longer, like at a dorm over a semester of college, at a week-long camp, or at a family reunion

What you need: In this variation, you need stickers – the circular red, yellow, green, and blue label stickers work very well. You’ll need a few stickers per player.

How to play: This game is meant to be played over several days or even weeks. Players eliminate others from the game until the group of players gets smaller and smaller, resulting in only one champion.

You’ll need a moderator to set up the game and not play because it involves creating top-secret targets.

If you’re the moderator, first get a list of everyone who wants to play. Players need to commit; you can’t have players just deciding to drop out after a while. So get your list of committed players.

Randomly assign each player another player’s name (this will be the player’s target). You want to make sure no one is assigned their own name, and that all of the names assigned create a big “loop.” For example, if you have Harry, Ginny, Fred, Hermione, Ron, and George playing, you don’t want the assigned names to look like this:

See how that creates two separate circles? Instead you want one big loop, like this:

The easiest way to do this if you have a lot of players is write each player’s name on a separate strip of paper. Shuffle them well and then draw the first one. Write that player’s name down.

Then draw the next name and write that name as player 1’s target:

Write player 2’s name down on the next line:

Draw the next name:

Go until you’ve used up all of your names. For the last name on the list, assign them player 1 as a target.

Then you need to top-secretly deliver the targets to your players. Write each target’s name on a piece of paper and deliver it to the correct player, making sure no one knows who has who. Each player should know the name of their target and that’s it.

You’ll also need to deliver your method of elimination – we’ll call them “death stickers.” Give each player a strip of stickers. Tell your players to have the paper with the name of their target and their death stickers on their person at all times, or as much as possible.

When everyone has their assassination assignment and their death stickers, the game can start! Here are the rules:

• Players eliminate their targets by secretly sticking a sticker on the target’s body somewhere.
• If you are caught in the act of sticking on a sticker, it doesn’t count.
• When an assassin eliminates a target, the assassin receives the eliminated player’s target as their own.
• Players can eliminate only their own target, not anyone else’s.

You might need to make additional rules for your specific players and situation, like no killing people in the dormitories or during Potions class.

Let’s take a sample game with our players up above, even though a real game would ideally have many more players.

Harry’s target is Ginny. He confides this to his friend Ron. Ron’s target, however, is Harry. So Ron lies and tells Harry he’s targeting Fred. They agree to help each other.

Harry tries to find an opportunity to eliminate Ginny. This turns out to be not too hard since she has a crush on him. He finds a chance to talk to her alone in the corridor, and then, when she turns her head, he sticks a death sticker on her shoulder. Ginny doesn’t notice and after a moment Harry points it out. Ginny is horrified to realize she’s been eliminated. (Harry feels a little bad, but he’s determined to win.)

Ginny’s out of the game, and she hands Harry her slip of paper with her target’s name on it and her extra death stickers. Harry is a little surprised to learn his new target is Fred. (Remember, Ron told Harry that Ron’s target was Fred.) Harry immediately is distrusting of Ron and, when Ron asks Harry who his new target is, Harry lies and says he has George.

Hermione, meanwhile, is working on a way to eliminate Ron. She finds a relatively easy way to do this by sneakily pushing his books on the floor. When he bends to pick them up, she sticks a death sticker on his back without him noticing. Ron is bummed, but gives Hermione his slip of paper with Harry’s name and his extra death stickers.

Harry thinks he’s found a way to sneak up behind Fred and eliminate him, but when Fred turns around Harry realizes he’s actually stickered George. It doesn’t count since George isn’t Harry’s target. George has now figured out that Harry is targeting Fred and agrees to help him if Harry will help George eliminate his target, Hermione.

After class one day, Harry pulls Hermione aside to ask her a question about his History of Magic essay. George, meanwhile, is sneaking in the corridor behind them. He stealthily sticks a sticker on Hermione’s arm, but not stealthily enough, because Hermione catches him in the act. George’s attempt fails and now Hermione knows to be on her guard around George.

Since George wasn’t successful in eliminating Hermione, he decides to break his pact with Harry and tells Fred that Harry has his name. Now Fred knows to be on his guard around Harry, and Harry starts finding it very difficult to eliminate him.

Hermione finds a chance to eliminate Harry when he’s tired after Quidditch practice one evening. Now Hermione’s new target is Fred. Before Fred can realize Harry’s out of the game, Hermione eliminates Fred, too, leaving only George and Hermione in the game.

Harry and Ron agree to help Hermione, but George has Fred working for him. It takes several days of stalking and stealth before Harry and Ron distract Fred and Hermione has a clear shot at George in the common room. He doesn’t catch her sticking on her death sticker, and a few moments later she points it out. George hands Hermione his slip of paper, which actually has Hermione’s name on it. This means that Hermione has won.

(Go, Hermione!)

So alliances might happen. Be prepared for betrayal, conspiracies, and deceit. Some players will be more skilled than others. And only one champion will remain in the end…

Good luck, agents.

What it is: A great Halloween activity where players wrap each other up like mummies

Best for: 6 players or more, divided up into teams of 3 or 4

What you  need: 

• 1 to 3 rolls of toilet paper for each team
• A roll of masking tape for each team (optional)

How to play: Once you have your players divided up into teams, give each team their roll(s) of toilet paper. Then have each team choose one player to be the mummy. The other players on the team will wrap the mummy with toilet paper, making them look as much like a real mummy as they can! There are several ways you can do this:

• Set a generous timer, like 10 minutes, and have teams make the best mummy they can. At the end of 10 minutes, have a judge give out awards like Best Overall Mummy, Most Covered, Most Realistic, etc. You can award candy as prizes, too. This variation might be best with masking tape, to make those higher quality mummies, none of that sloppy stuff.
• Another variation is more about the sloppy stuff. Have players race against each other. The first team to completely use up their toilet paper wins. You can still have a judge award prizes based on the best mummy.
• Combine the mummy wrapping with a relay race. Have a designated area or room the mummies can race across. After players use all their toilet paper to wrap up the mummy, the mummies races across the room and back. The first team to complete the relay without their mummy wrappings falling apart wins!
  
• Don’t keep a timer and don’t make a race. Just let players have fun with it! If you have a lot of toilet paper, have players take turns being the mummy.

Happy playing, and happy Halloween!

What it is: A challenge where players race each other to see who can be the fastest to eat a dangling donut

Best for: 5 to 8 players

What you need: 

• One donut per person
• String to suspend the donuts with
• A long stick like a mop or broom handle

How to play: First, you’ll need to do some set up. Count out a donut for each person who’ll be playing. Then cut an approximately two-foot length of string for each donut.

Tie a string through the whole of each donut, careful not to pull too tight so as to not rip the donut. Tie the other end of the string around the pole and space the strings at least a foot apart from each other.

To start the game, have two people hold the pole so the donuts hang at mouth-height of the players. It’s better to be slightly too low than too high.

Have all players come and stand in front of a donut. It might be good to have strings of varying lengths so players can select, based on their height, which donut hangs best next to their mouth.

Once each player has a donut, have all players put their hands behind their back and say go!

Then all the players race to see who can eat their donut the fastest. The trick is no hands are allowed, so players can use only their mouths to eat. With the donuts hanging freely, this is trickier than it sounds! Good laughter is sure to ensue from all spectators.

The first player to finish their whole donut without dropping any on the floor and chew it up and swallow the whole thing wins! (If it drops on the floor, you’re eliminated.) Then the winner gets to eat all the rest of the donuts! (kidding)

If you live in Texas, make sure you use Shipley’s donuts. They’re totally the best.

Have fun!

What it is: A pool game, kind of like a version of tag

Best for: 4 to 8 players

What you need: 

• A swimming pool

How to play: First, choose one player to be It. We’ll call him Chase. When all your players are in the pool, Chase closes his eyes and counts to ten or twenty. Meanwhile, the rest of the players swim around the pool to different locations. When Chase reaches the end of his counting, he does not open his eyes but keeps them closed. Chase then starts looking (or really, feeling) for other players. The first player Chase touches is the new It.

You might think it’s kind of unfair for Chase, wandering around the pool with his eyes closed while everyone else gets to swim with their eyes open. Here’s Chase’s advantage. At any time he can call out “Marco!” Then everyone else in the pool must answer with “Polo!” That way Chase can get an idea of where everyone is. Even if Ty is standing right next to Chase when Chase calls out “Marco!”, Ty still has to answer with “Polo!”

According to some rules, players aren’t allowed to swim underwater, since they might not hear and get a chance to say “Polo!” Players are also not allowed out of the pool.

Side note, I don’t know why the game is named after the 13th-century explorer. Does this video shed any light on it?

What it is: A reverse of the game catchphrase. Instead of one person talking while everyone else guesses, it’s the opposite; everyone talks while one person guesses. (Head on over to catchphrase if you don’t know how to play.)

Best for: 5 to 10 players

What you need: 

• A list of catchphrase words or, even better, an app or website like my word generator would be really handy.
• A chalkboard, dry erase board, or TV screen to display words on

How to play: First, your setup. You need some surface to display words on where everyone in the room can see it, except for one person who will sit with their back to the word. We’ll call that person Dave.

If you have a board to write on, have Dave sit with his back to it and have a list of words ready to write on the board.

We’ve played before with my word generator app and an Apple TV. We just Airplay the app up to the TV so it’s easy to tap and display new words. (If you have an Android you can also cast to, for example, a Google Chromecast.) Dave would sit or stand to the side of the TV, with his back to it.

As part of your set up, you can also divide your players into two teams.

Dave’s team goes first and, as said, sends Dave up to sit with his back to the TV (or board). Write or display your first word on the board or screen, say “go,” and start a 30-second or 1-minute timer. Dave’s team reads the first word, which is “monster.” Then they all try as fast as they can, with talking only and no acting, to get Dave to guess the word.

• “A big hairy thing that chases kids and hides in closets!”
• “Sulley and Mike from that Pixar movie!”
• “Kids are scared this is hiding under their bed!”
• “Oscar and Elmo and Grover from Sesame Street are all…”

It will probably be pretty crazy, as you can imagine, with everyone shouting. Just like in regular catchphrase, players aren’t allowed to say any form of the word “monsters” or any word that contains “monsters” (like Monsters, Inc.).

As soon as Dave says “monster,” write or show a new word on the board or screen. Everyone keeps going until the timer runs out. Then tally up the points Dave’s team got (the number of words they guessed correctly) and let the other team have a turn.

It’ll be crazy and include a lot of shouting, but that’s all part of the fun!

For a list of word ideas to use, check out my online word generator or download the app (available for iOS or Android), or visit the catchphrase post or the printables page for some PDFs you can download.

Variations: Catchphrase, of course, is a variation. The game celebrities also has some catchphrase elements to it.

My husband wasn’t thrilled he had to illustrate this first sentence:

Here’s another:

Here’s a good one:

And finally:

What it is: A lung-powered cross between air hockey and ping-pong, played around a table

Best for: 4 to 8 players, divided into two teams, and any age

What you need:

• A table big enough for all your players to gather around
• A ping-pong ball
• A drinking straw for each player (optional)

How to play: First, set up your playing area. Divide the table in half, one half for each team. If your table has a seam down the middle, that’s nice and convenient. You could also use a strip of masking tape. Then have your players surround the table. You want players’ heads to be at table level, so the best way to do this is have players kneel around the table. Young children might stand. If you’re using a coffee table, maybe players could sit.

If you don’t have enough players to completely surround the table, stack books or lay another type of barrier across the open sides.

Once you have your teams assigned and your players in place, put the ping-pong ball in the middle of the table and say “go.”

The object of the game is to blow the ping-pong ball off the opposing team’s side of the table. So everyone bends down, takes a deep breath, and blows! The ping-pong ball will shoot around the table, being blown around until it sneaks past a player onto the floor. That player’s team loses the round, the other team gets a point, and a new round can start.

