This post is sponsored by the Bupa.
Sometimes I see those families who go camping on weekends, or do bush walks once a month, or who plan elaborate family movie nights with themed food and activities, and I wish that was us, but it’s not us.
We have four kids ranging in age from six to thirteen, each with their individual likes and dislikes. My husband works a ridiculous rotating shift, and I try to cram in working from home any way I can.
I know spending time together as a family is important, I know it’s worth the effort, it’s just not always easy to find big blocks of time, or come up with something that everyone can do and enjoy.
Even if the stars align and I attempt to plan the perfect family outing, often someone will roll their eyes, or screw up their nose, and ‘team family time’ becomes ‘whining kids and frustrated parent time’.
But just because we are not a weekly-bushwalk-followed-by-a-family-date-night kind of family doesn’t mean our team doesn’t spend time together. It just means we jump in with fun, silly, quick and easy ideas whenever we find a snippet of time.
Right now our favourite quick and easy family game is the very silly ‘What Am I?’ game.
It doesn’t take long to play, so it’s perfect for when you only have a little bit of time but you want to put it to good use with your team. We often play while we are eating dinner!
It’s portable, (great for when you are waiting or travelling) it’s easy enough for little ones to play (with some help) and fun enough to keep older kids engaged. You can be as silly or as serious as you like, and all you need is a scrap of paper and a pen – or our free printable ‘What Am I?’
For little kids, try to stick to things they know really well – people in their family, things they can see where they are etc. For older kids try a few tricker ideas like characters from movies, or places they have never been but would like to go to.
You can download our free printable ‘What Am I?’ game cards here.
This printable is an A4 sized pdf file, you will need a pdf reader such as adobe acrobat to open it. If you are printing on US ‘letter sized’ paper be sure to select ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’ from your printer options.
Please remember that the printables at picklebums.com are for personal use only, you may not sell, share, or link directly to these files.
How to play the ‘What Am I?’ game.
One person chooses a card and holds it up against their forehead, or props it up in front of them, without looking at it.
They have to ask yes or no questions and try to find out what they are.
The rest of the family answer the questions until they are finally able to guess who or what they are.
It’s a pretty simple game, nothing fancy, but it’s something we can do as a family, without a huge amount of time or effort, and it makes us laugh.
The other day we were all crying with laughter because Dad just couldn’t figure out that he was a dog, and it’s the little moments like these that go down in our family history, that become stories that get told over and over again, that become the threads that tie us together as a team.
Bupa is encouraging everyone to ‘take 10’ and spend time connecting with family, relishing the small moments together, and we are definitely up for the challenge.
What’s your favourite easy and fun family game or activity?
Leave a comment and share your favourite, easy, family game or activity. And find more ideas for quick and easy ways to connect and more information about Bupa’s Team Family Movement here.
Thank you, thank you, thank you… I know you introduced it as a family activity, but … you also just gave me the perfect idea what to do with my ESL class today as a warm up activity, :-).
It used to be easier to get the whole family together on the weekends — living in Austria, we used to go hiking a lot, for example — but then the kids started to prefer to hang out with their friends insteads or just chill… That significantly cut down on our family time, paired with teenagers who preferred to sleep in rather than join us for a nice weekend breakfast…
So, being in China, we’ve had the chance to travel a lot, and that has made up a bit for it. And then, of course, there are also all those little random moments that pop up here and there, :-).
So long,
Corinna
aaaaah, is there a link to the printable? Can’t find it, but it might just be my computer…
Sorry there was a bit of a glitch with the link… it should work now. :)
unfortunately I cant find the link either…
Sorry there was a bit of a glitch with the link… it should work now. :)
Thank you! I’m a room Mom and I’m bringing these in for the class party.
Thank you so much.
The cards are perfect for families and my English classes.
Your a lifesaver :)
Many thanks from France.
Love this will be using for my after-school program.?
Thanks