Going For Gold...

I spotted this download from Tinyme Games, it has popped up on several blogs I read over the last couple of days and since we are studying the Olympics just now, I thought I would have a look. If you click through there are loads of printables and the design work is really cute. We downloaded the board game, printed it onto card and gave it a test run this afternoon.

image: Tinyme

If you are making this for little ones I recommend just making the dice then folding the counters over to make a triangle because that are a bit of a faff to stick together and too difficult for Ebi-kun to do alone. We played it a couple of times, it was fun but Ebi-kun said next time we should make the forfeits more difficult as long as he doesn't expect me to do the 100m dash or high jump! 

At the end of the day, it's cute, it's free and it's topical, what more could you want?

The scary sea monster game....

The other day Ebi-kun got up in the morning and decided he wanted to play a game, not any old game, a game he had in his head. A game in his head which involved sea monsters! We had some jobs to do and errands to run so I told him the think about his game, what exactly he needed and how he was going to make it then if we needed anything we could pick it up when we were out. The only request was for a BIG piece of blue paper.

It was easy to make and totally adaptable for whatever your kids are into.

What you need:

A big piece of paper

Smaller pieces of card (from the recycling is OK)

Pens/crayons

Scissors

Dice

Players

To make the game pieces you need two pieces of card for each player (1). Cut one 5cm x 10cm and the other 5 cm x 2cm. Fold the biggest piece in half then cut a slit in it as shown in (2), cut another slit in the small piece of card. Push the slits together to make your player piece stand up (3). You can then pull it apart and draw your character on it, we had strict instructions to draw sea monsters.

Next, make sure you are wearing your knights outfit and a crown, ermmmm no, just a minute that is optional. Draw big circles in a route on your big piece of paper (5). In some of the circles write fun instructions like 'get attacked my giant shark, miss a go' or 'blue whale shows you the way, go forward 4' (6). Get everyone involved and decorate the game sheet. Although ours was covered in fish, squid, whales and the such like you can't really see them in the photos but of course you could do fairies and pixies or whatever else rocks your boat.

Decide who is going first then play the game! We had to play three times. This is a great boredom buster, first taking a chunk of time to make and then another chunk to play. Of course you could make it more complicated by adding cards to pick up or something. Just be sure that the rules are set down before play starts to prevent any arguments. We play that you have to land on the exact number to reach the goal, if you need 2 but you roll a six, you go forward 2 to the goal then 4 backwards but you might do it differently as long as everyone is clear. 

When I was a kid I loved snakes and ladders and Sorry! I wonder if they still make that? What was your favourite board game?