Creativity and Education partnered with the BIC-Cause We Care Community to offer six weeks of ‘missions’ to fill your family’s summer with creative activities. Participating in the missions earns points toward BIC products and Amazon Gift Cards! The first mission “Create Your Own Family Camp”, was released last week, and today we are releasing the second mission: “Family Game Night”.
Games are a wonderful way to bring people together. There is a joy to be found in playing long-standing family favorites, and also in discovering completely new games. But what if you could do both, without spending any money, and building your family’s creativity at the same time? That’s the objective of this second mission.
The instructions (below) offer you three different ways to add a creative twist to your games. I also made a video, showing how my family approached this mission – we had a lot of fun making the video, and I would love to see the creative games your family created too.
You are welcome to start with any one of the approaches. Simply read the list, and pick one that you think your family would find most entertaining.
1. Modify Your Favorite Game with a New Rule.
Select a favorite game to play and devise a new rule. You could also delete a rule, particularly if you find one really annoying. Here are some examples:
Monopoly: If you land on “Free Parking,” you can switch your properties with another player.
Uno: If you play a wild card, you have to show everyone the cards in your hand.
Trivia Pursuit: Every time you get a new slice of pie, you get to eat an actual slice of pizza (if you want).
Trouble: Every time you press a three, you have to stand up and dance!
Be sure to write the rule down so everyone is on the same page before you begin.
2. Merge Two Games to Create a New Game.
I recently interviewed leading creativity researcher Dr. Jonathan Plucker, and he defined creativity as
Old Stuff + Old Stuff = New Stuff
For game night, it may look like this:
Uno + Monopoly = Unomon
In Unomon, you use Uno cards instead of dice. Or, how about:
Battleship + Trivia Pursuit= Battle Pursuit
In Battle Pursuit, you receive a battleship instead of pie pieces.
3. Use old objects in your house to create an entirely new game.
Get a box and invite your children to gather items you no longer use and place them in the box. Then challenge your children to invent a game using the items they collected. Write up the rules, and make sure you give your game a creative name!
Game on!
If you are looking for new games to play, check out your local library to borrow some new titles, or even better- pick up an old game at a summer garage sale! Are you missing half the pieces? Challenge accepted!
If you need a bit of inspiration, check out the ideas my family generated in this video.
Dr. Cyndi Burnett is the Director of Possibilities for Creativity and Education. Like her creativity-focused curriculum for students and teachers, Cyndi embraces the creative lifestyle that she teaches. You will often find her trying on new ideas, exploring resources to stretch her thinking, and being an advocate for playfulness and humor. Although she loves to research and write about creativity, Cyndi is a firm believer in field service. She has 20 years of teaching experience as an academic at the International Center for Studies in Creativity at SUNY Buffalo State where she instructed classes in creative-thinking and creative problem-solving.
Cyndi is the co-author of the books Weaving Creativity into Every Strand of Your Curriculum, 20 Lessons for Weaving Creativity into your Curriculum, and My Sandwich Is a Spaceship: Creative Thinking for Parents and Young Children.
Check out more blogs from Cyndi here.
Create Your Own Summer Family Camp!
