Party Games For Kids - With A Twist!

Yesterday, I talked a little bit about leadership and how if you want to be perceived as a leader, you have to show that you are capable of being one.  And in order to make my point I referenced the children's game "Follow The Leader".  The game where everything the leader does, you're supposed to do.

It's kind of like "Simon Says", only you don't get knocked out of the game for not doing what the leader does.  You just get judged.  Harshly.

Anyway, the "Follow the Leader" reference had me thinking about a subject for today's blog.  And I'm sure it's a topic that most of us know very well.  Especially if we were invited to a lot of birthday parties when we were kids.

Yeah, today's topic is all about children's party games - with a twist.

You see, everyone knows what the basic children's games are that are played.  But let's face it.  After seven or eight decades, these games can get really stale.  There is only so many times that you can play "Pin The Tail On The Donkey" before it becomes the more dangerous game of "Pin The Tail On The Annoying Kid Who Raises His Hand To Give Extra Homework For The Class".

So, I decided to put on my thinking cap, and come up with ways to make the standard children's games a lot more fun and creative.  I'll first list the standard game, and below it, I will list my "improvement".

These are just some of my ideas though.  You can make your own improvements to these kid's classics if you want.  In fact, feel free to post your ideas in the comments section!

1.  DUCK DUCK GOOSE

Basically, you sit everyone in a circle.  One person goes around tapping people on the head saying duck, duck, duck.  Then when you see a person you want to target, you tap them on the head and say GOOSE, and that person has to run around the circle and chase after the head tapper to catch them before they steal their spot.  It's a nice game, but a little boring.

IMPROVEMENT:  DRIP, DRIP, DROP

To make this game more fun, just add water.  Seriously, you give the head tapper a cup or bottle of water, and they go around sprinkling drops of water on people in the circle.  This is your drip.  When you drop, you dump the whole thing on a person's head, and they chase and pursue.  Obviously not an indoor game.

2.  DON'T POP THE BALLOON

Easy and straightforward.  Sit on an air-filled balloon and be the last one to pop theirs.  The last one to do so wins.  But as someone who hates balloons popping, I never wanted to play this game at all.

IMPROVEMENT:  DON'T POP THE WATER BALLOON

Like the first one, just add water to make it more fun.  Again, not meant to be played inside.

PIN THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY

This is a game that seems to appear at every single child's party.  Also one of the most overplayed.

IMPROVEMENT:  PIN THE RIGHT WORD IN THE SENTENCE

Have you ever seen those fridge magnets that have all kinds of words on them that you can use to make all kinds of phrases and sentences?  I believe they're called poetry magnets?  Well, I think a fun game would be to make a sentence, leaving one word out, and then you have the blindfolded child try to finish the sentence from a pile of words.  The pro is that you can have a fun challenge that combines Pin The Tail On The Donkey with Mad Libs.  Plus, it helps kids read!  I say win-win.

And you don't even have to use magnetic words.  Just cut out a bunch of pieces of construction paper and buy some tape, and let your kids make up their own words!  Just make sure to help them with spelling some of the really big ones.

MUSICAL CHAIRS

I have to admit, Musical Chairs is a fun game to play.  You set up a bunch of chairs, play music, and when the music stops, you have to find a chair.  If you can't find a chair at the end of the round, you're knocked out.  But is there a way to make an already fun game even more fun?

IMPROVEMENT:  BLINDFOLDED MUSICAL CHAIRS

Basically, Ellen DeGeneres will show you how it's done.  Just make sure this game is supervised, so kids don't knock themselves out by walking into a wall.