Winter game classes were so much fun! My son Patrick helped me with the first camp, a Dexterity Games Class.
Not too surprisingly, I missed getting pictures of the game that was the biggest hit of the camp because it was so much fun and all the kids were too hyped up whenever we played it. Ice Cool is a penguin flicking game where some penguins are trying to cut class to go get a fish snack and another penguin is the hall monitor, trying to catch them. Patrick practiced teaching the game to my parents before the game camp.
I always have some games at the camps that kids can walk in and play with no explanation necessary. Loopin' Chewie remains a fan favorite and we love the idea of A Game of Cat and Mouth (it's basically a competitive pinball type game from the makers of Exploding Kittens) but it's a bit difficult to master. Unless you're Patrick, he was a terror and we were all afraid of playing him.
Rhino Hero Super Battle was our other big game we played, I love a game where the kids have to stand on chairs in order to play their pieces as the tower grew taller and taller. We also played some exciting games of The Floor is Lava and tried out Goat Slingers. Dexterity games are great choices for play dates or when you have children stuck indoors during the winter months!
The second class was Cooperative Board Games and I taught it with my daughter Eleanor, who was a seasoned expert after helping me teach classes during the summer.
We had a very optimistic number of games we hoped to play for this particular class. We made it through all of them because there was basically no set-up or take down time for the games because Eleanor and I took care of all of that while the kids were playing other games. We were able to hop directly from game to game! I also swear by the method of telling kids the general idea of the game and learning by doing. Saves so much time! Eleanor started us off with Similo, a game where you work together to guess the correct animal.
Next we played Outfoxed!, The Floor is Lava in cooperative game mode, and Space Escape (Mole Rats in Space).
Jumanji Deluxe was great fun despite none of the kids having seen the Robin Williams movie it was based on. We had a tricky moment when one of the cards told us to pour a kid's hair under water for a minute so we drew an alternate card and got to save him from quicksand instead. It's quite the active game.
We played around with Hedgehog Roll, played a round of Detective Charlie, and ended with 5-Minute Mystery. We certainly packed in the games! It's hard to pick a favorite as it seemed like everyone enjoyed different bits of all the games, but as a group it seemed like the kids were most excited about Outfoxed! and 5-Minute Mystery. I had so much fun teaching the classes and can't wait to try out the summer sessions I have planned! I'm going to expand the class offerings to Alternatives to Chess and Educational Games. So much fun to be had playing games!