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Fun Games for Grandchildren and Kids

Updated on July 17, 2013
Games for kids and grandchildren don't have to be expensive. Playing with blocks and beads with your grandchildren can be hours of fun
Games for kids and grandchildren don't have to be expensive. Playing with blocks and beads with your grandchildren can be hours of fun | Source

As a grandmother of 3 and an adopted grandmother by countless other children, I find myself spending lots of time around children these days. Fun games for my grandchildren is something I enjoy immensely, and finding creative ways to have fun with them is a never-ending process as we always seem to find new games to play.

One of the things that I have noticed is that the most fun we have is with games that cost little or no money - and require lots of hands on interaction. I think back to my days growing up and one of my favorite games to play was dominoes with a favorite aunt of mine (she was like the grandmother I never had) She taught me at an early age how to play, strategize and even win sometimes! To this day domino's is one of my favorite games to play - along with checkers.

Checkers is a really easy game to teach your grandchildren and will help them learn how to think strategically also - and don't be surprised when these young ones start beating you at your own game!

Dominoes - a fun game to play with grandchildren

The game of dominoes is a great game to teach to your grandchildren.
The game of dominoes is a great game to teach to your grandchildren. | Source

Great games for grandchildren

Of course games for grandchildren have to be age appropriate, but here are some ideas for playing games with your grandchildren. Some of these games will be games that they will end up teaching their own children, and most likely will be handed down for even generations:

  • "Shoot the light out": This is a game that I made up for my kids when they were small and it was time to go to bed. I found that by playing this game it not only helped get my kids into bed but this game became one of their all time favorites. After reading a story, I would approach the light in their room and say "now shoot the light out!!". Then they would proceed to make their mock weapons with their little fingers clenched and "shoot at the light". With my hand controlling the light switch, most times they "hit" the target but sometimes they would miss and then try extra hard to aim better! We would usually play this for about 5 minutes at bedtime, and it was a wonderfully fun little bedtime game that my sons and I shared. Appropriate for younger ages up to ??.
  • Dominoes, checkers and card games like War, Old Maid, Spades and Hearts: These are all great games to teach to your grandchildren. Like I said earlier, these are timeless games and are games that your grandchildren may end up teaching to their own children. Appropriate for children as soon as they understand basic math and/or have some strategy skills.
  • Board games like Candyland, Monopoly and Life are always fun games to play with children. These games take more time so are something you'd want to devote at least an hour or more to playing with them. These are great games for teaching kids life skills too - about finances, buying and "selling" real estate and about life "surprises". Other fun games for older children are Tripoly, Yahtzee and Kismet (I still play alot of Yahtzee to this day)
  • Hopscotch: Recently at my grand-daughters birthday the kids were playing with sidewalk chalk and I got the idea to draw them a hopscotch on the concrete playground. Amazingly some of the kids had never even played hopscotch! I taught them how to play and they had lots of fun trying to navigate the squares (one downside however was that Grandma did not realize how "not easy" it was for her to "hop" through the squares anymore. Having an older child around to teach them would have saved my knees that day)

Fun games for younger grandchildren

One of my favorite buddies is my 3 year grandson Zach. Around us since he was born and spending lots of time with grandma, him and I have accidentally stumbled across some new games completely by accident. Which goes to show, there are games that you can play with your grandchildren that are totally unscripted and are born of imagination. One of the most fun games I played with Zach as a toddler was with his snap-lock beads. We started playing with them the traditional way them ended up doing all sorts of fun games with those little beads. One of them was putting a bead on each of our fingers, then having little mock fights, knocking the beads off our fingers. Another one played quite by accident was blowing through the holes in the beads to create noise. Lastly, link all the beads together to see just how long you can make you link, or link them together color coded or in patterns. These types of little games are also great ways to teach your grandchildren fine motor skills, patterns, colors and how to use their imagination (the finger fight one was by far the most fun game though!)

A time to remember...

If you are fortunate enough to have grandchildren, you know how special that grandparent-grandchild bond can be. The time we spend playing "games" with our grandchildren are special times: a time to bond, communicate and show them how much we value spending time with them. Teaching fun games to your grandchildren will be one those memories that will remain positive reminders for them of spending time with someone they love. And, it also gives us grandparents a special time to remember playing games with our parents and those that loved us too as children.

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