You can let players blow into straws (thick smoothie straws work especially well) if you want to let them more precisely direct the direction of their blowing. No straws works just fine, too. Try both ways and see which one you like more.

One rule: Players are not allowed to touch the table at all. So no hands on the table, and no pressing your body against the edge of the table to keep the ping pong ball from falling. (If you find the game too difficult this way, you can modify the rules to fit your players.)

It’s a game so fun, it will take your breath away! (Sorry. I couldn’t resist.) Seriously, though, it can involve a lot of exhaling. Make sure no one passes out! (Though I often end up laughing so hard I can’t blow the ping pong ball anyway!)

What it is: A mash-up movie guessing game that takes some creativity

Best for: Teens to adults

What you need: 

• You might find the IMDb or a list of movie titles helpful

How to play: Can you name this movie?

A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl’s innocent pet cocker spaniel and make her presentable in high society before a streetwise downtown mutt falls in love with her first.

Sound a little wacky? Well, it’s not a real movie. It’s a mash-up! A made-up summary of a combination of two movie titles that share a word…

My Fair Lady and the Tramp!

The summary combines parts of the movie My Fair Lady (1964), a movie about a phonetics professor passing off a flower girl in high society, with Lady and the Tramp (1955), a movie about an innocent pet cocker spaniel falling in love with a streetwise downtown mutt.

That’s the game! Take turns with your friends coming up with summaries of mashed-up movies and see if you can guess. See how wacky they get. Do you want some more examples?

A high school student time travels to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, where rebels are battling against a mean bully and his fleet of star ships, so they must stop the Empire from preventing his parents from meeting and falling in love.

A father and daughter attempt to defend their flock of orphaned Canada Geese from idiotic burglars during the holidays.

The Soviet Union’s best submarine captain in their newest sub violates orders and heads for the U.S., while a coal miner’s son with an interest in rocketry attempts to track down the sub and find out if the captain is trying to defect or start a war.

And then, finally, one from my brother-in-law that’s a bit of a stretch and might be a little tricky…

“Crouch, I say, crouch! Now you—hide!”

Guess all four movie titles in this post and I’ll give you a free escape room kit from my site!

Or do you have a movie title or summary to share? Post it in the comments! Maybe you can come up with a summary for one of these wacky combinations:

• The Corpse Bride of Frankenstein
• Black Beauty and the Beast
• October Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
• The Great Escape to Witch Mountain
• A Little Princess Bride
• We’re Back to the Future
• It’s a Wonderful Life is Beautiful
• Treasure Planet of the Apes
• Star Wars of the Worlds
• Shark Tale of Two Cities
• Finding Neverland Before Time
• She’s the Man for All Seasons
• The Swan Princess Bride
• Forever Young Frankenstein
• Mighty Joe Young Indiana Jones
• Jungle 2 Jungle Book
• Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey to the Center of the Earth

One last bonus, here’s a printable list of more mashed-up movie summaries with answers. You can give the list to a group and see who can get the most right. It would be a great movie night activity!

What it is: A much more strategic version of tic-tac-toe I learned from Math with Bad Drawings (he’s got a great explanation of the game, too)

Best for: Two players

What you need:

• Paper
• Something to write with

How to play: OK, so we’re all familiar with tic-tac-toe, right? The normal 9-square grid?

Well, in ultimate tic-tac-toe, you’ve got a smaller grid within each of those 9 squares:

To win the game, you have to win three of the larger squares in a row, and to win a large square, you have to win three in a row in the smaller grid inside it.

Here’s how it works. Say X goes first:

Now, just like in normal tic-tac-toe, O gets to go. But O can’t just go anywhere. The smaller grid O must play in is determined by X’s move. So since X went in the bottom right corner within his small grid, O must go in the bottom right corner of the large grid:

So O goes, anywhere in this small grid he wants to:

Now you know where X has to go, right?

A few moves down, the game might look like this:

See what just happened in the far right middle square? X got three in a row! That means X wins that small grid, thus claiming that square in the large grid:

Then it’s O’s turn again (O is still sent to the small grid determined by X’s last move). Eventually someone will claim three small grids in a row, thus winning the whole game:

Nice job, X!

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of strategy involved. You’ve got to keep in mind where you’re sending your opponent, thinking several moves ahead.

One rule: If the player before you sends you to a grid that’s already been won, you get to go wherever you want. (So try not to send your opponent to an already-won grid!)

Another rule you’ll need to decide on your own will be what to do with smaller grids that result in a tie. You could either count them for 1) neither X nor O or 2) both X and O. Try both ways and let me know which one you like more!

Many thanks to Math with Bad Drawings for this fun and quite strategic game!

Printables: Here’s a free Ultimate Tic-tac-toe board you can use. Just download and print.

Variations: Aside from the normal tic-tac-toe, there’s also 3D triple-decker tic-tac-toe, and, my personal favorite, human tic-tac-toe. Who knew there were so many variations on tic-tac-toe out there?

Oh! Wait! I almost forgot! Many thanks also to my husband’s synesthesia, which helped me decide what colors to color the X and the O in the post artwork

Best for: All ages, and pretty much any group size

What you need: 

• A roll of masking tape

How to play: Start by tearing a small strip of masking tape for each person. Loop the strips to make a piece of tape sticky on all sides, then have each person stick the piece of tape right on the end of his or her nose.

Game play is very simple. Two players walk up to each other, press the tape on their noses together, and pull back.

The tape pieces will stick together and one person will end up losing their tape, with both pieces sticking to the other player’s nose. The person who lost their tape is out of the game. Meanwhile, the person with two pieces of tape goes up to challenge another player. If they keep their tape, they go on and challenge someone else. Any player who loses their tape is eliminated. Eventually the winners will collect bigger and bigger wads of comical-looking tape on the ends of their noses, until the last two players face each other and one person is left with a giant wad of tape on the end of his or her nose, the winner!

Rules: Except for at the beginning when players are first sticking the tape on their noses, they are not allowed to touch the tape with their hands at all. At the beginning, they are free to press their tape on their nose as much as they want. When two players approach each other to touch tape, they aren’t allowed to touch each other (to prevent cheating).

It’s a short, simple, kind of silly game that will probably get lots of giggles. It would be a very interesting icebreaker, but it’s also fun for a family reunion (it works great with mixed ages) or a group of people who know each other well.

What it is: A toss-and-catch game played outside with water balloons

Best for: At least 4 players

What you need: 

• Players will form pairs, and each pair needs a beach towel
• A good supply of water balloons, because hopefully a lot of them will pop and get your players wet (because where’s the fun if that doesn’t happen?)
  
• Optional: A volleyball net or homemade volleyball net (e.g., a line strung across the yard)

How to play: So first let’s cover a basic water balloon toss. Two players toss a water balloon back and forth with just their hands, trying not to miss or they’ll get splattered with water.

With this version, players don’t use their hands but a beach towel instead. Players form pairs of two, and each pair holds a beach towel. Players hold the short ends and spread out the beach towel between them like this:

If you put a water balloon in one pair’s beach towel, they can lower their beach towel and, by lifting their hands quickly, pop the water balloon into the air. If they aim towards a second pair of players, that pair can catch the water balloon by cradling it in their own beach towel.

So that’s one way to play, if you only have four players. Two pairs of players toss a water balloon back and forth to each other, catching it in their beach towels, trying not to let it pop.

You can also play with more people and set up your game more like a traditional volleyball game, even over a real volleyball net. Put an even number of pairs on each side of the net to form two teams. Then play just like normal volleyball. Instead of trying to pass the water balloon to someone, the players who pop the water balloon into the air will try to land it on the other team’s side and make it pop.

If a water balloon lands on the ground or pops on a team’s side, the other team gets a point. If a pair of players tosses a water balloon out of your pre-set game bounds, the other team gets a point. It is legal to toss the water balloon to another beach towel on your own side, as long as you don’t let it drop. You can play to a max point value or until you’re out of water balloons. Switch up the teams or pairs every now and then if you want!

It’s a less skilled version of volleyball with hopefully more laughs, and a good chance to practice teamwork, with players working in both pairs and teams. Also, hopefully you’ll get wet. Best played on hot, sunny days. Have fun!

What it is: Games to play with your kids at home to get them to clean! Here’s a few we’ve used at our own house.

Best for: A family of young kids at home cleaning a house

What you need:

• A messy house

How to play: Ah, cleaning with young kids. Sometimes when the house is messy and it’s time to clean, it can be so tempting to get my kids out of my hair somehow so I can just get the cleaning done on my own. It goes so much quicker that way! Of course, that’s not always possible. And of course, we all want to teach our kids the value of hard work and personal responsibility. But come on, I’m the Game Gal here! Do you think we get through our chores without any play at all? Of course not! Here are some of the common “games” we use to get through chore time at our house.

Drawing for jobs

My mom used this technique all the time when I was a kid. She would write whatever jobs needed to be done on slips of paper, fold them up, throw them in the air, and then us kids would scramble for them. Kind of felt like a piñata being opened…but the opposite. Anyway, there was a fun feeling of suspense, unfolding your slip, wondering what job you got.

It was also a handy tool for the days she had some extra kids over, like friends or cousins. She would write more than one slip for a larger job (usually a room in the house like the kitchen or the living room) and anyone who drew that room would form a team or partnership. I think it was also a handy way for her to absolve herself from responsibility: How could we be mad at her if we drew a job we didn’t like? We were the one who drew it, after all.

What’s my job?

Another one invented by my mom. Basically the kids just say “What’s my job?” Then you give them a job and they do it. When they’re done they come back and say “What’s my job?” again. It’s not the most effective cleaning game in our house, but it can work.

Secret item

I got this tip from a friend. If you’re staring at a messy room, secretly choose one item, especially an obscure or tiny item off to the side. Tell all of your cleaners “go,” and then they start cleaning the room. Watch carefully, and as soon as someone cleans up the secret item, tell them and they get to sit out for the rest of the cleaning time. Repeat in a new room.

I like this because it encourages not only working but also speed – the faster you pick up toys, the more toys you pick up, the more likely you are to get the mystery item and get to sit out. Also, since the item is a secret, you can cheat a little so the secret item “magically” always ends up one of the last things left on the floor…

One job, one fun thing

This works well for big open Saturdays where we have a whole house to clean, but also time for some fun, too. At the beginning of the day my kids and I will make a list of all of the big cleaning tasks that need to be done, like clean out the car, weed the yard, clean the kitchen, etc. Then we’ll make a list of some fun things we want to do that day, like play with play doh, have a dance party, eat popsicles, etc.

I write all the things on slips of paper and fold them up and put the fun things in one jar and the jobs in another jar. Then we just alternate: someone draws a job and we all do it together. Then someone draws a fun thing and we all do that together. We go through like that until both jars are empty. It helps to have fun rewards, and it helps my kids stay motivated when they get a reward after each task, instead of cleaning the whole house all at once.

Obey spray

This is the most recent game we’ve invented. My son read a book at school – Dog Man, I think? I guess there’s a villain in the book who has this stuff called obey spray that will make obedient servants out of anyone he sprays? Not totally sure…but it’s the premise of our game, which is probably the most fun for my kids.

They get to “obey spray” me so I’m their obedient servant and then I help them clean! The trick is, I can only obey if they themselves are also doing whatever they ask me to do. So if my son tells me to put away the stuffed animals, I only do so if he’s also putting them away. If he stops, I stop. And then if a certain amount of time goes by without me getting any commands, the obey spray wears off and they’re left cleaning their room on their own.

I’ve liked this game better than “What’s my job?” because it puts the initiative in their hands and makes them own their mess more, makes them assess what needs to be done instead of me. And they also think it’s pretty fun, giving mom commands. Oh, and I guess in the book laughter reverses the effect of the obey spray? So when the room is clean, we end with jokes or a tickle fight and then I’m free.

