There is something to be said about spending an afternoon or evening playing a roaring game of croquet, horseshoes or a scavenger hunt. It gives your family an opportunity to laugh and enjoy each others company, an excellent way to increase communication and camaraderie with your children.

Inside Games and Fun

Ball and Jacks can be purchased inexpensively in most toy stores. Look for the metal jacks over the plastic ones as they last longer and are easier to handle. Caution: keep them out of reach of small children and pets. This game should be played on a hard surface, such as the kitchen linoleum or wood floor.

The rules of the game are fairly simple. Scatter the jacks with one hand. Toss the ball, pick up one jack, and after ball has bounced once, catch the ball in the same hand. Transfer the jack to the other hand and continue with the next jack... until all jacks are in the other hand. Twosies are the next level... same as ones except you pick up two at a time. You can continue play until you have collected all the jacks in one bounce. For two players, the first player starts until they miss. Then the second player tries. If a set (onsies, twosies etc) is not completed, they have to start over with that set that was not completed. First one to gather them all, wins.

Tiddlywinks is an old fashion classic that dates back to the 1890's. Amazingly, their are active organizations and tournaments for this old Victorian pastime. With four colors, blue, green, red and yellow, each color has 4 small winks and two large winks. (Though this game can be played as partners, the following rules are for singles or individual players.) The pot is placed in the middle of the players. To take your shot, take the larger wink and press it against the edge of the smaller wink and tries to get it into the pot. For tournament play, the rules are more complicated. If you wish to check out sources for this game or for more detailed information on rules, check out http://www.tiddlywinks.org

Chinese Checkers, dominoes and other board or parlor games are still available at reasonable prices in most stores and can be so much fun. For a more challenging game, chess is well worth learning, even if you are a beginner, it is fun to corner or check your Mom's queen! Amazingly, children can learn and play this game, even if the more advanced theories are far into their future.

Easily, a game of fun and laughter, charades is a game of acting out words or phrases in silence while the other members of the family try and guess what you are trying to say. You can use a theme, such as the Bible or movies to make it more interesting and challenging.

Outdoor Family Games Horseshoes or sometimes called horseshoe pitching is a great game to have in your backyard if you have space and a little preparation. The stakes are placed 40 feet apart, usually with a pit filled with clay, sand or sawdust surrounding the stake area. Depending on the age of your family members, you can get real horseshoe pitching shoes (real horseshoes haven't been used for years in this sport) or a product called Soft-Shoes allowing kids from 6 and up to enjoy the game.

A traditional lawn game, croquet is fun and challenging (especially if your yard is less than flat and not quite smooth). The rules are slightly more complicated and detailed instructions will come with your lawn set. I can say that even made up rules can be a hoot as you use that mallet to drive your ball through the maze of wickets. As a child, we often set up the game, made our own rules, probably close if not quite official rulebook standards. The neighbors and I had a wonderful time.

A list of items, some easy to locate, others much more difficult, a playing area and a time limit make up a fun time with a scavenger hunt. Teams of two or more people search for the elusive items, gather them into a bag and the one that has gathered the most items, wins. An ice cream cone or old fashioned root beer float can be enjoyed by the winning and loosing team as they tell each other about their trials and tribulations of the hunt.