Top 5 Games That Bring Families Together

When it comes to spending time as a family, game night is always a good idea.

From burping to bottles and every sleepless night in between, you don't have much of an opportunity to think about spending quality family time together when your children are infants. But as a mother of three growing children, the thoughts of having a standard family night has been weighing on my mind.

It seems like only yesterday that my son was just a little baby in my arms, but now that he's 15, I keep asking myself, where did the time go? In three years, he'll be off to college, with his younger brother and sister not far behind.

Dwelling on these thoughts encouraged me to look for ways to improve my happy family life. My husband and I have chosen to do this with a regular family game night every Sunday after dinner. This is a great opportunity to sit down, unwind, laugh, and get to know our kids a little better. Not to mention create some amazing memories.

I am here to share the top five games that have brought my family together.

Top Five Games to Promote Happy Family Life

1. Classic Cards

Cards are a great way to promote happy family life through games in our household for two reasons. One, cards are portable, meaning we can still stick to our game night even on vacation and two, with one deck of cards you have endless games to play together.

My husband and I love playing cards with the kids. We are avid euchre fans, but also love Go Fish, War, Blackjack, Rummy, Knock-out Whist, and the list goes on. We love finding new games to learn with the kids.

As an added benefit, playing cards is an intimate setting where we can talk to each other and it teaches our children memorization and math skills.

2. Scavenger Hunt

This is another fun way to get active and have fun together. My husband and I print off scavenger hunt lists and take them throughout our city, exploring the sights and checking things off our list.

Sometimes, if the weather is rotten, we will have an indoor scavenger hunt, looking for household items and seeing who can find the most.

3. The Circle Game

The circle game is something we read about online and haven’t been able to stop playing ever since.

Our family takes turns asking the room a question, going in a circle as we lounge on the couch until everyone has had the chance to ask multiple questions.

Examples of questions include:

• What is everybody’s favorite animal?
• Favorite vegetable?
• Greatest book/movie ever?
• What is everyone’s ideal vacation?
• Weirdest dream?

This is a great game that helps you get to know each other as people, not just as parents and kids.

4. Hide and Seek

Hide and seek is an absolute classic for a happy family life for a reason. Not only does it get your little ones active and add a little excitement and anticipation in their lives, but by playing in teams (two seekers, three hiders) we are able to make cooperation an integral part of the experience.

5. Classic Sports

Research shows that one in seven children are obese, and both my husband and I have some unhealthy genetics in our family. Knowing this, one of the first things my husband and I decided to do with our kids was to get them outdoors.

We set up rules for sports as a family. First, no roughhousing—especially not with a six-year-old little sister waddling around. Second, have fun! This was not about winning or losing. It was about spending time together.

My husband and I like to vary the sporting activity by the weather. In the summer we will do swimming or set up a volleyball net, in spring and autumn we do soccer or baseball, and in the winter we get out in the backyard and make snow angels, build snowmen, or take the kids to the local park and go sledding together.

Not only is playing sports a great way to promote family bonding time, but it also helps our kids stay healthy and actives throughout the year.

Benefits of Family Game Night

Game night definitely contributes to a happy family life with its fun and relaxed atmosphere. But there are many other benefits to spending time together as a family than just having fun. Here are just a few examples of why you should start your own family night.

Games are great for child motor skills. When your kids shuffle cards, roll dice, count moves, or tally play-money, they are developing hand-eye coordination and improving their motor skills.

Playing games can contribute to your child's dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Even playing the right kinds of video games can positively impact your child's skills, as studies show that surgeons who play video games will make 37 percent fewer errors than those who don't.

Games improve problem-solving abilities. Games like euchre or board games that encourage your children to make "life-changing" in-game decisions help to improve their cognitive thinking.

Family time outside or around the table means less time spent in front of the screen. This is great, since research indicates that for their health children should limit screen time (computers, tablets, smartphones) to less than two hours each day.

Time spent together as a family around the dinner table or playing cards has been proven to promote child cognitive development. It also improves the child's linguistic skills that will support his or her ability to read and write. Plus, it gives families an opportunity to talk about their day and develop lasting connections.

Happy family life doesn’t happen magically. You must put the time and energy into having relationships with your kids. Spending time together should never be a bore. Not for you and your spouse and definitely not for your kids. Improve their cognitive thinking skills and build lasting memories together by having a regular family game night.