Now a note from me as a mom instead of me as the Game Gal: Most of the time in our house, jobs are just boring jobs. The kids do them on their own, sometimes without complaining but lots of times with, sometimes without my husband and I nagging but lots of times with. When we all clean together, we don’t always play fun cleaning games. Still though, even if the cleaning games are the exception rather than the norm, I think the fun times will stand out in my kids’ memories. That’s how it was for me.

Theme

Most escape rooms, commercial or DIY, have themes. Some examples? The old west, spies, pirates, the 80s, space travel, etc. A theme connects the clues in an escape room and makes it more fun. Whatever theme you choose, make sure your clues and puzzles fit the theme. For example, if you’re doing a Western themed room, don’t use a blacklight and invisible ink as a clue. What cowboy used a blacklight?

Plot

I think a plot is different than the theme. Not all escape rooms have plots. Some rooms are just a collection of clues and challenges. Some escape rooms might fit a theme well but not have a plot. The best escape rooms have plots, which have to explain several things:

• Why are players locked in the room? Did some bad guy lock them in there? Was it an accident, like a natural disaster that left them trapped? Is it part of a challenge that someone set up?
• Why do they need to escape? What will the consequences be if they don’t escape? Are they going to be thrown in jail? Caught by an enemy? Maybe they need to escape to help someone on the outside? Along with this goes a sense of urgency. Most escape rooms have a time limit, which the plot should explain. So is there a ticking bomb somewhere? Is someone coming back to the room after a certain amount of time? What will be your players’ motivation to work quickly?
• Why are there puzzles and clues in the room? This one is the trickiest, and something that a lot of escape rooms just leave unexplained. For example, if there’s a bad guy who locked your players in a room, why would he then leave a string of clues that lets them escape? So maybe he left the clues unintentionally. Or maybe someone on your players’ side left the clues there. For example, in one of my rooms the players’ friends leave clues for them, but need to hide them so the bad guy won’t find them. Maybe the clues are all out as part of a challenge of wits someone set up for your players. It’s a hard thing to explain, and it can take a lot of thought.

Your escape room doesn’t have to have a plot. Personally, I think it’s more fun if they do. And another thought: any escape room at all (and especially a DIY escape room) is going to require players to use their imaginations. Your plot doesn’t have to be flawless. It’s OK to expect your guests to use their imaginations or suspend their disbelief a little. Just keep in mind how much you’re asking your guests to do this.

Setting

If you’re writing an escape room with a theme, and for sure if you’re writing one with a plot, you want a setting. Is it a jail cell, an apartment building, a bank vault, someone’s library? Make sure it fits your theme and plot. You also might want to take into consideration the actual room you have to work with. For example, say you’re going to host your escape room in a bedroom. You could choose a bank vault as your setting. But making a bedroom feel like a bank vault isn’t easy. What if you chose a hotel room as your setting instead? It would feel more realistic.

Choosing a room

When it comes to choosing an actual room, I think the biggest consideration is how much stuff is in the room. A lot of the fun of an escape room is the searching. If your guests have freedom to search the room without you telling them “Oh, don’t touch that” or “You don’t need to search there,” they’ll have more fun. Take out any belongings that don’t fit the theme or that you don’t want your guests to touch. So maybe you want to choose a room that’s relatively empty to begin with. For example, one of my escape rooms takes place in an office building. We have an office, but it’s pretty cluttered. We also have a dining room which is pretty empty. When we hosted the escape room for friends, I chose to have it in the dining room because there was more space and it was a lot easier for me to set up.

One tip with choosing the room is tape: blue painter’s tape or masking tape. Use it to mark anything you don’t want your guests to touch (like taping shut a drawer you don’t want to empty). That way your guests know what not to touch without you having to tell them.

Funny story, we did an escape room at my mom’s house once. It was set up in her game room, which, well, hadn’t been deep cleaned in a while. My mom and I ended up feeling really sorry for the players who searched the couches thoroughly for clues only to find dust bunnies, lost socks, loose change, and pieces of popcorn instead. So be prepared for your guests to search everywhere unless you tell them not to. You might be surprised – they’ll think to search where you never thought they would (and more thoroughly than you thought they would). So clean first.

Automation

One of the best aspects of commercial escape rooms is the way stuff happens automatically: you move a lever and a door opens, you align objects in a certain way and a light turns on. In other words, as soon as you do something correctly, you know automatically that you have. In DIY escape rooms, it’s super hard to do this! Most of us don’t have cool magnetic doors or fancy combination locks at our disposal. So we have to be creative. You don’t want your escape room to be players solving clues and then being told by you if they got the answer right. They should know if they got it right on their own.

Here are some ideas of escape room elements you can do at home that create that “automatic” feeling:

• Of course, locks. Combination locks and locks with keys. You can use multiple in a room – but don’t overdo it.
• Puzzles. When players put together a puzzle, like a jigsaw puzzle, they know when they’ve done it correctly. They don’t need to check their solution.
• Computers. Use a laptop and create a guest account with a username and password. Hide the username and password in the room, or have another puzzle lead to the username/password. Maybe hide a USB drive with an important file on it in the room, too. You could also use a smart phone or iPad they have to unlock.
• Challenges. Think minute-to-win-it type challenges: stacking cups, balancing things, moving things from one place to another. The hard thing about these is tying them into the plot (it might take a lot of imagination, pretending things like cups are something other than cups). Also, I don’t love that players are essentially on the honor system for this. What if they just don’t do it? What if they don’t do it correctly? They could still escape. It’s not like a lock where they’re forced to find the combination or it won’t work. Of course, if players are going to cheat, they’re just cheating themselves out of the fun, and you would hope your players understand that.
• One thing that I use (that I understand most people can’t) is websites with usernames or passwords or tasks players have to complete. Maybe you have a technical friend who can help you out with this.

It may not be possible to have a room with only these kind of automatic puzzles. Maybe for the sake of the plot or for variety, you have some puzzles where players need to be told if they got the right answer. Just be aware of the balance and try to include at least several automatic-solution type puzzles. They’re more fun.

Multiple goals

One thing to be aware of with escape rooms is how sequential they are. I’ve done escape rooms where all clues must be done in a certain order, one after another. Personally, I don’t like this approach. If you have a big group, some players might be bored because there’s basically only one thing to do at a time, and it was also frustrating because we didn’t know the order of the puzzles – we just had to keep checking all the locks in the room until we found the next one that opened.

I think a better approach is to have multiple goals, or multiple parts to a puzzle that players can be working on simultaneously. For example, I threw an escape room that ultimately ended with a combination lock. I had three separate puzzles (or really series of puzzles) that each ended in one of the combination numbers. Different players could work on different parts at the same time.

Another thing to consider that might be handy for DIY escape rooms is side goals. Sure, your players are trying to escape, but what if they have other goals, too? Are they trying to bring something with them? Save the world? Disable an alarm before they get out? Having multiple goals could be a handy way of making your room not too sequential.

Hiding places

Hiding places can be so fun! Just remember to start with a clean room and be creative. I have a post on some hiding place ideas. Oh, and my other tip: make a list of where you hide everything! More than once I’ve had players searching for one last clue that, embarrassingly, I couldn’t remember where I had hid.

Difficulty

There are two things that can make an escape room difficult. One is to have clues that are difficult – ones that players have to make a big logical leap to complete, or that they’ll sit and ponder over for some time before it makes sense. If you do it this way, you might not have a lot of puzzles/clues.

The other way is to just have a lot of puzzles/clues, lots of layers of clues they might solve. Some might be easy to tell what to do, just time consuming or even somewhat tedious to complete. For example, one of my escape rooms has a color-by-number grid. I’ve played one where we had to beat a video game to get a clue.

Personally, I like escape rooms that make themselves difficult with more clues or more layers of clues, not with super hard clues you have to think a long time about. Of course, you want a balance. You do want some clues that are hard or not apparent right away, because the longer your guests have to puzzle about them, the more rewarding that “a-ha” moment will be when they finally figure it out. But don’t make it too hard, because they’ll feel defeated if they have to end up getting a hint or being told how to do it.

Hints

All commercial escape rooms I’ve done have offered hints. I think it’s just so hard to predict what different guests may or may not struggle with. You can build hints into the structure of your escape room (like hiding hint cards that players have to find before they can ask for a hint). You can also just be there to offer hints and guidance if they ask for it. I would say always control yourself and ask if they want a hint before you offer one. You don’t want to cheat your guests out of the fun of solving it on their own. Just watch how much they’re having fun/how frustrated they are. If they’ve been stuck long enough to feel frustrated, it might be time to ask if they want a hint.

I hope these hints help you if you’re designing your own escape room! If you’d like to check out mine, visit Science Lab Breakout and Color Crisis. Good luck and I hope you and your guests have fun! If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear!

This is one of the proudest moments of my life. My six-year-old son, Carson, is writing my very first guest post! The other week I was reading a nice note one of his school friends wrote him that said he liked playing the game “spiers and spotters” with Carson. I asked Carson about it and he said it’s a game he invented himself. Of course I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to get the details. So we sat down together, I helped him color his very own original artwork, and he told me all about it. So now, without further ado, here’s the game spiers/spotters from Carson! (His words, with a little prompting from me.)

What it is: A game that’s kind of like hide and seek

Best for: Recess, and for kids, at least four of them

What you need:

• A playground and two groups of people

How to play: Start at the front of a playground. You’ll need to get your kids together, and they’ll split into groups. The kids can choose their own groups. One is called the spiers and one is called the spotters. The spiers spy on the spotters and try not to be seen. The spotters run around and try to spot the spiers. When a spotter spots a spier, they say “I see you!” Then the spier tries to find the other spiers and ask if they’ve been seen too.

Once all the spiers have been spotted, you’ll get back to the front of the playground and split into new groups. Make sure every kid gets a chance to be both spiers and spotters.

Variations: Spiers/spotters is like a team version of hide and seek. Sardines and hit the dirt are similar games.

Best for: Teens and above, and at the very least six players (preferably more like 12). You also need an even number of players and one player to be the referee.

What you need:

• A playing area: somewhere large and flat like a gym, a large room, or a big slab of concrete
• A way to mark squares on the floor. Painter’s tape or masking tape is great for this (or chalk if you’re outside).
• A pen and paper to keep score
• Optional: A way to distinguish teams from one another. Three bandanas of one color and three of another (or scrimmage vests in two colors) would work great for this.

How to play: First, prepare your playing area.

You want a giant human-sized tic-tac-toe board on the ground. You can start by taping out your typical tic-tac-toe board with strips of tape. Aim to have each square about 3 feet by 3 feet.

Now, in the middle of each of your nine squares, tape a smaller rectangle, just big enough to hold one pair of feet.

If you want, you can skip the first step and forego the long tape lines. The most important part is a 3 by 3 grid of small rectangles just big enough for one person to stand in. Also, tape two lines parallel to and on opposite sides of the grid, spaced a few feet back from the grid:

Next, prepare your players.

First divide them into two even teams. If you have scrimmage vests to wear, assign each team a color and have them put on their vests. Next, give each player a number. Assign a number 1 on each team, a number 2 on each team, a number 3 on each team, and so on. So each player will have, on the opposing team, a counterpart with a matching number. Each player needs to remember his or her number. You as a referee might want to write down the numbers on a piece of paper so you know which numbers are assigned to players.

Have the teams stand behind the lines on opposite sides of the grid, like this:

If you’re playing with bandanas, assign each team a color and put the bandanas on the floor between the teams and the grid.

As a referee, sit or stand off to the side so you can clearly see the grid and both teams. Now you’re ready to start!

To begin, call out three numbers. The three players with those numbers on each team run forward, grab a bandana (if you have bandanas), and try stand on open squares to form a three in a row. The first team to get three in a row wins! With two teams competing for open spots, though, there’s a fair amount of running, teamwork, and communication involved. Still, it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds until one team has made three in a row.

The only row teams are not allowed to use is the one closest to them:

Any other row of three is fair game, for example:

Once one team has scored, mark them a point, send all the players back, put the bandanas back on the ground, and call three more numbers for the next round.

