Games for a rainy day

It is inevitable that if you do enough camping, sooner or later you will get caught trying to entertain kids in a tent while the rain comes down outside.  The recent run of wet weather got me thinking about how we manage to entertain our kids in the rain and I thought I would share some of our favourite games with you.

Our kids love playing in the mud, love splashing in puddles and generally staying outside as long as they can.  Of course this is to be encouraged whenever possible - after all why go camping in the great outdoors if you're afraid of a little mud or dirt?

But of course these activities cannot go on forever.  After a while the little bodies get cold. When the shivering starts and the lips go blue, the fun starts to leave really quickly and it is time to get them warm and dry.


Thus it is essential that you have a dry change of clothes available, and somewhere to get changed.  We have found that peeling wet clothes off little boys and giving them a wash in cold water is no harder than herding cats, but after a few minutes in dry clothing they warm up and are back to their chipper selves.

The problem then becomes, what to do with them?

We nearly always carry a basic entertainment kit, consisting off a few pens and pencils and some paper.  The boys have become quite adept at drawing remarkable pictures of excavators, firetrucks and big ships.  We have recently introduced them to Star Wars (Episode IV - VI of course) and alien lifeforms along with  X-wing fighters have become favourite drawings.  They have often spent an hour or so drawing in harmony, before they both decide that they want the purple glitter pen or some such item we only have one of.  It is then time to pick a new activity!

And we break open the games box!

Some of our favourite games are:

• Shave a Sheep

If you thought Lego was just about blocks and building cars and buildings, then you haven't been anywhere near it for a long time.  One of their newest product lines is a range of games, and one of our favourites is Shave a Sheep.

A simple game to follow, you essentially are the custodian of a sheep, and each roll of the dice allows you to add wool to your sheep, and shave it (shear for purists) when the fleece is full.  There is a few twists, like the wolf who can steal the wool off your sheep, or the ability to swap your sheep with another player who has more wool on their sheep.

We have found the swapping to cause the most heartache in our family, particularly when older brother swaps his naked sheep with younger brother's fully fleeced sheep!

• Creationary

Another Lego game we love is Creationary.  It is essentially Pictionary where you make the objects with Lego instead of draw them.  Whilst we found the original box a bit cumbersome for travelling, we found a little odds and ends plastic box from a hardware shop the perfect alternative. 

The game comes with lots of little pieces, and thus far we have managed to resist the urge to supplement the pieces with their other Lego.  Again you roll a dice to determine your category, draw a card and then you have to make the specified item.  The person who correctly guesses your object gets to go next.  There are many variants to ensure everyone gets a turn, and the objects are graded into easy, medium and hard. 

If no one wants to play a scoring game, then the pieces become a great resource to have allowing the boys to play a bit of Lego in the camper whilst the rain continues to fall outside.

• Sequence

One of our new family games that we all thoroughly enjoy is Sequence.  Easy to learn and play, it essentially is a bit like Connect Four with Cards.  Once playing it has a surprising amount of twists and turns for the big people, and is simple enough for the little ones.  We often play in teams, and after the kids have gone to bed the real challenge begins between Mum and Dad... and the loser has to do the dishes!

• Settlers of Catan

A long time favourite of ours is Settlers of Catan.  This is an amazing game that works best with four players, however with additional extension packs you can add more and more players as required.  This game takes a good hour - often more and whilst our boys will play and enjoy it, it is still a little out of their league.  We have enjoyed a few good nights playing Settlers of Catan with our friends long after the little ones are in bed.  Again we have transferred the pieces into a plastic box for ease of transport.

• Go Fish

If everyone is tired it is hard to go past old classics such as Go Fish.  Whilst you can play this with just about any cards, we recently were given a set of Sesame Street Elmo cards for Go Fish.  This is a great game that the two boys amuse themselves with.  The addition of a third or fourth person into the mix really changes the dynamic of the game.  We love playing Go Fish for a simple fun afternoon time killer.

• Uno

The classic - carry it, play it and love it. 

• Deck of Playing Cards

And finally nothing beats a good old fashioned set of playing cards.  The number of games you can play with a set of cards is almost limitless and with good company (and perhaps a bottle or two of red) and evening passes in no time.

In fact sometimes the best rainy weekends are the ones spent not camping at all, but rather playing games with good friends at home.  I guess it does pay to check the forecast every now and then and even I would agree that sometimes you are best leaving the camper in the driveway! :)