Family games

[Dancergirl]

I'm getting soooo bored of playing the same old games as a family week in week out. The dds usually like Cluedo and we have Picterika which is fun for the first few times.

Can anyone recommend some good family games? One of dd's friends has Rush Hour which is supposed to be good.

What sort of age are the children?

9.5 and nearly 8 (and 3.5!)

pass the pigs is great - seems a bit odd at first but gets surprisingly suspensful!

We like the sort of games that don't come in boxes! Such as consequences, or the forehead game (where you write the name of someone famous on a piece of paper, stick it to the person next to you's forehead, and take turns asking questions to see who can guess their person first!)

Also a game called Whispering Gallery. Everyone has a pencil and paper. You all have to think of a phrase or saying (it can be anything from a proverb to the first line of a song to anything else you like). You write it on the paper and pass it to the next person. They have to draw whatever the phrase suggests to them. Then they fold the paper over so that the phrase is covered but not the picture. The next person then has to write whatever the picture suggests. Repeat all these stages as many times as unnecessary then laugh at the results. We once had "mind the gap, stand clear of the doors please" turn into "postman pat and his white and white polar bears"

Simple card games can also be good.

One game which had us in absolute stitches over the summer holiday was a card game called "Pit". It involves a lot of shouting! Cheat also goes down well.

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.blokus.com/img/game-box/blokus-classic.jpg&imgrefurl=www.blokus.com/en/blokus.html&usg=__7vnRx3nWSYrIIYBl5w2M6-Ow6h0=&h=436&w=500&sz=53&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=v7TJGQtn3ZWhXM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=136&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dblokus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4HPNN_enGB359GB359%26biw%3D1106%26bih%3D533%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=366&vpy=64&dur=203&hovh=210&hovw=240&tx=111&ty=115&ei=RHjYTMvyHIej4QaexrHzBw&oei=RHjYTMvyHIej4QaexrHzBw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blokus is great and is truly cross-generational.

Great for teaching strategy and the tiles are really pretty, too.

Pictureka is a good one, harder than first looks but everyone can play, involves looking for pictures on interchangable boards so it keeps changing each time you play.

Try the Happy Puzzle Company
They have some fab games and puzzles including Rush hour (although I think you can get it cheaper on Amazon)

Pack of cards and then there's an infinite number of games you can play with those!