It’s handy to have all the players’ numbers written down because you can mark how many times you call each number so all the players get an even amount of playing time.

The bandanas or scrimmage vests are handy because they make it very easy for players to see and remember whose team they’re on. If you’re using bandanas, players can also hold their bandanas up in the air as soon as they form a row of three, making it easier for you as referee.

After a while you can change up teams, if you like. At the end of your desired playing time, tally up the points and declare a winner!

It’s a simple game, rule wise, with enough strategy to keep it interesting but fast-paced enough to keep it fun. It’s a great game for a big youth group to play.

Enjoy!

Variations: Another variation of the classic tic-tac-toe is 3D triple-decker tic-tac-toe. Ultimate tic-tac-toe brings even more strategy to the game.

Hello readers! I’m working on new posts, but in the meantime I thought I’d share a real-life example of a game I’ve already posted about.

This past summer my family took a road trip. At some point in the car my two kids learned the game would you rather. We played it with them, but the best was listening to them play it with each other. I don’t know if they fully got the concept. Here are some of their scenarios:

• Would you rather get your leg eaten by an alligator, or have your entire self eaten by a crocodile?
• Would you rather be an LED light that’s your favorite color, or be a burnt-out light bulb that has smoke coming out of it?
• Would you rather eat 200 pieces of cheddar popcorn in one day, or only eat one piece of cheddar popcorn for the rest of your life?
• Would you rather be burned by sulfuric acid or explore Carlsbad caverns and get to go off the path?
• Would you rather go on an airplane with a bunch of bunnies that would come and cuddle with you, or go on an airplane with a bunch of alligators that would eat you?

Tough questions, right? Feel free to provide your answers. I love the way my kids’ minds work.

I have some exciting news! I’ve been wanting to post this for a long time.

For a while I’ve been working on a massive update and overhaul of the word lists I have on the online Word Generator and in the iPhone app. I’ve wanted to add more words and more categories and recently, I finished!

I released all of the new words in a giant printable word bundle here. But, personally, I wouldn’t print the word lists. I’d just use the app! It’s cheaper and easier.

So, good news for all you Android users, because my wonderful husband has been super hard at work, and now the Android app is finally ready! My wonderful husband also added all of the new words and categories to the iPhone app.

Here’s the details of everything the app has:

• 9 categories
• 75 lists
• Over 22,300 words!

It’s really exciting because it’s something my husband and I have both worked a ton on. So, if you have the app already, update it to get all those new words! If you haven’t downloaded it, do! And if you would, please thank my husband for all his hard work. He does it all in his free time! So contact me or comment below and I’ll pass your thanks along.

Happy New Year and I hope you all enjoy the new words!

I just released a new escape room! This one is specifically for kids and it was a lot of fun to work on. Here’s the story…

The whole save-the-world plot is a lot of fun for kids! Here’s a video showing a little bit of the setup and game play:

You can read more about the DIY escape room kit here. I’m really excited to finally release it! I’ve been working on it for a while. The escape room kit would be perfect for birthday parties, team building exercises, youth groups, and classrooms. The kit is also up for a discounted launch special price right now if you want to go grab it!

What it is: A simple on-the-go out loud trivia game to play with family members

Best for: A family! Especially young children who need a game to play to kill time

What you need: Just some general knowledge about your family!

How to play: This game just consists of asking each other trivia questions about family members. Here’s an example:

• Out of Uncle Max and Uncle John, who used to live in Canada?

And then see who can answer the question correctly. It’s works best, of course, if parents come up with the questions and the children see if they can answer them. The questions can be easy or more challenging. The questions just always take the format:

• Out of _____ and _____, who _____?

Here are some other examples of things you could ask:

• Who worked as a ___?
• Who lived ___?
• Who knows how to ___?
• Who studied ___ in school?
• Who had ___ when they were a child?
• Who grew up with ___?
• Who did ___?
• Who lives ___?

It’s a fun way to learn about family members: parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, even siblings. It’s fun to test how well you know your family. It’s simple, but engaging. When we’re around the dinner table or waiting in line, this is one of the games our kids request the most.

What it is: An easy, moderately active gym game

Best for: A large group of children

What you need:

• Something harmless to throw. In this game, you’ll be throwing things across the gym. It can be anything harmless like crumpled up pieces of paper, foam balls, wadded up socks, lightweight inflated balls, etc. The more the merrier!
• A place to play. A gym is ideal. You could potentially play outside. The important thing is you have a clearly marked playing area with a distinct line down the middle, dividing your playing area in half.

How to play: To start, divide up your players into two teams. The teams stand on either side of a line down the middle of the playing area.

Next, take your “garbage” – your harmless things to throw across the gym. Let’s say you’re playing with wadded up paper balls. You can either divide the garbage into two equal piles and put one pile on each side of the line, or you can dump all of the garbage in the middle of the two teams, right down the dividing line.

Then signal the start of the game, by blowing a whistle or playing music or something.

When the game starts, players have only one objective: get the garbage off their side and into the opposing team’s. So players run, pick up, gather, and throw the garbage as quickly as they can. It will most likely be pandemonium.

At the blow of the whistle or when the music stops, all the players must stop throwing. Both sides count up the garbage that remains on their side of the gym. The team with the least amount of garbage wins! Then have your losing team be in charge of cleaning up all the garbage so you can play again!

The game is easily understood by all ages and can be a fun game for a mixed age group. And the more heft your garbage has, the more active your game will be. If you play with paper, for example, paper doesn’t travel far and both teams will hover close to the dividing line, tossing paper across. If you play with balls that travel farther when you throw them, it will naturally lead to more running around the gym.

Best for: A class at school.

What you need:

• The game works best when players have desks or tables to sit at. Other than that, you don’t need anything!

How to play: (Okay, this is reaching way back into my grade school memories for this one…) Heads up, seven up is a game often played in classrooms as a reward or to fill extra down time. It’s quiet and calm (great for teachers!) but fun for the kids.

To start, choose seven children. We’ll call them the Seven. They move to the front of the room and stand, facing the class. The rest of the class sit in their desks. Then the teacher (or whoever’s in charge) calls out, “Heads down, thumbs up!”

All the students sitting in their desks put their heads down and put one thumb in the air, like this:

They close their eyes and cover their faces so they can’t see. I seem to always remember the lights being off at this point, too, but maybe that’s unnecessary. Just tell kids not to peek.

Once all the students in their desks have their heads down and their thumbs up, the teacher signals to the Seven, who then quietly walk among the class. Each of the Seven picks one student sitting down and quietly touches their outstretched thumb. The student then tucks their thumb into their fist but continues waiting silently with eyes closed.

Once the Seven have all touched a thumb, they stand back at the front of the classroom. The teacher announces, “Heads up, seven up!” and all of the students in the class can raise their heads and open their eyes. The seven students whose thumbs were touched stand up.

Then the standing students each get one chance to guess which of the Seven touched their thumb. So, for example, let’s say Michael and Alyssa are two of the standing students whose thumbs were touched. Shelby and Drew are two of the Seven standing at the front of the classroom. On Michael’s turn, he gets to guess who touched his thumb. He might say, “Shelby?” But let’s say he’s wrong and it was another of the Seven who touched his thumb. Shelby says “no” and Michael sits down.

Then it’s Alyssa’s turn to guess. She says, “Drew?” And Drew is the one who touched Alyssa’s thumb. He would say “yes” and then he and Alyssa would switch spots. Drew goes back to his seat and becomes one of the sitting students and Alyssa gets to join the lucky Seven.

Once all of the standing students have had a chance to guess, everyone but the Seven sits down and the teacher calls “Heads down, thumbs up!” again. Play continues as long as you want!

To make it fair, the teacher can choose the order the standing students take when it’s their turn to guess. It’s best if the teacher varies it, sometimes going front of the class to back, sometimes right to left, sometimes left to right, etc., because the students who guess last are at an advantage.

Variations: You can easily play the heads up, seven up game with less than Seven if you have a smaller group.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you’re having a happy holidays! One of the best ways to feel the Christmas spirit is to follow the example of Christ and serve others. Our family has been using Light the World as a guide for serving others this Christmas season. It’s an advent calendar with simple ideas of service each day. There are daily inspiring videos and suggestions. I encourage you to check it out and maybe add it to your Christmas traditions this year!

Service is the best way to feel the Christmas spirit, but one other way is quality time with family and friends. And what better way to spend quality time than with fun Christmas party games?

I’ve been looking for a Christmas game to share, and finally I decided to make a Christmas word list for the game three deep (follow the link to learn how to play). It’s a great game for a big group. Hopefully your holiday season includes getting together with friends or family you love, and just maybe playing a few fun games while you’re at it! Three deep is a great one to try out: indoor, loud, fun, quick, easy, hilarious.

Christmas Three Deep Word List

Also, here’s a roundup of all of the Christmas games I’ve posted in the past (mostly creative ways to do gift exchanges):

• 12 Days of Christmas gift drop off
• Christmas pictionary word list
• Christmas gift pass
• White elephant gift exchange
• Mystery gift pass

Merry Christmas, all! Thank you so much for reading, really, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

What it is: A hilarious game! It’s quick-paced, low-strategy, and involves big groups, shouting, and finding your two teammates as quickly as you can.

Best for: A big group, I would say at least 12. You also need players in multiples of three.

What you need:

• You will need specific word lists to play this game. But I’ve got you covered! At the end of the post are some free downloadable lists you can play with.
• Other than that, you need a big area to hold all of your players and, depending on how you play, seats around the outside to sit in. There don’t necessarily have to be enough seats to hold everyone, and they can be couches, chairs, benches, anything.

How to play: To play three deep, first, make sure you have the correct number of players. You need players in groups of three, so 12, 15, 18, etc.

The word lists have words in sets of three, like pig, horse, cow (farm animals), or Spanish, French, Italian (languages), or square, circle, triangle (shapes).

Everyone will end up getting one word, and their goal is to find their two matching counterparts as quickly as possible. The last group of three to find each other is eliminated.

To start, cut your word list into paper strips and fold them. (There are instructions down below about the best way to cut up the word list.) Put the paper strips in a bowl and let everyone pick one.

Let everyone read their word quietly to themselves. Then call “go” and the pandemonium begins.

Everyone starts shouting their word as loudly as possible. Players can use hand motions, too. Inevitably all the players end up in a big clump as everyone mingles, trying to find their two matching buddies as quickly as they can.

As soon as a group of three has found each other, they move to the edge of the room and take a seat, but all in one chair on each other’s laps (this is where the “three deep” name comes from). You’ll notice on the paper slips there are letters next to the words: B, M, and T. These stand for bottom, middle, and top. The person with the B slip sits on the chair. The person with the M slip sits on that person’s lap. And the person with the T slip sits on that person’s lap, creating a stack, three deep.

Now, you might not want to play with players sitting on each other’s laps. That’s okay; you can do a variation. Instead of players sitting on each other’s laps, you could have them all sit at the edge of the room on the floor, cross-legged, back to back (to back). Or you could have them go and stand three in a row with their backs against the wall. The important thing is to give them a place to go and a position to stand or sit in that is easily recognizable as done. If you just told them to form groups of three standing up, for example, it doesn’t work so well because you can’t easily tell which group is last.

Anyway, if you choose to play with a no-sitting-on-laps variation, you can use this version of the word lists that have 1, 2, and 3 next to the words, instead of B, M, and T.

Once everyone has found their groups of three, eliminate the group that was last and go again! Prepare new word slips in a new bowl, yell “go” and start again. See if you can keep playing until only one group remains.

Preparing the game: Preparing the word slips the right way will make your job as host a lot easier. I made a video showing the easiest way to prepare these:

Alternatively, instead of handing out new words after each round, you can reuse them. Have everyone who wasn’t eliminated hand their paper slips back and forth to each other. Have them do this while mingling around, passing slips several times, trying to switch things up enough. The words won’t be new, but hopefully there’s enough randomizing to make a new unique round.

