Funk Family Game Night

As my girls have gotten older, I’ve tried to find new and interesting ways to enjoy our time as a family.  Some have been successes, and some have been failures.  I grew up with a little brother, so the challenge of finding things that my girls will enjoy doing with me has sometimes been..  Uh..  challenging.  Fortunately, my oldest loves basketball, and the 2 older ones share my taste in movies (much to the chagrin of their mom).  Brynna and I will sit and do puzzles together while we talk.  Abby discusses her favorite books with me.  We sing and act goofy.  Maddie is content just being able to throw herself on me when I’m not looking.  But, occasionally, something more structured is called for…

A big breakthrough, though, came when I stumbled on a little web series called TableTop.  I can’t imagine the countless stories similar to mine, but you’ll have to bear one more.  It was an EPIPHANY.  There are more games than just Monopoly?  We don’t have to play Chutes and Ladders anymore??  Heresy!  And Wil and crew made the games look FUN.  Not just pass-the-time fun, but let’s-do-this-again-and-again fun!

I was a bit concerned about various age ranges for games, but Brynna (now 8 and a half) was at the point where she could reliably read and comprehend pretty much whatever she wanted.  And all of my girls are very bright.  I figured, what the heck, let’s give it a shot!  I went to my FLGS (shout-out to the Game Preserve in Indy!) and asked about a good family-friendly game. I was pointed at Forbidden Island, and picked up Zombie Dice on a whim.  MY ADDICTION WAS BORN.

Game night was a hit.  The girls LOVED it.  We had a special game-night snack and everything.  While Jenn didn’t necessarily love the GAMES, she loved the idea.  On her own, she went to another game store and bought Wits & Wagers Family and Reverse Charades (oh, how I now loathe Reverse Charades).  Thus started a semi-regular tradition.  We started trading nights of who got to choose games and who got to choose snacks.  And the girls constantly asked when we could have the next one…

MANY games and many weeks later, life has caught up to us.  While we don’t get to have a dedicated game night weekly like we started, we do set aside time as often as we can.  Yes, the girls still constantly ask when the next ACTUAL family game night will be.  And games have become a regular thing for us, even without a specific ‘game night’.  We play and we play often.  And we’ve started introducing friends and family to our gaming, as well.  Overall, it’s become something our family is ‘known for’, and it’s absolutely something we enjoy.

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