6 March 2014

Playing Pictionary.

An oldie but goodie!

Sometimes you gotta have a li'l fun and although the height of the watched DVD stack on the sideboard was shameful by the time that the end of half term came around, I did manage to get the persuade the boys to get the Pictionary board out a few times.

Is it like getting blood out of a stone at your end as well?

We always say how much more fun playing games rather than watching TV is, yet they'd rather be staring at / playing on one screen or another and it's so easy to be complacent and let them, especially when the weather has been so awful for so long, but I sometimes get a sense of loss or failure with too much leniency.

So we try a game or two which is always more agreeable.  Unless the Fearsome Four Year Old is too tired.  Or they're hungry.  Or cooking is pressing... you get my drift.

It's only relatively recently we've been able to sit down as a family and play properly because the youngest wasn't ready.  He still prefers the giant Snakes and Ladders, spread out in the centre of kitchen floor, with its almighty dice, preferably alone because he always wins - and remarkably quickly too!

He's awfully competitive - a terrible loser and a truly ungracious winner, but this is the point of playing - to learn the necessary social skills that make it a pleasure for us all.

Our favourite at the moment is Pictionary although we have to bend the rules until they're virtually unrecognizable because there's only the three of us so we can't make two teams and it has to be something that we're sure he will be able to understand or identify.

The Awesome Eight Year old and I love it.  It's extraordinarily simple - with one minute to draw a picture that the others will recognize, having been given the subject by the cards given with the game.  Success means travelling around the board more quickly, reaching the end goal and winning. But we don't have much of that.

We do have lots of giggles though whilst the pencil is in action and there is a timer provided which really adds to the pressure and fun factor!

Here are some examples.  The more indignant the drawer becomes, the more hilarious it is.




Above - my drawing - and their (mortally offending) guesses:  A Pirate. Buzz Lightyear.  Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Correct answer = An earring!

Below - eldest's drawing - and our (really riling him up) conjectures:  Magic Carpet. A skunk. Crying.  A bed.
Correct answer = A pillow!





The youngest's drawing and our attempts to identify it (provoking seriously hearty but amusing huffs) as it slowly progressed:  A teapot. A headless guy. A house.  A poo.  
And the answer = A giant!    

This naturally led to their (still) current favourite conversational topic - flatulence - which has moved on since my day, but it's important you're kept up to date too:  'Whoever smelt it dealt it.' 'Whoever made the rhyme committed the crime.' 'Whoever denied it supplied it.'  Followed by feigned horror on my part whilst they fall helplessly apart laughing.  Again.  *sigh*

But the good laughs galore throughout make this old game worth it.  There are some newer versions out but this has stood us in good stead.  It was first introduced to me some years before the kids came along when staying on a friend's family farm in Wales.  They've moved to New Zealand now and I miss them - the entertainment (along with the home made beer) still rates as one of the the highlights of my life.  

It doesn't hurt to force a li'l fun on the children sometimes!  

What do you play?