Building Strong Connections with Kids Using Fun Games

Raising kids is tough. Raising kids who are connected to us parents is even tougher, especially with the busy lifestyle and the proliferation of handheld devices among kids these days.

Distracted by our neverending schedules and handheld devices, kids stop listening to us. We lose our connection with them. The challenge to maintaining a healthy relationship with our children is thus becoming an uphill task. We need to build connections with our kids, and that connection is the reason why kids continue to trust us, listen to us, and cooperate with us.

Not to overly worry. We do not need 100% of our waking hours to build connections with our kids. Building connections can be as simple as a few impactful moments a day, and it can be fun!

Building Connection by Playing Games

One of the many ways we can build strong connections with our kids is by spending quality time playing with them. It does not need to take us long to play with them. A short bursting of fun and memorable moment of play on a daily basis suffices.

Find games that everyone likes, including yourself. Put down that cell phone to show interest in playing with the kids. Once they know we are interested in them, they will trust us and listen to us more.

Our usual games take up around 15 mins per session, and all suit my 4 – 11 years old kids. If we have the luxury of time, we can indulge in spending one-on-one time with the kids. But if we don’t, a time-saving way is to play games with all of them at the same time. As a mother of 4 kids, spending a total of more than one hour every day with all 4 kids can be impossible on school days.

Thus we play games that can include 3 to 4 children at the same time, games that kids of varying ages are able to enjoy.

The following are the usual games that we often play and bond simultaneously.

Blokus

Blokus is a 2 to 4-player strategy game where the players will try to fit the maximum number of pieces of blocks onto the board. The only rule is each piece of the block must connect to a corner of one other piece of the same colour.

While this game is stated as for age 7 and above, my 4-yo twins join in the fun too. The one and only rule are simple enough for them to follow, though they still cannot understand how to block their opponents to maximize their own chance of winning. For the 4-year-olds, joining in the game to spend time with the family precedes winning.

Rummikub

Rummikub consists of 104 tiles which are numbered from 1 to 13 in 4 colours with 2 more joker tiles. Each player draws 14 tiles to start. We simplified the start of the game to adapt to the kids’ ability to play the game. The objective of the game is to be the first player to discard all the tiles from his rack.

The rules of the game are simple for my 10 yo and 11yo to follow. Each player is to discard their tiles in the middle, with a minimum of 3 tiles in a set. The set should consist of consecutive numbers in the same colour or the same number in different colours.

The other players can subsequently discard their own tiles in the same format. They can also reconfigure the tiles discarded by other players into other formations as long as the configuration is in accordance with the aforementioned rules. This game certainly encourages flexible thinking.

The twins are gradually getting the hang of the game, but certainly needs a lot of help from us.

UNO Card Game

This classic UNO card game suits everyone at home. Each player takes a turn to match a card in their hand with the current card shown on top of the deck either by colour or number. There are special action cards such as Skips, Reverses, Draw Twos, Wild and Draw Four Wild cards to help the players win the game.

Monopoly Deal Card Games

Monopoly Deal Card is another 15-min game we love to play. Again, the 4 yo twins will join in, though the rules are complex and reading skills are needed. They follow our instructions blindly most of the time. But never mind, they are in the game for the sake of inclusiveness.

The objective of the game is to be the first person to complete 3 full property sets and have them down on the table. You can click here to know the rules of the game if you like.

Risk Junior Game

The Risk Junior Game is a very simple game that little kids like. The objective of the game is to collect the treasures from all the islands. Start by picking an island to attack. Both the attacker and defendant launch their dices from their battleships. The winner gets the treasure and control of the island. The player with the most treasures collected wins.

I often request to play Risk Junior with the twins when I am the most tired. I would just lie sideway on the bed, brainlessly throw the dice and let the girls take the lead in the game. The elder ones join in at times, just to have a session of game with me.

Monopoly Junior

We used to play the adult version late into the night after the twins fall asleep. Now that they are keen to join in all the games we play, we switch to the junior version to accommodate them.

The rules of Monopoly Junior are simple. Players pay rent that is the same as the purchase price of each property. The maximum purchase price of a property is $5. Cash is denominated in $1.

We limit the game to 15 mins. To determine the winner, we total each player’s cash on hand and the value of the properties they own.

Gobbles

Gobbles is an advanced version of tic-tat-toe. The rules are just like the tic-tat-toes, with a variation that allows the bigger pieces to nest on top of the smaller adjacent pieces, or bring in one new piece to gobble up the smaller piece! A well-loved game at home. Once we start playing, it is not easy to stop.