How do you spend your weekend evenings or handle eating out with your children? While all you want is to have a relaxing movie night or peaceful dining out, your children might have completely different ideas in their minds.
One of the hardest things about having children is coaxing them to behave well enough at a restaurant—before and during the meal—by giving them enough fun distractions to accommodate their short attention spans.
If you are looking for simple and easy-to-play games to occupy your little ones, here are some examples that you can have up your sleeve to pull out when needed.
Here are a variety of fun games with free printable sheets that can help you and your family enjoy your outing or cozy weekend night.
1. I spy
A fun and simple game that you can play with your children. To spice things up, you can print multiple pages of the same sheet and time them with a stopwatch to see who wins.
2. Family Bingo Night
Bingo is a fun and easy game for even little children, with relatively simple and straightforward rules. With picture bingo, even young children who cannot read or write can participate in the game.
3. Who am I?
In case you haven’t heard of this one, here is how you play it. Each person takes a turn wearing a picture (that they haven’t seen) on their forehead and asking questions to figure out the answer— “Am I an animal?”, “Am I food?”, “Can I fly?”, “Can you carry me in your hand?” Try using double-sided tape or a loop of clear tape; you could also laminate the pictures for multiple uses.
5. Tic tac toe
A simple but challenging strategy game, tic tac toe can be fun for children of all ages. It doesn’t take long to finish each game, so it is perfect for a family tournament, or even at bigger gatherings with children of different ages.
4. Memory game
If your children like to play more hands-on games, Memory Game is a classic that can make for an exciting time. Flipping pairs of cards each turn to find matching images mainly relies on your memory—and a dash of luck, for some bonus fun.
You might also be interested in these free printable kids’ activities:
- Free printable shapes for tracing, coloring, crafting and playing games
- Kids’ Crown Activity – Free Printable
