Dear Ones,
I'm a grown up and I love playing games. As a parent I've seen how playing games can help smooth out some bumps for my gifted son. I'll share two of my favorites, and perhaps you can add yours to the list. I think that anytime a child is having fun, that it is healing for them. (Adults too) Many gifted children seem to especially enjoy games that are challenging in some way, or frankly educational.
My niece recently showed us a new party game, "Who Am I?"
players needed:4 or more
One player is the judge, one is the narrator. this will rotate each round of play.
The Judge makes up a question, such as "If you were a superhero what would your name be and what would your costume be like? or "If you were an atom, which one would you be and name three things you'd like to do." "If you could travel to any country, which one would you choose and say three things you would see there."
All the players, except the judge, (including the narrator) write down their responses, and hand them to the narrator. The narrator reads them all. The Judge wins points for every correct identification of who wrote which answer. After the Judge gives her opinion, then all the players indicate what their real answer was. It pays to be tricky in this game, and make yourself seem like another player to the Judge. Much laughter follows. (Some families don't keep track of the points, some write them down.)
If kids play with Adults, then they delight in making their writing as Adultlike as possible, to stump the Judge. Some pg kids (and adults, now that I think about it, including me) seem to be particularly challenged at changing channels between their 'perspective' and other people's 'perspective.' This game rewards doing that twice, once to copy a fellow player, then to psych out the current Judge.
Another game that is a great favorite in our house is "Apples to Apples" (adult version- with the rule that Mom can throw out (permanently) any green cards that offend her, and kids can hand in any red cards that they don't know about. This also teaches the value of seeing things from another's perspective, this time the Judge's. It also introduces vocabulary words and cultural history. We were on such a roll with this game that we played it without the cards while waiting for things.
This also is great practice at speeding up some of our perfectionist/introverts/deep thinkers because as the game gets more funny, everyone laughs and loosens up. In a way this celebrates relationships because to truly know another's perspective is part of being close.
Apples to Apples without the cards:
Need at least 3 to play: First Judge picks an adjective. Players think of a noun or noun phrase that the judge will believe best matches her adjective, on a purely subjective basis. Who ever "wins" that round becomes the next judge. No score seems to be needed to be kept.
If any of you dear ones enjoy these games over the comming holidays consider it my holiday gift to you! (smile)
