Thursday Thirteen #3: Games

Our current favourite card and board games .... some we have played off and on for years, others are newer. Card games first, then others:

1. Uno ... simple enough for younger children, still fun for older kids and adults. The basic principle is matching colour or number, with special action cards to add a twist. We also had a Uno Extreme machine for a while, which spat out random numbers of cards mechanically, but the numbers were always too random and when it eventually broke we didn't miss it.

2. Duo ... similar to Uno, but requires matching of two characteristics out of three -shape, colour or number.

3. Blink ... yet another card matching game, but this one relies on speed. Rather like Duo, but with two players racing to get rid of all their cards.

4. Numero ... a maths game originally developed for people with Alzheimer's and memory loss. It can be played at a number of levels, starting with basic addition up to 10 or 15, then adding in subtraction, multiplication, division, and later fractions, squares and square roots.

5. Categories ... bought for 50 pence at a charity shop, this has been Star's favourite game for a while. You pick cards to get five categories, then pick five letters and spend two minutes trying to find a word for each category beginning with each letter. We ran out of the printed forms included in the game and are now having to write our own.

6. Monopoly ... enough said.

7. The Hobbit game ... Star and I both enjoy this one, though Angel is less keen. Travel through Middle Earth trying to collect enough jewels and adventure points to defeat Smaug and win his treaure.

8. The Dickens Game ... another charity shop find. Each player chooses one of four books by Dickens to "write". To write an episode you have to match a plot card with a character card and take them both to a writing desk. The winner is the first to finish all six episodes in their book. Includes suitable Dickensian characteristics as inns, stage coaches and a debtors' prison.

9. The Cooking Game ... I have grown to loathe this, but it is one of the girls' favourites. It involves a lot of time going round and round a kitchen collecting heaps of ingredient cards and not doing much else - apart from having to stop to do the washing up, stir the pots or lay the table. Exciting, huh? I suppose the interest, such as it is, is in the opportunity to take cards from other players. Collect all the ingredients for a main course and either a starter or a dessert to win. The game always lasts at least twenty minutes too long for me.

10. Anatomix ... educational! Answer questions about the human body to win pieces and build an anatomical jigsaw. Can be adapted for different levels.

11. Rummikub ... similar to the card game Rummy but played with tiles. Good for thinking skills as you have to manipulate the tiles in order to get rid of tiles from your hand. Like Monopoly, we have played this for years and it is still popular.

12. Pictionary ... really needs at least four people, though theoretically can be played with three. Two teams take it in turns to pick a card, then one player draws whatever is written on the card and the remainder of the team try to guess the word before running out of time. No need to be a great artist, and probably more fun if you aren't! We also have a Junior version of the game with easier words and two sets of graded cards, but have found that the adult game can easily be adapted by just skipping any cards with words the youngest players may not know.

13. Pit ... last, but not least. Loud. Fast. Great party game. Try to collect a set of eight stock market commodity cards by dealing with other players. Dealing means swapping cards by yelling the number you want to swap until someone else shouts the same number. Needs at least four players and can be played by up to eight. Danger of cards getting torn in the excitement.