Printables: Here are the printable word lists you can use to play the game. There are two versions: one with the slips labeled B, M, T if you’re playing with sitting on laps, and one labeled 1, 2, 3 if you want to play with a variation with no lap-sitting. There are word lists divided by difficulty level (easy, medium, and hard) and some other categories as well.

I also have a version of the game for Christmas, and one in Spanish!

Source: I found out about the game from this post from the blog 71 Toes. She even has a video that illustrates the game very well.

What it is: A funny and kind of wacky tag game to play inside.

Best for: A group as small as 4 or as large as 12ish, either kids or adults.

What you need:

• Each player needs a pair of long socks, like the knee-length kind.

How to play: To start, everyone puts on their socks, but not all the way. Players put the socks over their toes but aren’t allowed to pull the socks up over their heels. It looks something like the image shown.

That way there’s quite a bit of extra floppy sock hanging off the front of your foot.

Everyone stands in a circle and someone says “go.” The object is simple: Step on the floppy part of other players’ socks to pull them off. When both of your socks are off, you’re eliminated from the game. The last player to keep one or both of their socks wins.

This is a great game for mixed groups of kids and adults. It’s silly and fun for everyone, and easy for children to understand, but there’s enough sport in it that it’s fun for adults, too. It’s also nice if you need a quick, easy game, so it’s great for family night.

We played this game several times over out past Thanksgiving break with extended family, mostly adults. It was so fun! It’s pretty hilarious to see everyone hopping around, trying to protect their socks while stepping on other players’ socks. Also there were some pretty intense family members at our gathering, so when the last few players remained, it kind of turned into Extreme Floppy Sock Tag, which was sort of half wrestling match. Quite entertaining!

Variations: You can do basically the same thing with balloons instead of socks.

Best for: Teens to adults

What you need:

• Only a list of words (and I’ve got plenty for you)

How to play: You play password with two teams of two. There’s one word (the password) that one player on each team knows, and both are trying to get their teammate to guess the word first by taking turns giving one-word clues.

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say our players are Ben and Brooke (on one team) and Dan and Donna (on the other team).

Each team chooses one player to go first. We’ll say Ben and Dan. Using a word generator or paper slips or cards with words written on them, one word is chosen, the word that will be the password for both of them. We’ll say it’s “key.”

Ben and Dan both know the password, while it’s kept secret from Brooke and Donna.

Once Ben and Dan both know the password, the game can start. One of them will go first, say Ben. He gets a chance to get his teammate Brooke to guess the password. The trick is, Ben can only give a one-word clue. He might say “lock.” With her one-word clue, Brooke thinks and makes a one-word guess as to what the password might be. She might say, “door?” Because she guesses incorrectly, it’s now Dan and Donna’s turn.

Dan can now give Donna a one-word clue. He might say “metal.” Now Donna has the benefit of knowing Dan’s clue (metal) as well as Ben’s (lock). But she might still guess incorrectly and say, “safe?”

Now it’s Ben’s turn again. He thinks hard and gives the clue “unlock.” It’s Brooke’s turn to guess, and now she has three clues to work with: lock, metal, and unlock. That might be enough for her to correctly guess, “key?”

Play goes back and forth between the two teams, as many turns as it takes, until someone guesses the password. Once someone correctly guesses the password, the round is over, that team gets a point, and you start another round. Switch roles first, so Brooke and Donna are giving the clues and Ben and Dan are guessing. Every two rounds, switch which team goes first.

That’s the basic gameplay! It’s simple and might even seem boring, but it can actually get really funny. You might have seen the game played on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Depending on how you play, the game might also be a fun test as to how well two players know each other. If you are OK with using shared knowledge as clues, the more you know about your partner and the way they think, the better chance you have of figuring out their clues. For example, once when my husband and I were playing, the password was stomp. The other team had given the clue foot, and it was my turn to give my husband a clue. Our three-year-old daughter was going through a very stubborn phase where she was apt to throw mini tantrums, so I only had to say Annelise for my husband to know exactly what I was talking about.

As for what words to use, the word lists for catchphrase, either easy or medium, might work well. My online or app form word generator is a great resource. Multi-meaning words like organ and wave are always interesting, because the clue-givers can say any one-word clue they want, even if they use a different definition of the password that has previously been used. The same goes for words like coach or bruise that can be either verbs or nouns.

Rules: Like in catchphrase, rhyming words are not allowed as clues. So, for example, if the password were sassy and someone, after a few rounds, tried to use the word Lassie as a clue, that would be against the rules, because sassy and Lassie have no relation except for the fact that they rhyme (well, unless you have a pet dog named Lassie with some serious sass). The same goes for using clue words simply because they have the same first letter as the password.

There are lots of other rules that many readers have shared! Check out the comments below for some. I think when you play with your friends and family, if you are serious about the rules, clarify them all with everyone beforehand and be prepared to settle disputes if they arise.

Variations: The game is similar to catchphrase.

What it is: A playground game that’s hard to play unless you have the right place and people, but if you do, it can be a lot of fun

Best for: Three to six children and one to two adults or older teens

What you need:

• You play this game at a park on a playground structure. It needs to be the right type, though. Not too big, provides enough places to hide, but offers enough open space, too. And not dangerous to move around in.
• You also need balls–the more the better! Not balls as hard as dodge balls or soccer balls, but those softer, air-filled plastic balls, or foam balls.

How to play: If I remember right, my family made this one up. Basically all the children are on the play structure, and it’s their castle. The adults are out on the ground around the castle. And then they just peg balls at the kids. Lightly, of course, not aiming for heads. (This is why you don’t want to play with dodge balls.) The kids try to avoid getting hit by the balls, and also try to throw them back out of the castle as fast as they can. There’s probably a lot of laughter and screaming involved. There’s no winning, losing, or being eliminated. Just play for the fun of it.

Like I said, I think my family made this one up. We lived close to a park with a play structure in the shape of a giant castle, which made the game perfect there. I remember my dad running all around, picking up balls, throwing them at us, and all of us laughing. It’s probably one of those games that, when you’re a kid, seems all too short because the grown-ups get tired. We didn’t ever play it as a formal game. We probably didn’t play it more than a few times. But I remember loving it. So I wanted to document it here.

What it is: A silly drawing game that was actually sent in from a reader! Thanks, Jennifer!

Best for: Three to eight players (and a great game for children)

What you need:

• Paper and pens or pencils. You could get fancy with crayons, markers, or colored pencils. You could also get fancy with a pre-made printable form, like the one I provide below

How to play: The game is pretty simple. A paper is divided into thirds and different players draw a monster head, body, and feet, creating a silly monster masterpiece (or monsterpiece) that everyone can laugh at, because the results always end up being funny.

The secret is folding the paper so the current artist can’t see what the previous artists drew. So, Lucy might draw a monster head, then fold over a third of the paper, hiding the head. She would pass the paper to Bryce, who would draw a monster body, then fold the paper over, hiding the body, and pass it to Susan, who would draw the feet. Then unfold the paper for the big reveal!

On the included printable, there are two monster drawing blanks to a page. The drawing space is divided into thirds; once you draw a monster head, fold the paper down until the top edge meets the first line, covering the head. Repeat with the other two sections. The small vertical marks on the horizontal lines tell you how wide to make the monster neck and waist, so the three sections fit together well.

I hope you and your family have some fun monster-drawing silliness with this game, just in time for Halloween!

Draw a Monster Printable

Best for: Two people or a small group, probably ages 8 and up

What you need: Nothing but your brains!

How to play: The basic gameplay is simple: one player thinks of an object and the other players try to guess what it is. For this game, it’s best if there’s a pre-determined category, like food, people, animals, etc. The category that has worked the best for us is people.

But let’s play with food and say Julie thinks of banana bread.

She’s playing with Laura, who, unlike in twenty questions, makes guesses by naming a specific food. For example:

Laura: Is it an orange?

To give Laura a clue, Julie gives a statement starting “No, because…” Like this:

Julie: No, because it doesn’t grow on trees.

Laura guesses another specific food, and then another.

Laura: Is it lemonade?

Julie: No, because you don’t drink it.

Laura: Is it pizza?

Julie: No, because it’s sweeter.

Laura: Is it a strawberry?

Julie: No, because it’s manmade.

Laura: Is it a cookie?

At this point, when Laura’s guess is pretty close to Julie’s item, Laura can give a clue in the form of “No, but…”

Julie: No, but it is a baked good.

Laura keeps guessing until she gets it.

Laura: Is it…oh, I don’t know, banana bread?

Julie: Yes! Wow, good guess!

It can actually be a challenging game. It can be hard to come up with specific guesses when you know so little about the object in question. It can also be difficult to come up with clues that aren’t too easy and aren’t too hard. And it actually hasn’t worked too well with my young children. Carson, my six year old, often looses interest in guessing because it’s too hard or, when it’s his turn to give the clues, gives ones like these:

Me: Is it an eraser?

Carson: No, because it doesn’t erase things.

Me: Is it a stapler?

Carson: No, because it doesn’t staple things.

See my problem? So I would say this game is better suited for older children to adults who want a more challenging version of twenty questions with more thought involved.

Variations: This game, in addition to being like twenty questions, is also pretty similar to the game breakfast combo. (It actually started out as me trying to come up with a version of breakfast combo that my young children could play, because my husband and I play it together but it’s too difficult for them.) If you want another twenty questions variation that’s great for young kids, try poodle, which just might also get you laughing!

They’re so much fun that…I wrote my own that I can host myself! I of course love games, and writing, and it took a lot of planning and work and play testing (by so many wonderful, willing friends; thank you!). But it was a lot of fun to do.

And of course, why keep it just to myself when I can offer it to all my readers? You can buy the DIY escape room kit as a complete downloadable package that let’s you host your own escape room at home. Everything is planned, you just need to read the instructions, print and cut out the clues, prepare a room, hide the clues, and you’re good to go!

Check out the kit here

This Science Lab Breakout escape room has a plot (a feature I’ve appreciated in other escape rooms). Another thing I like about the Science Lab Breakout room is that it incorporates paper clues, but also props (all common household objects) that your guests can interact with. Searching for clues and physical items makes the game realistic and fun.

I’m offering a launch special price and…a giveaway!

One lucky reader will get the whole digital download for free.

(Did you know this is my first giveaway ever! I’m excited!)

To enter the giveaway, just comment below and tell me an event you might use the escape room for:

• Birthday party
• Class party
• Corporate team building
• Youth night
• Family reunion
• Game night
• Great Aunt Marge’s 50th anniversary
• Etc.

I’ll announce a random winner on the evening of Monday, August 7. Good luck!

UPDATE: And the randomly-chosen winner of the giveaway is…Wendy Mikesell! Congrats, Wendy! Thank you everyone for entering

So another update: I had my baby! We are now a family of five. Our youngest, Grace, is just the best. We all love her, her cute chunky cheeks, and her giant smile. Of course, life with a new little one can be pretty busy/hard/tiring. I’m sorry for the lack of recent posts!

Right now I have one thing to offer you: a new themed Don’t Eat Pete board. (If you haven’t heard of the game before, visit the link.)

Here in Texas where we live, it’s rodeo time! And it’s a big deal, y’all. (Side note: Despite living a good deal of my childhood in Texas, I never could feel natural saying y’all, and I envy all my friends and siblings who do. I wish I could say it. I think it sounds so much better than “you guys.” But I feel like a total poser when I try.)

Last year I made this Don’t Eat Pete board for my son’s preschool rodeo day. (Yes, a lot of the schools have a rodeo day. Like I said, it’s a big deal.) So now I share it with you! For my son’s school, I made a big poster-size version, but I’m including an 8.5 x 11 paper version you can print:

If you want to make a bigger one, here’s the file I used. You can print all the pages on 8.5 x 11 paper, then cut out each square and cut around the words “Don’t Eat Pete.” Glue the papers to a poster or foam board so it looks like the paper above. You can laminate the pages first if you choose. (Might be a good idea, considering the candy that will be put on them.) On mine, I glued the instructions on the back.

