Tips to Plan a Family Game Night is a sponsored post. Thanks for supporting us and the brands we love.
Everywhere you look people are glued to their phones and tablets. Children and loved ones constantly hear,”Just a minute” or see distracted heads are buried into connected devices. This is why I am loving the opportunity to share Tips to Plan a Family Game Night. There is nothing that FORCES you to be more present than getting swept up in a take no prisoners game of Relative Insanity.
Playing with your kids especially as they get older creates an opportunity to unplug from your gadgets and spend real face time with the important people in your life. Tuning into a device communicates to your family that you aren’t fully present, that you can’t patiently wait your turn and still be engaged, or that there is something more interesting and important that you’d rather be doing. So keep reading for my Tips to Plan a Family Game Night .
Need a few reasons to host a family game night? Games are the Perfect Activity to Get Families Engaged and Feeling Happiness. Research shows that family game nights once or even twice a week are one way close families connect with each other. In addition to positively boosting a family’s mood, playing games as a family teaches crucial skills. Children learn lessons in teamwork when playing games, sportsmanship and problem solving. Games like Relative Insanity provide opportunities for kids to learn these skills and others, such as strategy, communication and offer LOTS OF BELLY LAUGHS.
And when you have teens you need to find games that will challenge and provide LOL’s that can stand up to any popular meme- and relative Insanity is that game!
Everyone has at least one crazy family member. If you don’t think you do, then that means it’s YOU! In
Relative Insanity, a new party game from Play Monster Fun is created by comedian Jeff Foxworthy. Featuring his relatable humor, Jeff wrote the game based on his family – it’s better to laugh at the craziness that happens in the family, and that’s what this game does!
Game play as follows: Read a setup card aloud, like: “When my brother brought out his new baby to show the family, Granny blurted out…” Then everyone else chooses one of their punchline cards to finish the phrase, like: “You are not the father!” or “Somebody took a trip to the land of bad decisions,” etc. The reader picks the funniest one to give that player a point! It’s a different hilarious game each time you play! For 4 to 12 players, ages 14 to adult.
Got younger kids? We also love ANYTHING from Play Monster Fun including —Yeti, Set, Go! PlayMonster’s follow up to the award-winning Yeti In My Spaghetti!
The constant distraction of email, texting, and social media is clearly impacting family time together. It’s become much harder for parents to create technology-free time with their kids; parents and kids alike turn OFF their smart phones, iPads, and computers for at least 20 minutes each night during dinner, and that they leave them off for the duration of game night. Leave devices in another room altogether, so that you aren’t tempted to live-tweet your family game of Relative Insanity!
Even though it can seem harmless to read a quick email or shoot off a text while other family members take their turns, it isn’t!
In order to make the most out of family time whenever families are able to schedule it, here are my Tips to Plan a Family Game Night
#1 Extend dinner by 20 minutes to include a family game. The easiest time of day for them to schedule family time is between 5pm-7pm. Knowing this, try to extend family dinner time by 20 minutes so that you can fit in some face-to-face game play around the table. This game time will boost family mood and teach kids numerous life lessons. Then clean up as a family, too-the losing team does the dishes!
#2 Schedule it-Decide in advance which day of the week will be your weekly family game night. Use stickers or a colored marker to help make the chosen night stand out on the calendar and then be consistent, so that family game night becomes a ritual that is anticipated by the whole family.
#3 Don’t keep score or automatically let kids win. Although rivalries can be really fun they can obscure the benefits of family game night. Once everyone is enjoying the process and fun of playing games together without obsessing over who is winning or losing then go back to keeping score to teach the important skill of winning and losing gracefully.
#4 Have something for everyone. Make sure your home has a selection of games that work for everyone in your family, no matter their age and don’t feel compelled to play games that bore you. Family game night can be fun for everyone. There are games that are engaging for adults that even little kids can play, which are perfect for kids 8 and up, and can also be fun for the whole family.
#5 Be the fun family in your neighborhood. As kids get older, time with their peers becomes more important to them than time with their family. Don’t let these priorities conflict! Instead, encourage kids to invite a friend or two to come to your family game night. Let the teens choose the food and the music (but check their smart phones and devices at the door!). On weekends, plan for game night extensions, allowing teens to continue play without parents and younger siblings!
So– got any Tips to Plan a Family Game Night to share?
So fun. It’s been ages since we’ve had a game night. We really need to have one again. I think the last time we played together was over the summer, eek!
We were actually just talking about doing this with a couple of friends. Game night is just so much fun it gets you putting your technology down and actually communicating with people and playing some fun games. I love doing these.
We always have so much fun playing games as a family. Sometimes I realize it’s been too long since we played. I really need to make it a scheduled activity.
Family game nights are the best. We love having them around here. My kids have so much fun playing games.
I love the idea of extending family dinner to squeeze in a game! We recently started doing family game nights and it’s been so much fun!
I can’t wait until Christmas because one thing I got my son was a new board game. I hope he loves it so that we can have family game night too. We used to play when he came home from school this spring.
Family game night is my favorite night of the week. Relative Insanity looks a lot like my daughter’s favorite game, Apples to Apples, so we definitely have to add it to our game night stash!
Looks like real fun. It has been a while we had family game night. Thanks for sharing these tips. I will use it as during this holiday break.
We haven’t done family game night in a while. This post reminds me that we need to set up a family game night the next weekend that We have all the kids home.
You’re definitely right that phones and screens in general seem to rule people’s lives. I love the idea of a game night to get everyone off their devices.
These are some great tips and that looks like a fun game. We usually have family game nights at least once a week, but schedules have been crazy lately. Hoping to get back on track with game nights during the winter break.