Oh, the games families play Like Joiner, Erin Grismore of Grant Park has kids who are in different age groups; her boys are 12, 6 and 4. “You can’t find a lot of activities that will keep everyone involved, happy and together,” says Grismore. “Games do that for us. We love them all!” Consequently, the Grismores play at least one sort of game every day – even if it’s just a 20- or 30-minute version of Apples to Apples (“the game of hilarious comparisons”). Grismore always liked games but didn’t get to play them much as a kid. It was a “definite goal” of hers, she says, “to raise a game-playing family.” She loves the fact that playing card and board games “are about the only way to get everyone away from electronics. But also, I love that the kids are learning good sportsmanship. To have your 12-year-old lose a game to your 4-year-old and not get angry – that’s having a healthy attitude about competition.” A family with kids of varying ages can usually figure out a way to create reasonably balanced teams to play board games, and may need to try a variety of games to find ones that best suit their style and interests. A certain level of competitiveness is normal and healthy, Kaslow says, but parents should still be careful not to let competition rule above all else. “Younger children learn from older children, but you don’t want to put them in a situation where the challenge is so great that they get frustrated.” These days, Cranium Zooreka is the Grismores’ go-to game (besides Uno, Sorry Sliders, Apples to Apples and both the “Harry Potter” and Disney editions of Scene It!); the object of Zooreka is to collect things such as food, shelter and animal cards in order to build enough habitats – from Insectarium to Hippo Hideaway – to create your own zoo. “We’ve had that game for several years and still play it all the time,” Grismore says.
The Grismores play at least one sort of game every day – even if it’s just a 20- or 30-minute version of Apples to Apples (“the game of hilarious comparisons”). Grismore always liked games but didn’t get to play them much as a kid. It was a “definite goal” of hers, she says, “to raise a gameplaying family.” The Grismore boys
Roswell’s Denise Pereira-Santos says her family likes games “that make us move around and be silly with each other.” she says. She and husband Chris have an 8-year-old daughter and 2-year-old twin boys. “We’re busy,” she says. “We both work, and with our daughter’s ballet and little brothers taking up a lot of attention, it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind. Playing games forces us slow down, take a step back and just enjoy laughing and being together.” One favorite game these days in the Pereira-Santos household is Scabs ‘N’ Guts, (the “meducational” game promising “yucky fun”), which is focused on anatomy; players get to choose which body part they will be and sometimes get to act out certain
scenarios. Daughter Sophia “loves to ham it up,” says Denise, “and with this game, she gets to do stuff like show us she has bad gas by walking around with a stomach ache. We all just laugh and laugh.” This mom has even been known to turn mishaps into fun-haps. “Even when the kids spill something or make a mess, it is what it is – no big deal,” she says. You can even turn the cleanup into a game “because do you really want your kids to see you angry and frustrated all the time over little things? “I do think that as adults, we can sometimes forget to have fun,” Denise adds. “Playing games reminds us how to have fun. And having fun with your kids – well, you can’t get any better than that.” c
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Facebook.com/atlantaparentmagazine 26 Atlanta Parent January 2013
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