Traditional games to play with family

Spending time with our children is what we want most, right? However, the rush of the day can end up preventing us from dedicating the necessary time to our children.

Being present in their lives is fundamental. If that time we spend together is to play, even better. Many traditional games and games favor family fun.

The moments of games and play in the family provide the best memories for the child. As an adult, he will remember the beautiful moments of childhood and being together with his parents will be in many of them.

The games and traditional games have been passed down over the years from parents to children. These are fun and inexpensive activities that can mostly be done at any time and anywhere, whether at home or outdoors.

Traditional games to play with family

Blind Goat Game

A player is randomly chosen to be the blind goat. The player’s eyes are blindfolded with a scarf and then this player will try to catch one of the elements that is in the game field. The blindfolded player has to discover the name of the player who caught it.

Sack Race

The objective of this game is to cover the distance indicated in the shortest possible time. To move, players must hold the bag with both hands. The contestant who comes out of the bag during the course will be disqualified. If the test is by teams, the team will also be disqualified. If it is by teams, the winning team will be the one that obtains a greater number of points, resulting from the sum of its players.

Monkey Game

To play this game you will need a smooth stone and paint to draw the monkey on the floor. How do you play? Throw the stone to the first house and when you start playing, jump on one foot, jumping over the house where the stone is. You do the same for all the houses until the end of the monkey. Then another player starts. When the stone goes out of bounds, change players.

The objective of this game is to throw the stone into each house, jump over the house where the stone is without stepping on it, jump over the houses on one foot and catch the stone without falling and not stepping on the lines.

Hide and Seek Game

This famous game has little to explain. One of the players, previously chosen, covers his eyes in a predetermined location (called coitus) and counts to 100. During the period when the first player “counts”, all others will have to hide.

When he finishes counting to 100, the player who will look for others shouts loudly: “Here I go!”, And starts looking. The objective of those who search is to find everyone else, and those who hide must be able to reach “coitus” without being caught or seen.

When the hidden player reaches coitus, he has to touch the place (a wall, a tree, etc.) and shout “1, 2, 3, [followed by his name]”. When the player who is looking finds someone, he has to touch “coitus” and shout out the name of the player he found if he sees him and does not touch “coitus”, or if the hidden player reaches “coitus” first, he has a chance to “save” himself. If the last player manages to reach coitus without being seen and/or caught, he can shout: “1, 2, 3, saved everyone” and thus save all players. The game ends when all players are found or saved.

NOTE: This game can also be played in teams, with one team looking for and another hiding.

Ring Game

In a circle, a player is chosen to carry the ring from hand to hand and leave the ring in the hand of the player who wants it. In the end, ask a player: “Where is the ring?” (cannot ask the one who has the ring). If he guesses, he will be the one to distribute the ring, if not he will be penalized. (the punishment is chosen by everyone).

Marble Game

Three holes are made. Each player throws his marble. Whoever gets farthest starts the game which consists of trying to put marbles successively in the 3 holes that are in a straight line. When you reach the last hole, you go back in the opposite direction. As players complete these stages, they have the right to try to hit other players’ marbles, thus taking possession of any marbles they can hit.

Tic Tac Toe Game

The board is a matrix of three rows by three columns. Two players choose a marking each, usually a circle (O) or a cross (X). The players play alternately, one marking at a time, in an empty slot. When a player achieves the objective of the game, usually three symbols in an oblique line are crossed out.

Scarf Game

Two teams assign each member a number that remains secret. A space is defined and, in the center of it, an element outside the teams holds a scarf with his arm stretched out. When he announces a number, the corresponding element of each team runs to the scarf and tries to reach it before the opponent.

Top Game

Before throwing the top, the string must be wrapped tightly around it without slack. The string is held by hand at the loose end. When it is unrolled, with the impulse of the hand pulling the baraca back, it spins. When the top is thrown with great intensity, it is said that the play is “escacha”. To play in a circle or large stripe, a playing circle can be marked on the ground that can be about one and a half meters. Players must project their top towards the circle. Children form a circle. One of them, the mouse stays inside the circle. Another, the cat stays outside the circle. The other children remain in the circle. The cat asks: “Is the little mouse there?”, The children in the circle answer: “No”, the cat asks: “what time is he there?”, The children answer a time of their choice, the children start spinning and the cat keeps asking: “What time is it?” and children answer: “One o’clock” – “What time is it?” – “Two o’clock” and so on, successively until they reach the time they previously answered that the mouse would arrive. The children stop spinning and the cat starts chasing after the mouse. The game ends when the cat catches the mouse.

Cat and Mouse Game

Children form a circle. One of them, the mouse stays inside the circle. Another, the cat stays outside the circle. The other children remain in the circle. The cat asks: “Is the little mouse there?”, The children in the circle answer: “No”, the cat asks: “what time is he there?”, The children answer a time of their choice, the children start spinning and the cat keeps asking: “What time is it?” and children answer: “One o’clock” – “What time is it?” – “Two o’clock” and so on, successively until they reach the time they previously answered that the mouse would arrive. The children stop spinning and the cat starts chasing after the mouse. The game ends when the cat catches the mouse.

Chinese Monkey

How to play: A player stands in front of a wall with his back to other participants. This player will say “one, two, three, Chinese monkey”. While this phrase is being said, players move as quickly as possible towards the wall. When the player finishes the phrase he turns to face the game participants. Players who are caught in motion return to the starting point. The first one to touch the wall without being seen wins.

Jump Rope

In a relatively large rope, 2 participants hold the rope at the ends making it swing in a circular motion (give the rope). The players then enter individually, jumping according to the movement of the rope. The player who holds the rope, preventing it from rotating, loses. The player who has held the rope less times during the game always wins.

Chair Dance Game

A circle is made with chairs and the radio is turned on. The children start dancing around the chairs, but there must be someone lowering the volume of the radio. When the radio volume drops, people have to sit in chairs, whoever stays standing loses and leaves the game.

Broken Telephone

Broken telephone is a game in which one person speaks a word or phrase (the “secret”) into the ear of another person next to them, so that the other participants do not hear or immediately discover what the “secret” is.

The person who heard the secret then tries to repeat it to the next participant, and so on until it reaches the last person, who must say the secret out loud. One of the rules of the game is that the secret cannot be repeated to the current listener.

For this reason, it is common for the secret to be misunderstood and therefore passed on to other listeners in an increasingly distorted way, arriving completely different to the final listener, and that is what makes the game fun. Two groups can compete to see which group arrives with the word most faithfully at its destination.

It is also common to refer to this game in any situation where there may be communication failures in an environment that depends on passing information from one person to another successively until it reaches a destination. One can criticize some hierarchy in a company, for example, by saying that the boss’s order was passed like a “broken telephone” until it reached the last employee who executed it completely differently.

Egg and Spoon Race

The egg and spoon race requires at least two participants. But it’s best played in teams. Define the starting and finishing points. The first participants of the team should have spoons in their mouths with an egg in each (small children can hold them with their hands).

The start is given and everyone can start the course towards the finish line, where the egg must be handed over to the other participant, until the last person is reached. The team that completes the task first is the winner. Children over four years old can participate in the race.

Easter Egg Hunt

With colored eggs or even chocolate bought at the market, the egg hunt game is pure fun. But don’t just limit yourself to hiding them, enhance the game by having children follow rabbit tracks, which can be made with three fingers covered in talcum powder. And don’t forget to guide them, informing them if it’s cold or hot. Little ones love it!