Use it to celebrate the rodeo with all your little cowgirls and cowboys. Let me know if it was useful to you! And happy rodeo, y’all! (OK, at least writing it feels a little more natural than saying it.)

Have you been caught up in the Pokémon Go craze? At the very least you’ve probably heard about it – the insanely popular mobile app game where you walk around and catch Pokémon in the real world.

I admit that I downloaded it and started playing. I can’t resist checking out a new game! And I’ve got to say that it’s fun and slightly addicting (we’re talking level 8). But it would be a lot more fun if:

• I lived on a college campus or in the heart of a big city where I did a lot of walking.
• I didn’t live in suburbia in one of the hottest and most humid parts of the United States in the heat of the summer.
• I wasn’t pregnant.
• I had watched or played Pokémon when I was younger and had known of at least one Pokémon other than Pikachu.

Still, it’s fun. And being motivated to hatch those Pokémon eggs has helped me stick to my weekly walking goal.

Well, if you’re way into Pokémon Go, maybe you’re finding yourself with some down time at a Pokéstop with a lure waiting for Pokémon. What could be better in such an instance than a round of Pokémon Go pictionary, charades, or catchphrase? The printable list at the end of this post has strips with the names of all the Pokémon in Pokémon Go. Depending how much of the Pokédex you’ve completed, the game might be hard. Feel free to pick and choose which Pokémon you want to include. But wouldn’t it be fun to act out a Rattata? Or draw a Zubat? Or describe a Pidgey while your friends guess? Seriously, this could be almost as fun as Pokémon Go itself. (Okay, not seriously.) But if for any reason you find yourself needing a printable list of Pokémon names, here you go!

Pokemon in Pokemon Go

The 2016 Summer Olympics are almost here! This year I can say that I’ve personally met one of the Olympians. How cool is that? If you have a break during your Olympics-watching this year, maybe you’d like to play a little Summer Olympics pictionary, charades, catchphrase, or another game. The word list at the end of this post will help you out! Just cut up the words along the strips and play. This word list will also shortly be added to the online word generator.

If you and your friends or family want some extra Olympic game fun, try some easy trivia to test your Olympic knowledge. How many items can you name in each of the below categories? You can play competitively with a friend or group by choosing one category and taking turns naming items in the category. The first player who can’t think of an original item loses. You can also play cooperatively by playing as a group and counting everyone’s answers together. If you play, post a comment with how many items your group could name. I’ll shower you with praise and accolades (because when I tested my own Olympic knowledge with my husband I didn’t do very well).

• Summer Olympic sports
• Winter Olympic sports
• Past Olympians
• Movies about the Olympics
• Locations of past Olympic Games

I hope you enjoy watching the Olympic Games and cheering on your favorite countries and Olympians!

[pdf_thumbnails_link id=”4059″]

Summer Olympics Word List

Hi readers!

Quick life update: I’m pregnant! Our baby #3, a girl, is due in November. Life of course has been a little abnormal for the past few months. (Meaning that I’ve been way lazy about posting and working on this blog, which explains why the artwork for this post is a lemon and has absolutely nothing to do with the content.)

My husband and I do have some new content and website/app improvements coming soon though! In the meantime, here’s an update on the games (of all types) my family and I have been playing lately. My four-year-old son Carson is starting to get old enough to really take an interest in games, and it’s been a lot more fun for everyone.

The links to Amazon in this list are affiliate links, meaning if you purchase something from Amazon after you click one of the links, our website will get a small portion of the proceeds. Thank you for your support!

• 20 questions. Carson has been way into this, especially with movies. It makes it easy because he really hasn’t seen that many movies at his young age.
• Pokémon Go. Yes, I’ve been swept up in the craze. Sort of. It’s hard to get super into it when you’re pregnant and it’s hot and humid outside and you don’t walk anywhere except in an air conditioned gym. Carson likes it maybe more than me. He loves holding my phone and watching for Pokémon to pop up.
• Uno, and the variant, Uno Spin. These are nice because Carson and my three-year-old daughter Annelise can both play. They can’t hold the cards in their hands so they lay them all out on the floor. Admittedly this takes away some of the strategy, but it’s still a fun game.
• Nuts about Mutts, a card game similar to Uno. (Created by the family of one of my friends, isn’t that cool?) Annelise likes this one better than Uno because of the adorable dog illustrations. What three-year-old girl wouldn’t?
• Spaceteam. Okay, this is hilarious. My husband and I have played together several times. It’s an iPhone game, but one that you play cooperatively with a partner by shouting technobabble to each other out loud. Kind of stressful, but also kind of ridiculous, which makes it really fun.
• Ticket to Ride. Carson and Annelise think they’re old enough to play this game, though we just make up our own rules. I think they just like the little toy trains.
• What’s My Job? This “game” is one my mom played with me and my siblings when we were little. Basically the kids ask, “What’s my job?” and you tell them a job to do and they do it. Great game, huh? Oft played at our house to complete chores and get the house clean.
• Pictionary. I’m so happy that we can start playing one of my all-time favorite games together as a family! Both kids really enjoy it, but Annelise mostly just likes to use her turn to draw whatever she wants for as long as she wants. Oh, well.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer with some quality family time, too! Watch for more posts coming soon!

What it is: An easy, fast game that everyone probably already knows. But I like to be comprehensive, so here we go with some rock-paper-scissors instructions. Rock-paper-scissors is a quick win-loose game that is often used to determine who will go first or who will win some other small privilege.

Best for: Two players. But you could have a giant rock-paper-scissors tournament with tons of people!

What you need: Nothing! Well, technically speaking, each player needs to use their two hands.

How to play: In rock-paper-scissors, two players will each randomly choose one of three hand signs: rock (made by making a fist), paper (made by laying your hand flat), or scissors (made by holding out two fingers to look like scissors). Both players show their signs at the same time to see who will win. Here are the rules that determine which sign beats another:

• Rock wins over scissors (because rock smashes scissors)
• Scissors wins over paper (because scissors cut paper)
• Paper wins over rock (because paper covers rock)

(If that last one doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you…you’re not alone.)

If both players show the same sign, it’s a tie. And that’s basically the whole game! It’s often played in a best-two-out-of-three format as a quick contest to decide who gets to go first or something like that.

To make sure things are clear, here’s a short video on the game:

It’s essentially just a game of chance. But if you’re young, rock-paper-scissors is a legitimately exciting game that can provide hours of fun…or, if not hours, at least minutes.

I did find this video that gives some interesting insight and tips at winning rock-paper-scissors. Who knew there could be that much strategy involved in a game of chance?

Variations: I’ve never played it, but there’s a variation invented by Sam Kass and Karen Bryla that includes five options instead of three: Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard. And I guess you could include the rock-scissors-dynamite variation.

What it is: A people-watching game. If you’re thinking from the title that it’s a mean game, don’t worry. It’s not supposed to be at all.

Best for: One, two, or three people.

What you need:

• A place to people-watch. So a mall or airport or a big event like a sports game where there are lots of people to observe.

How to play: When you’re somewhere crowded where you want to pass the time, people watching is a great activity. It can be fun with friends, too. In this game, you look at the clothes other people are wearing and ask yourself, “Would I wear that?”

The goal isn’t to be mean or to judge others. It’s to think about yourself and what styles you like to wear, what you’d be willing to try, what you could or couldn’t pull off, what you think looks good on you and what doesn’t. So I guess it’s not so much of a people-watching game as an…outfit-watching game.

It might be informative, too. Maybe you might get some ideas about clothes you’ve always liked but haven’t ever tried. Maybe you just realize things about your taste that you’ve never noticed before. (For example, I realized that the harder it is to identify a color, the more I like it. Bright, obvious, bold royal blue – ew. But a shirt that’s kind of grayish-purpleish-brownish or maybe orangeish-pinkish-tanish? Love it.)

Variations: There are lots of variations to people-watching – basically sitting somewhere and watching strangers walk past. You could try to guess where they’re from or where they’re going (perfect for in an airport). You could try to invent a crazy exciting backstory for them. You could make it more of a scavenger hunt with a list of things to find. I’ve made some printables for a people-watching scavenger hunt you could play in an airport and one you could play on a date night.

What it is: A cooperative talking game where players try to say the same word at the same time.

Best for: Two players. I’ve seen it done with three, which is more difficult but could be doable.

What you need: You don’t need anything to play, other than your brains.

How to play: This is a simple game that can provide hours of fun. It’s kind of addicting, almost, once you get started.

After I learned the game, I found out it’s from the band OK Go (you know, the ones with all the awesome music videos?). (This one isn’t really official, but I think it’s my favorite…except a lot of them are kind of my favorite.) OK Go actually has a video that explains the game really well, as well as an app that lets you play even when you’re not with friends. Go check them out! So though I know this post won’t be as entertaining as OK Go’s video, I’ll go ahead and explain how to play here, too.

You start by having two people each say a word at the same time. Any word. It will be a random pair, and that’s okay.

Let’s say Adam and Liz are playing. These are the two words they say:

• Adam: See saw
• Liz: Trip

To make sure they say their words at the same, one or both of them can snap their fingers three times. After the third snap, or on an optional fourth snap, they each say their word.

After that first round, Adam and Liz go again. But this time they’re going to try to say the same word. They do this by trying to find a word that connects the first two words, or something they have in common. You could also think of it as finding the intersection between the two words. So the second round might look like this, with the players’ thought process included:

• Adam: Playground (because this is where you’d trip over a see saw)
• Liz: Fall (because if you tripped over a see saw, you would fall)

Everyone thinks a little bit differently, so it might take a while for Adam and Elizabeth to finally say the right word.

• Adam: Push (because if you fall at a playground, someone might have pushed you)
• Liz: Merry-go-round (the most likely place to fall at a playground)

It’s good for them to take time between rounds to think and come up with the right word. Otherwise, if it’s just about speed, it could get difficult.

• Adam: Exercise (because pushing a merry-go-round is essentially exercise)
• Liz: Spin (because when you push a merry-go-round, it spins)

But it can be a little bit about speed. They don’t want to sit around waiting forever.

• Adam: Treadmill (a form of exercising that involves spinning equipment)
• Liz: Dancing (because this is a way you can spin and exercise at the same time)

Finally, though, they’ll end up on the same word.

• Adam: OK Go! (because they have the best treadmill dance music video of all time)
• Liz: OK Go! (because they have the best treadmill dance music video of all time)

It’s a very rewarding feeling.

This game could be over quickly, in three or even two rounds. Or it could drag on for a while. It’s fun to see the way someone else thinks, and to laugh (or get frustrated) when you think an opposite way. It can also lead to some funny moments, too. Once my husband and I were playing and, I can’t remember what the preceding pair was, but we said Luke Skywalker and Mark Hamill at the same time. (We weren’t sure if that should count as a win.) Another time my sister and I had the words love and brown to work with, and we both came up with chocolate.

I like this game because it’s cooperative instead of competitive. It’s a great time-killer and fun to play. So thank you, OK Go!

What it is: An imagining game where players talk out loud, describing a dream cabin or house.

Best for: A small group of players. It’s ideal for playing on long car rides.

What you need: Nothing. It’s just a talking game.

How to play: My husband introduced me to this game. He said he and his family played in on car rides often. (He’s the oldest of six boys, and they took a lot of road trips.) The game starts with everyone agreeing to build an imaginary cabin. Then each player takes a turn and adds a feature to the cabin. My husband said these usually included things like these:

• Rooms full of bunk beds
• Soda machines around the house
• A movie theater in the basement with an all-you-can-eat popcorn machine
• Observatories
• Underground pools
• Slides or firemen poles leading to lower levels
• A big beautiful bay window right outside the dining area (This was the type of addition my mother-in-law would make, as opposed to the brothers, if you can’t guess.)

