How do you keep the kids amused for the long summer holidays?
What do you do when the inevitable rainy day blues strike and
everyone gets fractious and argumentative? And how do you cope
when you are forced to play the waiting game … in doctors'
surgeries, airports, or even long car journeys?
Get the dice out! Dice games are the ultimate in quick and easy
entertainment, with the added advantages of being cheap,
portable and educational too! You can start playing dice with
children as young as 2 ½, as long as you are sure that they are
past the stage of putting things into their mouths. And you will
find that all ages up to grandparents are happy to join in.
I offer below three particularly quick and easy games, all of
which can be played with children from about the age of 4 up.
All you need are pencil and paper and dice - a maximum of 7,
which you can probably find in existing game boxes around the
house.
Beat That! You will need between two to seven dice, depending on
the age of the players. Roll the dice and put them in order to
make the highest number possible. If you roll a 4 and a 6, for
example, your best answer would be 64. Using three dice, a roll
of 3, 5 and 2 should give you 532, and so on. Write down your
answer, pass the dice, and challenge the next player to "Beat
That!" Play in rounds and assign a winner to each round. For a
change, try making the smallest number possible! This is a great
game for reinforcing the concept of place value.
Run for it! You will need six dice for this game. Roll the dice
and look for runs (sequences) starting with 1 (so 1, 1-2, 1-2-3
and so on). Each die that is part of a run scores five points.
There can be more than one run in each roll. For example, say
you rolled the following combination: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 5. You
would score 5 points for the first 1. You would then score 15
points for the sequence of 1, 2 and 3, for a total of 20 points
for that roll. The first player to reach 100 points is the
winner.
Going to Boston Use three dice. Roll all three and keep the
highest. Roll the remaining dice and again set aside the
highest. Roll the last die, and add up your total. Write down
your score. Play a number of rounds and then either total your
points to find the winner, or simply count how many rounds were
won by each player.
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