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We know that getting the whole family together in one room these days can be a challenge, and often when you do it involves looking at a screen of some sort. But it’s not always a great way to really engage with each other and interact. That’s why sometimes the simple things – such as getting out a good old deck of cards – can be all you need to get things fired up and have a great time connecting and interacting with each other. And aside from the factor of spending some quality time together having fun, card games can also be handy for teaching your children some important lessons about rules and strategy.
Who says your poker table has to be reserved for the adults? This winter, gather the family around and throw down a deck of cards together with three of these kid-friendly games that the whole family will love.
Memory
This is a great game from brushing up on your memory and can be played with two to six people. How this game works is you turn over all of the cards on the table in rows of seven. Then, taking turns you each flip over two cards at a time. If the cards match, then you keep them. But if they don’t then you turn them back over and the next player goes. The person with the most pairs once the deck is gone (and best memory) wins. If playing with young kids, you can start with a much smaller deck (only 10 or 20 cards total).
Old Maid
To begin this game you must remove three of the queens from the deck. The last one that stays in the deck is labelled as the old maid (typically the queen of spades). This can be played up to eight players. Once the entire deck has been dealt one card at a time face down, each player should discard any pairs. The first player turns to the player on the left and makes them draw one card. If that card makes a pair, then that player lays the cards down and continues to play left. If there’s no matching pair, then the play simply continues. After the pairs have all been laid down, the one stuck with the Old Maid loses. There can be some fun bluffing to make another player unintentionally draw the Old Maid from your hand.
Animals
If you have younger children, this game is always a fun one to try out. Each player must first select an animal that they want to be. After all the cards have been dealt facedown, each player, one at a time will turn over a card from their own pile. Once a card matches the card that’s faced up from another player the race begins! Those two must race and shout out the other person’s animal name three times.The player who does it the quickest wins the round and picks up the other’s discarded pile. The player with the most card wins.
While the weather outside might be frightful, you still have your games room or poker table to make those evenings inside much more delightful for the whole family. Bring back some of that old-school fun by throwing down a few of these kid-friendly card games this winter.
