5 Games To Play During Quarantine

Not a title I thought I would ever type, but here we are. A full week into this new world. Here are some games to play with your kids, spouse, or over Facetime with your friends!

I used to work with kids at a camp, we would play these games as filler between other, bigger activities. They're called "backpocket games" and they require ZERO equipment and ZERO touching!

5. How Many Elephants- You start by saying there are a whole bunch of elephants all around you, and start listing them. Then you ask "how many elephants are there?" The answer is how ever many words are in the question.

Example: There are 12 elephants on your laptop, 7 elephants in your pocket, 45 elephants in the kitchen, and 2 elephants in your cup. How many elephants are there? In this case, there would be 5 elephants. Have fun with this, ask "How many elephants?" (3) "How many elephants are there in total?" (7) "How many?" (2). Watch the other players get confused because the math doesn't add up!

4. Darling I Love You- This game's goal is to make the other person laugh. Get one person to sit with a straight face, the opponent then says "Darling, I love you SO much, won't you please, please smile for me?" To which the other has to reply, in a serious face, "Darling, I love you, but I just can't smile." Sounds easy? Not when the first person is being EXTRA dramatic and over the top, it's great to play with kids!

3. Popcorn- Set a goal to count up to 20, 30, etc. without anyone saying the same number twice, if you do, you have to restart from 1. It's hard, but fun. We actually did this game with Ad Lounge at The Second City for the #nextgendinnerseries Our group challenged ourselves to count up, and then count down. W succeeded!

2. Johnny Whoops- A camp CLASSIC!! This game uses your hands and fingers, a leader begins with saying each word on each finger starting at your pinky, "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Whoops, Johnny, Whoops, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny." The Whoops is the slide from your pointer to your thumb. I've attached a video to help! After you are done the jingle, you clasp your hands together. If the other person, or people do not do this at the end of the jingle, they did it wrong.

The secret to making this really fun, is demonstrating it again, but doing it differently, "Johnny, Johnny, Whoops, Johnny, Johnny." *Clasp hands* They will always go "HUH?" It gets fun trust me!

Example- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=278gkidsRJg (do it faster than her).

1. Going on a Picnic- This is my favourite camp game ever. You make up a pattern or rule in your head and go "I'm going on a picnic and I'm going to bring _____" Usually a good idea to say two items you're bringing to get the ball rolling. This game is awesome because you can make up ANY rule, make it easy- do the alphabet, "I'm bringing, apples, bananas, and carrots..." Make it the first letter of people's names, "I'm bringing noodles and narwhals to my picnic..." Make it all one letter if you want it to be super easy. Make it really hard by making the word beginning with the last letter. "I'm bringing pizza, apples, snakes, sauce, eggs." It also doesn't have to be food, you can bring anything to the picnic! Get creative with the rules!

Hope these help and are fun! Try to stay entertained, without your phone for a few moments! Stay positive, take care!

#games #quarantine #family #positivity