Kind of along the same lines as the dream homes my sisters and I would draw as kids. The features can include things inside the cabin, the structure of the cabin, and the surrounding landscape.

My husband did say that sometimes the game tended to break down, as arguments might erupt about placement or functionality of features (e.g., “You can’t put a giant trampoline that catapults into the lake! I already added the boat dock there!”). My husband said this often led to an alternate version of the game where, instead of everyone building onto one collective cabin, each person has their own. Players then still take turns adding on features, but this time to their own personal cabin. Maybe everyone can still be neighbors, at least.

Variations: Instead of a cabin, you can build anything in your mind: Dream home, hotel, mansion, space station, house boat, luxury train, submersible ship, AirBnB house, underwater home, castle, amusement park, a lunar base, tree house, campsite, beach house, airplane, cruise ship…your imagination’s the limit!

My sisters and I also did a similar activity growing up where we would draw our dream houses. I think it’s kind of neat that when my husband was ten years old growing up in Colorado, describing the indoor slides his dream cabin would have, I was ten years old in Texas, decorating my dream house with indoor slides, too.

What it is: A throwing and catching game for a small group. Players try to keep the ball away from one player (the “monkey”).

Best for: A small group, maybe 3 to 5.

What you need:

• A ball to throw and catch. It could be a kickball or an inflated ball. You could even play with a soccer ball that you kick and receive, or a frisbee or some other object.

How to play: Monkey in the middle is one of those simple games that’s easily variable. Players toss or kick a ball back and forth between them, but one extra player (the “monkey”) is left standing in the middle. The other players try to keep the ball away from the monkey. The monkey tries to grab the ball, earning him or her a place on the outside of the circle.

When the monkey grabs the ball, the last player to have touched it is now the monkey. You can decide on more specific rules, too. Does the monkey have to grab the ball, or will simply touching it count? You can adjust the rules and playing size to the ages of your players.

This is often one of those games that happens naturally to pass the time or (unfortunately) to bully someone else by keeping something they want away from them.

Don’t play like that. We all know it’s not nice.

But when played with people who agree by common consent to play, it can be a fun game that lasts for a while.

speed!

There is a commercial game called Bananagrams that’s essentially the same thing. I learned this game as Speed Scrabble first, and I’ve also heard it called Take Two.

Best for: A small group of people, maybe 4 to 6 players.

What you need:

• Letter tiles from a Scrabble game (but you won’t need the game board)

How to play: To set up your game, have everyone sit around a table or in a circle on the floor. Turn all of your Scrabble tiles face-down in the center of the circle and mix them all up. Then have each player pull out two tiles, keeping them face-down.

Someone starts the game by saying “go.” Then everyone turns over his or her pieces.

Each player will be building their own mini Scrabble grid in front of them. So when you turn over your pieces, start spelling with them as fast as you can. Once someone successfully uses all their tiles (and for this first round, that’s just two tiles), they shout “go.” Then everyone reaches forward and grabs another tile from the pile. Now you have three tiles, and you use all of them to build another Scrabble grid. Then, just like in the last round, whoever uses all three pieces together in one unbroken grid first calls “go,” and everyone takes another tile.

Each round you’ll get one more piece, making the grid larger and more complex. You can add the tiles you draw onto your existing grid, or, at any time, you can rearrange the whole thing. To call “go” you just need to use all of your tiles, and they all need to be connected in one unbroken grid.

This short video demonstrates part of a game and should make it a little clearer:

The goal is to use all your pieces, not leaving any out. The person who completes their whole Scrabble grid first when no more pieces are left wins. So it doesn’t matter if you’re ahead or behind for most of the game – all you need to do is be the first to finish and you win.

As for rules, blank tiles are wilds; you can use them for any letter. But it has to be the same letter for the whole Scrabble board, just like in real Scrabble. (But if you do decide to start over and change everything, you can switch the letter the wild stands for.) Players can challenge others’ words if they don’t think they’re real, and at the end the winner has to go through each of their words, proving that they didn’t cheat. It’s also often fun for everyone to say all their words out loud at the end, too.

Variations: Although I haven’t played with most of them, the Wikipedia page on Scrabble variants lists some other variations of Speed Scrabble that sound like they could be fun.

By the way, this post contains affiliate links. Thanks so much for your support!

What it is: A version of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game – you’re basically trying to find links between actors via the movies they star in.

Best for: A small group, maybe up to six players. Two players work fine, too. You could even play by yourself.

What you need: Just your brains! If you want/need to cheat, IMDb would be a good resource.

How to play: My siblings and I would play this game on car trips or to kill time. We would start with someone naming an actor or actress. For example, Kate might name Anne Hathaway.

The next player, Michelle, would name another actor that Anne Hathaway appeared in a movie with. For example, Anne Hathaway appeared in Ella Enchanted with Cary Elwes. The next player might say that Cary Elwes appeared in The Princess Bride with Billy Crystal. It can be entertaining to simply name actors and movies and come up with a big long chain. This is also how you could play competitively. If someone on their turn can’t think of an actor and/or movie that hasn’t already been said, they’re eliminated from the game. The last player left wins.

In our version of the game, though, we played cooperatively. Our goal as a group was to get back to where we started (so in this game, Anne Hathaway). The whole loop might look like this:

• Anne Hathaway appeared in Ella Enchanted with Cary Elwes.
• Cary Elwes appeared in The Princess Bride with Billy Crystal.
• Billy Crystal was in in Monsters, Inc. with John Goodman.
• John Goodman appeared in The Borrowers with…with that boy who helped the Borrowers…what was his name? [Quick IMDB check] Bradley Pierce.
• Bradley Pierce appeared in Jumangi with Robin Williams.
• Robin Williams appeared in Night at the Museum with Dick Van Dyke.
• Dick Van Dyke appeared in Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews.
• Julie Andrews appeared in The Princess Diaries with…Anne Hathaway!

It can take a while, but that’s all part of the fun. We really didn’t play that seriously. Half the time we didn’t even know the actors’ names: it was “that guy from ___, the villain, you know?” And our loops probably could have been done more efficiently, but we didn’t care if it took a while. (Also, side note, it can take a while/be harder if you’re keeping your blog family-friendly by trying to name only PG or G movies.)

There are some rules you might want to consider. Can you mention a movie or actor if they’ve been said before? (We said no.) Does voice talent in animated movies count? (We said yes.) Does it count if you don’t know the name of the actor? (We said yes, because we weren’t huge movie buffs.) Do multiple movies in a series (for example, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) count as the same movie? Do cameos count? Do TV shows count? If so, do guest stars count? Things like that.

Hope it can be an entertaining game for your and your family or friends!

Presidents’ Day is coming up! I wanted to post a Presidents’ Day game this year so I did some research into the holiday, and it was a lot more complicated than I thought! Wikipedia has the full story if you’re interested, but basically it’s not really standardized who exactly we celebrate on Presidents’ Day. The holiday is officially George Washington’s birthday (even though the holiday never falls on his actual birthday…). Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is also in February so he is often celebrated on Presidents’ Day, too, but it is sometimes used as a day to celebrate all American presidents in general. The name varies from state to state. I had no idea! Did you? How does your state celebrate Presidents’ Day?

Well, before I did all that research, I made a version of Who am I? for Presidents’ Day (you can head over to that post for instructions). The Presidents’ Day version has cards with names of American presidents on them and, I admit, would be pretty dang challenging for most people. I’d probably be awful at it. But if you’re a U.S. History class or if you and your friends are history buffs, you’d probably be great at it!

Presidents’ Day “Who Am I?” game

But after doing my research on Wikipedia, I felt bad for not keeping with the roots of the holiday and celebrating George Washington (and Abraham Lincoln) in particular. So I made another game, a matching game.

At a recent birthday dinner for two of my friends, a third friend put this game together. She made a list of  little-known facts about each birthday girl and read them all out loud in no particular order. We all had to write down which friend we thought the fact was about. It was a lot of fun when we played that way, all sitting around the table at our restaurant and laughing as we got to know the birthday girls in new ways.

This Presidents’ Day version may not produce as many giggles, but it’ll definitely keep you thinking! I don’t think it will be easy. (It definitely wouldn’t be for me!) To play, print out the printable. Read the facts out loud to your group. An answer sheet is included for players to write their answers on. There’s also a key so you can read the correct answers at the end of the game. The player with the most right answers wins! I think this would be a great game to play in school as you’re learning about the presidents of the United States, especially Washington and Lincoln. There are 32 facts, 16 about each president. If some of them are too hard or if there are too many for your age group, just leave some off and have students make their own answer sheet.

Presidents’ Day game: Name that president

To complete your Presidents’ Day celebrations, don’t forget to check out my Presidents’ Day pictionary list.

Happy Presidents’ Day and happy playing!

What it is: A talking and guessing game for a large group of people. You’re assigned a character or person and you have to ask questions to other players until you figure out who you are.

Best for: A medium to large group of people, maybe 10 to 20.

What you need:

• You’ll need names of characters or people written on cards. These can be themed, like all Star Wars names or all Disney princesses. The broader the theme, the more difficult it will be. You can make your own cards (3×5 cards work great) or I provide some free printable cards at the bottom of the post.

How to play: Before you start, tape a different card on each player’s forehead with masking tape. Do it carefully so they can’t see the name. Once all of the players have a card taped to their forehead, announce the start of the game.

Players are free to mingle throughout the room, talking to each other and trying to figure out which character they have taped on their forehead. They’re allowed to ask yes or no questions, but that’s all. Once they guess correctly, they can remove the card and go stand to the side until everyone guesses their card. (Or they can continue to mingle, answering others’ questions to help them guess.)

Encourage players to move around and mingle and talk to more than one person. It can be a good way to get a variety of clues, and it makes the game more of an icebreaker. Also, sometimes some players may not be familiar with all of the names on the cards, so you might have to talk to multiple people to get enough clues to guess who you are.

If you want an example, let’s say you’re playing in a group where everyone has a Disney character taped to their forehead. Here are some of the questions you might ask and the answers you might receive:

Am I a hero? Yes…

Am I American? Not applicable.

Not applicable? Well, you speak Standard American English, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re American (especially in animated movies, right?).

Am I a person? Yes.

Am I from the past or the future? Present…maybe sort of past?

Am I a boy? Yes.

Am I CGI or animated? CGI.

Am I Woody? No.

Buzz Lightyear? No.

Am I the main character? Yes.

Do I have super powers? Um…no, I would say no.

Am I a grown man? Yes.

Do I play sports? No.

Do I save a girl? Yes.

Do I have a co-star? Yes, several.

Do I have a sidekick? Not really.

Do I sing any songs? No.

Thank heavens.

I’m good, right? At heart…

Am I not good on the surface? You could say that.

Do I have a love interest? No.

Um…give me a hint. Maybe you’re bad guy…but that does not mean you are bad guy…

Have you guessed it by now? (Side note: it’s one of my favorite Disney movies.) Leave a comment if you have!

Printables: I made a couple printables to get you started if you want to play this game. There’s a list of female and male Disney characters. (I broke it out by gender in case you have an all-girls sleepover party or something, or if you want to match gender to players.) I only used animated Disney movies, I included Pixar, and, though I didn’t include every movie or every character, there are definitely some obscure ones in there. Each card has the name of the character as well as the movie to make identifying the character easier. If there are some that you think are too difficult or that your group won’t be familiar with, just leave them out.

There are six cards to each 8.5×11 page. Just print and cut along the dotted lines. I would recommend printing on cardstock. Or, you could cut out the cards and mount them on 3×5 notecards.

Female Disney Character Cards

Male Disney Character Cards

If you play, let me know how it goes! Or let me know if you have any requests of character lists you would like to use. Happy playing!

