A while ago I came across
Life in the Green House's 'Date Night' Jar. The idea was to have a jar filled with popsicle stick, each containing a different idea for a date night activity. Immediately I had an idea for how this could become a fun kids craft and a great family activity.
Charades is a fun family game, that generally produces less arguments than your average board game. One of the main problems is preparing the movie suggestions in the first place. You need to find a piece of paper and pens, everyone has to try and think of movies, and in the end 3 people have written down the same film.
With popsicle stick charades you can skip this step and get straight into playing.
Time: 20 minutes
Age: 5-10s, Over 10s
Level: Easy
Materials
Method
Start by decorating your jar. You can use paints to brighten up the actual jar or lid, but I prefer just a few simple ribbons around the rim of the jar. I found this vintage ric rac which worked perfectly.
Brainstorm charades titles with your kids. Think of books, movies, television shows, and songs that will work for adults and kids. Keep a list.
Start writing down all of the titles on different popsicle sticks. You can be completely random, or dedicate a particular colour stick to a particular category. You could also colour-code the sticks based on how easy or hard they are, so that kids of all levels can pick a title best-suited to them. To add even more options to your jar, make your popsicle sticks double sided.
Use a fine tip marker when writing on the sticks, they are great at absorbing ink and thicker markers can get a bit messy.
Once you're done you just need to pop all the sticks into the jar, and just get it out when you want to play. If you've got a lid the jar is completely portable, so you can take it away on family holidays, or over to friends' houses for dinner parties.
Can you think of any other ways you could adapt the
'Date Night' Jar for your family? Here are a few more options:
Weekend Fun Jar. Write different activities on each stick and let the kids pick one or a few every weekend.
Movie Night Jar. Write down the names of all your movies, and then pick one out at random on movie night. Different colours can represent different genres.
School Lunch Jar. Write down different school lunch options, and then pick one out so you don't have to decide what to make.
Let us know how your charades jar goes.
Categories
#Popsicle Sticks
#Family Games
#Family Activities
#5-10s
#Over 10s
#Easy
