Why would anyone want to make home-made games?  Our family loves board games, card games, and thinking games.  However, over the years we had collected almost every board game our local stores had to offer.  We had played them all so many times, we wished there were other games available.  So, we just made up some of our own.  Also, we homeschool, and it is a great learning experience for a child to make up a game of their own.  To make up a game, they have to first decide what materials they want in the game, they have to construct the materials, logically think through how the game will be played, write down the rules, experiment with the game to make sure it works, and that they have thought through just exactly how the objectives of the game can be accomplished.  This requires the development of logical thinking skills so important to learning in all areas of life.

The games I will be sharing in subsequent articles will require you to construct and gather the following game materials:

A regular deck of cards
A pair of dice
A colored dice (one which has different colors on the sides instead of numbers)
In lieu of a colored dice, construct a spinner from cardboard
Colored cards made of construction paper and laminated or covered with clear contact paper
Checkers, pennies, buttons, dried beans, or any such kind of markers
Old magazines, newspapers, or books to cut pictures out of
Colored construction paper for making picture cards
Empty eggcrates, preferably the ones that contain 2 and 1/2 dozen, flat and without a lid
Tiddlewinks or small paperballs made from newspaper or other scrap paper
 

If you cannot find a colored dice, you could make a spinner out of cardboard.  Draw a circle in the cardboard, divide it into four parts, and color the parts yellow, red, blue, and green.  Get a metal brad, and attach an arrow to the center of the circle, loose enough that it will spin when flicked with the finger.

As far as the colored cards, take a piece of construction paper, fold it in half twice, and cut on the folds, making four cards out of one sheet of paper.  Make four cards each of yellow, red, blue, and green.  Also, make enough cards out of black paper so that you can glue a black card to the back of each colored one before they are laminated or covered with clear contact paper.  This is so that when the cards are placed face down in a pile, you will not be able to tell what color is one the other side.

With these few simple materials, let's see how many interesting and fun games we can make!

One note:  The instructions to these games are copyrighted.  You may print out these instructions and make the game materials for your own use; however, they are not to be printed or constructed for selling or commercial use.  Thanks!

To view these games, go back to  Homemade Games For Kids and click on the game you want to see. More games will be added to this page periodically, so check back!

Visit our website The Center for Unhindered Living to see what other things our family is into.

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