Fun Family Games for any Occasion

Waiting Games

by Charlotte Meryman
Try readers' favorite strategies for fending off the fidgets during unexpected delays
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Whether you're awaiting dinner at your favorite restaurant or your turn at the doctor's office, try our readers' favorite strategies for fending off the fidgets during unexpected delays.

EATERY ACTIVITIES
Put these activities on the menu next time your family is waiting for food to arrive.

Restaurant Menu Challenge: Create a Word
As a writer, Debbie Swanson of Westford, Massachusetts, has always been fascinated by language. So in restaurants she picks an interesting item on the menu and challenges her family to see how many new words they can make from the letters in the dish's name. When her kids were younger, she chose smaller words. And, she says, "We didn't get too hung up on spelling things perfectly -- phonetically was fine." Nowadays, the game often turns into a spirited competition, with her kids vying to come up with the longest list.

Restaurant Memory Game: Guess What's Missing
The Infantis of Germantown, Maryland, keep everyone entertained at restaurants by playing a tabletop memory game. They take turns lining up a sampling of whatever's handy (jellies, sugar packets, silverware, and the like), then one player covers his eyes and the others secretly remove two or three items. The guesser then takes a look and tries to figure out what's gone missing. Younger kids get fewer items to remember, older kids get more. For an extra challenge, says mom Dawn, "there might not be anything missing. My son's a little devious that way -- anything to trick you!"

WAITING-ROOM GAMES
Prevent kids from getting antsier than necessary at the doctor or dentist with these time-passing strategies.

Doctor's Office Distraction: Paper Play Mat
With their popular pediatrician often running late, Bethany Lyons of Greene, Maine, and her son, Ashton, age 4½, do a lot of waiting in the exam room. To keep things lively, they use crayons to draw play mats on the exam table paper. "We're not totally artistic, but we can come up with some pretty good roads," says Bethany. They decorate their mini villages with barricades, stop signs, rivers, parking lots, and police stations. Ashton then goes to town, exploring the neighborhood with the toy cars he brings along.

Waiting Room Challenge: Magazine Search
As a teenager, Tia Ward of Denton, Texas, spent a lot of time waiting in doctor's offices with her younger brother, who needed weekly allergy shots. To pass the time, she invented a game she now uses with her own kids. Tia lets each child choose a magazine, then she calls out something for the players to find in their magazine's pages -- a red car, a dessert, a swimming pool. She keeps an eye out for future search items during each round and sometimes helps by offering the page number. Bonus: "They're ages 3 and 4, and it's helping them learn those double digits," says Tia.

ANYTIME GAMES
Play these games in the car, at home -- any time of the day you want to keep kids' boredom at bay.

Group Trivia Game: Team Tic-tac-toe
Inspired by a "Hollywood Squares" game she organized for a YMCA summer camp, Kristen Pollard of New Britain, Connecticut, created a family twist on tic-tac-toe in which two teams take turns challenging each other with family trivia questions. "What's Chelsea's favorite color?" for example, or "Where did Mom and Dad go on their first date?" A correct guess wins an X or an O for your team, while a wrong one gives the move to your opponents. "My kids love this game," says Kristen. "It's a great way to bond."

Backseat Boredom Buster: Fortunately, Unfortunately
On long car rides, the Nortons of Morrison, Colorado (the creative family that came up with the "ert!" game on page 116), build a tall tale that bounces back and forth between good luck and woe. "A boy went to the store," one player might begin. "Fortunately, he brought three dollars in his pocket to buy bread and milk." The second player takes over: "Unfortunately, the money was soaking wet when he got there because it was raining." The third chimes in with another positive twist, and so on, with players alternating good and bad events. "It can get very silly and fun," says mom Alissa.

Pad and Pencil Game: Paper Route
When the Nortons of Morrison, Colorado, want to pass the time, they go for a drive on a sheet of paper. One person draws a winding road scattered with obstacles such as rocks, rivers, and bridges. Players study the map, then take turns negotiating the sketched course with their eyes closed, using a colored pen or pencil to mark their route. Should a player veer off course or hit an obstacle, spectators call "Ert!" (the sound of squealing tires). The player marks an X where he erred and ends his turn, picking up where he left off in the next round. "This game can be loud, but it's lots of fun," says mom Alissa, who invented it years ago with her high school drama buddies. "The kids never want to stop playing!"

CLASSIC ACTIVITIES
Try these never-fail stand-bys for spur-of-the-moment fun.

Linking Game
The Adamses of San Antonio, Texas, "do a lot of waiting -- at the doctor, at the pharmacy, in the car on long trips," says mom Starsha. One of their favorite pastimes is a simple linking game. "We think of a subject and take turns naming things in the category, with each new word beginning with the last letter in the previous word," she says. "Sometimes we get specific: zoo animals, farm animals, girls' names or boys' names -- those were really popular when I was pregnant!" When they run out of ideas, they just change categories.

Connect the Dots
Erin Rismiller of Versailles, Ohio, likes to play dots (also called boxes, or dots and boxes) with her daughter, Megan, age 5. "It's a game that I remember playing with my grandparents and my parents," says Erin. "I draw a bunch of dots in parallel rows and columns, and we take turns connecting pairs of dots with straight lines." Each time a player completes a box, she puts her initials inside. The one with the most initialed boxes at the end wins. "All you need is something to write with and a piece of scrap paper," says Erin. "It's even easier than tic-tac-toe."

Would You Rather?
Kooky choices are the name of the game for the Sonkas of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, who take turns selecting between pairs of unusual options. "Would you rather eat a caterpillar or a slug?" someone might ask. "Would you rather bungee jump or climb to the top of the Empire State Building?" Questions usually involve things to eat, do, or wear, or places to visit, and answers can run the gamut. "I'd rather eat a caterpillar because it wouldn't be slimy," for example. Her kids love that they can be totally silly, says mom Susan. "It doesn't have to make any sense, and there are no wrong answers."


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