DIY Games To Make With The

Kids:

(Using common household items or low cost supplies)

1.) GIANT Yahtzee

Don't feel like spending the money on the official game or just wanna make it better?!

Just found extra large foam dice at the Dollar Store (Five Below will usually have them too).

Buy 5 large foam dice and then print out copies of score sheets right here (with permission to share from www.memory-improvement-tips.com) right here! Hours of fun for about $5. Right click or directly click on the image below to print…

2.) Indoor “Baseball”

Simply buy 1 foam noodle from the Dollar Store and a pack of balloons. Cut the noodle in half and use one of the two pieces for a bat and one blown up balloon for a ball. All you will need then is 4 items to mark your bases (you can even use just paper that is taped down for each one. And vwalla, you have indoor baseball and won't have to worry about broken items.

3.) “Guess That Singer/Actor”

The game you choose will have to depend on which category your group knows more about.

    Cut out similar size square pieces of paper and have everyone write one actor or singer down on each one and toss them all into a bowl. Everyone will be on their own team and will choose a random square out of the bowl.

Then, they will have to act out the person by quoting things they sing, say, and/or a signature move this person may have. The other players will guess who it is, and the first person to get it right gets to keep the paper square, and the person with the most squares at the end is the winner.

This games will get tons of laughs and is a great way to kill an hour or two (and totally free:).

4.) Create a “Bored Jar”

You will need:  

• craft sticks (small or large)
• Permanent markers
• Stickers (optional)
• Jar of some type (personally I use old baby food jars)
• Decorations for the jar, like maybe some ribbon, string,beads, dried pasta, pom-poms, etc.
• Glue for decorating the jar
• brainstorm a list of ideas for the sticks (click here to get the pdf of 100 ideas)

→For the jar, the kids can glue any items to the outside to make it pretty. Then have them brainstorm a list of things to do, one for each stick. Have them write each idea and then decorate the stick. Eventually they will have an entire jar FULL of ideas for when they are feeling bored!

5.) Hide the thimble

This is an oldie but goodie. Find a thimble around the house (or any item if you don't have one) and one of the two people playing will close their eyes and count to 20 while the other player hides the item. Once it is hidden and the item is secretly placed, the person counting will open their eyes and begin the hunt. 

      The person that hid the item will be the navigator by indicating if the person searching is warm (close) or cold (far away) from it. Once the item is found then the roles are reversed, and that is the game! Good cheap fun.

And that is five ways to have fun at home for low cost or items you can find around the house.