What it is: A really simple game kids can play in a car. It’s not so much a game as an…activity to pass the time? Or a way to tease/persecute the person sitting in the middle of the backseat.

Best for: Three or four children, however many are sitting in the backseat of a car.

What you need:

• A car with a backseat and a road to drive on. The road also needs curves – sharp turns on residential streets are best. Highway driving, not so much.

How to play: In this game, players basically use the momentum of the car to squish each other.

It’s simple. When the car makes a left turn, everyone in the backseat leans as hard as they can to the right. When the car makes a right turn, everyone leans as hard as they can to the left. In theory I guess the passengers are just responding to the natural forces of momentum, but it’s more about exaggerating and slamming into each other as hard as you can.

This game is the least fun for the person in the middle. The people on the edges get smashed against the windows, true. But half the time they get to be the ones doing the smashing. That poor middle-seater? They just get smashed and smushed each and every turn the car makes. Same applies to the smallest person playing. I was younger and smaller than my cousins who taught me how to play. Guess who was smushed the most? Luckily, I’m the oldest of my siblings, so when it came time to teach my younger sisters how to play, I experienced sweet recompense.

The thing is, even when you’re getting squished, it’s kind of a fun game. And luckily the game never lasts longer than a car ride, so if you’re in the middle, the next time you get in, you can hustle for a window seat.

Good luck, and I hope you don’t get squished too bad.

What it is: A variation of twenty questions. It’s a little more complicated than twenty questions and involves more thought for both the guesser and the one answering the questions. So if you like twenty questions but it’s getting a little old, this’ll probably be the perfect game for you to try.

Best for: Two players.

What you need: Nothing! Those games are the best.

How to play: Just like twenty questions, this game starts with one player (we’ll call him Josh) thinking of an item to guess. Unlike twenty questions, it’s best if this item is pretty specific. So some good examples might be things like this:

• Your iPhone
• A garbage sack
• The shirt I’m wearing
• A Garmin GPS

Some not-so-good examples:

• Clouds
• Rocks
• A house

Does that make sense?

So, let’s say Josh is playing and he’s thinking of an item, and he comes up with his iPhone. Then the person he’s playing with, Paige, gets to start guessing, with the goal, of course, of guessing that the item is Josh’s iPhone.

In twenty questions, Paige would ask yes or no questions and try to deduce what the item would be from the provided clues. In breakfast combo, Paige just goes ahead and starts guessing things. They can start out random. It’s also good if these guesses are more specific rather than broad. So…

Paige: Is it a fireplace?

Because this is the first guess, this is what Josh says:

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than anything you’ve guessed so far.

Then Paige gets to guess something else.

Paige: Is it a turtle?

Now Josh needs to decide if the item, his iPhone, is more similar to a turtle or a fireplace. Say he decides it’s more like a fireplace.

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a turtle, but, like a turtle…

And then Josh would fill in a clue, something that his iPhone and a turtle have in common. It could be anything he comes up with, like:

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a turtle, but, like a turtle, I’ve seen it.

So then Paige gets to guess something else.

Paige: Is it a campfire?

Josh answers the same way he did before.

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a campfire, but, like a campfire, it needs to be started.

Paige guesses again:

Paige: Is it a Sega Genesis game system?

In this case, Josh would probably decide that his iPhone is more like a Sega Genesis than anything else that Paige has guessed. So he says:

Josh: It’s more like a Sega Genesis than anything you’ve guessed so far.

(Here you can add a slight variation. Josh can either say the above sentence and leave it at that, or he could provide a reason, e.g., “It’s more like a Sega Genesis than anything you’ve guessed so far because it’s manmade.” The second option makes it easier for the guesser.)

Play goes on like that, with Paige guessing specific objects and Josh responding. If the item Paige just guessed is closest to the item Josh has in mind, Josh says, “It’s more like [current guess] than anything you’ve said so far.” If the item Paige just guessed isn’t as close to the item as something else she’s previously said, Josh says, “It’s more like [previous guess] than [current guess], but, like [current guess], [something current guess and item have in common].

As you might guess, it’s often just as challenging for Josh to come up with answers as it is for Paige to guess. It’s fun because it does provide some new variety to the classic game of twenty questions. It’s a great game to play in the car (which is where Paige and Josh play it most).

Variations: As stated, breakfast combo is a variation of twenty questions. It’s also very similar to no, because. For another, more creative/silly variation of 20 questions, try poodle!

What it is: A game, or really more of an activity, to play around the house. It’s ideal for one to two players, really entertaining for little children, a new favorite of my four-year-old, and the reason my handheld mirror is broken.

Best for: One, two, or three children in a house

What you need:

• A handheld mirror, not huge, but big enough to see your whole face in. If you have more than one person, you can have more than one mirror (more fun). Or you can take turns (less fun).

How to play: This is a simple one. You take a handheld mirror and use it to pretend to walk on the ceiling. To do this, just hold the mirror parallel to the floor, pressed against your face right underneath your nose. Then look down into the mirror, which will be displaying a reflection of the ceiling.

If you walk around and use your suspension of disbelief, it kind of feels like you’re actually walking on the ceiling, especially if the mirror is large enough to cover up the view of your feet and the ground beneath you.

So then the fun part comes in the novelty of walking on the ceiling. There are light fixtures to avoid, door frames to step over, and sometimes giant pits (aka, vaulted ceilings) that you could fall into. The ceiling is a dangerous place. It can be fun to play with two people, so you can plan and explore together. You can definitely add more imaginative play too, like a mission to complete or ceiling goblins chasing after you or the spacetime continuum to restore to balance. Something like that.

Just be sure that when you’re playing you’re not totally unaware of the ground you’re actually walking on. Me and my sisters loved to play this when we were little, and I remember getting banged shins from coffee tables in the process. Make sure the rooms are tidy, without too many toys or objects to trip over or step on. (Like Legos. Legos are the worst.)

It’s funny, I recently taught my son Carson to play this. He loved it from the get-go. And asks to play every time I’m doing my hair and makeup and he sees my little mirror. Did I mention he broke one already? Now I know why my mom was always reluctant to let us play when I was a kid. She was worried not only about the safety of her mirrors, but us, too.

I never got it before. I couldn’t understand why she wanted to take away all our fun like that.

I understand now, Mom. I understand.

Best for: A big group of teens. You need two or three minimum on a team, but what you really want is multiple teams of three or more players. Then the teams can all compete against each other.

What you need:

• To start, each team just needs one thing: a penny.
• This scavenger hunt also involves going door-to-door, so you either need to be in a neighborhood where the teams can walk the whole way, or you might want cars with drivers.
• If you’re playing with teens, you probably want an adult chaperone with each team, too.

How to play: To start, give each team a penny.

Then explain the game. Each team will take their penny and start going door-to-door. When they knock on a door and someone answers, they ask one simple question:

We’re doing a scavenger hunt activity. Can you give us anything bigger or better?

And they show the penny. Their goal is to exchange the penny for anything bigger or better that the homeowner wants to give them. Since this is so open-ended, it often leads to some funny results. You usually just end up with junk people want to give away, but that can make it funny, too. It might be an old stuffed animal, or a can of soup, or an empty cardboard box, or an ugly wooden chair.

Hopefully the people whose doors you knock on find it kind of entertaining, as well. You can leave them with the old item, or, if they don’t want it, you can take it with you. If someone doesn’t want to give you anything, just move on. Be courteous, kind, and grateful to everyone.

At the end of the predetermined game time, everyone meets back where you started to decide who has the biggest or best item of them all. You can award prizes if you want, maybe one for the biggest and one for the best, maybe one for the quirkiest and one for the most valuable. The end is the best part, with everyone telling funny stories and talking about all the crazy or random stuff they picked up that night. It’s a great time for refreshments or dessert, too! (And…you might need to end the whole night with someone making a donation trip to Goodwill.)

One option I wanted to mention: If you don’t want your teams going to strangers’ houses, you can always pre-arrange for them to go to homes of people you know. If you’re doing this with a youth group at a church, for example, you can let members of the congregation know beforehand that the youth will be doing this activity. Then you can assign each team their own houses to visit, or leave it up to the teams to visit whomever in the congregation they want.

I have some fun memories from playing this in my own youth group. Hopefully it can be a fun experience for you, too!

Variations: If you’re into scavenger hunts, I also have a post on photo scavenger hunts, and a series of posts for a two-person date night scavenger hunt.

When you’re a little kid, before the days of complicated relationships and crushes, Valentine’s Day is a pretty fun holiday, right? You get candy and fun little notes from classmates and maybe a gift from mom and dad. Nothing not to love, right?

In honor of our littlest kids, and because I have a preschooler, I made a Valentine version of Don’t Eat Pete. (Visit the link if you need to learn how to play.) It’s one of the best games in the world – or at least that’s what I thought when I was five.

And, oh, you should definitely use conversation hearts instead of M&Ms for this holiday version.

As I was making the 8.5×11 version of the Don’t Eat Pete board, I actually thought it would be really cute to make smaller versions that young kids could give out as Valentines to classmates. I think they would make some especially cute preschool class Valentines.

There are 6 super-mini Don’t Eat Pete boards to each 8.5×11 sheet. There are two pages, so print front-to-back. The back has instructions and a place to address the card. I’d recommend printing on cardstock. Then cut along the dotted lines, pair with a box of conversation hearts, and your child has a cute, unique Valentine to give out. You could even laminate them.

So happy Valentine’s day, and know that I love and appreciate all of you readers!

My husband has been working hard to get version 2.0 of the Game Gal game words app up and ready to go. Today it was just released in the app store! Go download it if you haven’t! It’s got more word lists than before, an updated look and feel, and most importantly it’s fully compatible with iOS 9.

Thank you all for your reports, comments, compliments, and patience!

Sincerely,

Paige, the Game Gal

What it is: A Christmas gift pass/exchange activity, kind of like a white elephant gift exchange, but for younger kids. It’s easier and faster than a white elephant gift exchange and, because there’s no actual choosing involved, will probably lead to less gift-picker remorse/tears.

Best for: A classroom of children, anywhere from 12 to 30ish.

What you need:

• Each child will need to bring a wrapped gift for this gift exchange activity. It would be nice to set up some rules or a theme beforehand, like everyone bring a wrapped book, or the gift should be anywhere from $3-$5, or please keep it gender neutral, etc.
• You’ll also need this printable poem to read.

How to play: Have everyone sit in a circle on the floor. Then you can start one of two ways. You can have all the children put their gifts in a pile in the middle of the circle, then let everyone go up and pick a gift. They can probably all go up at the same time. Tell them they’re not going to end up with the gift they pick, so it’s not a decision to stress over. For an easier way to start or for younger children, just have each child hold the gift he or she brought.

Once everyone is seated in a circle and holding a gift, explain how the gift pass will work. You’ll read a poem aloud, and every time you say the words right or left, the children will pass their gift in the direction you say. (So the children will need to have at least a basic understanding of right and left.)

Then start reading the poem aloud. It’s an adaptation of the famous “‘Twas Night Before Christmas” poem. The key difference is words have been added – the words “right” and “left,” as many times as I could get them in. (It unfortunately messes with the rhythm a little bit, but it’s for the sake of the game.) Any time you come to one of those words, bolded and underlined for your convenience, really emphasize it. Make sure all the children pass their gift in the right direction. If your class is young, it might be nice to have another parent or teacher helper to oversee the passing.

Hopefully the kids will enjoy it, listening in anticipation for the words and watching the gifts move around the circle. And it’s a great way to practice directions, too. At the end of the poem, everyone keeps the gift he or she ends up with. Then all the children can open their gifts, either together or one at a time.

Note: I didn’t come up with this game. I remember playing it as a child at a class party, but I can’t quite remember when. I couldn’t find the text anywhere, so I wrote a new version. The original author of the poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” is Clement Clarke Moore.

Printables: Here’s the free printable poem you can read! The instructions are also included on the printable.

Christmas Poem Gift Pass