Games for rainy days

Rainy days in the UK  are almost guaranteed so ideas to help you get through the day with your family and you in tack are always welcome.

The Brilliant Ball Bashing Game

This is a great little game that allows your kids to let off a little steam if the rain has made an unwelcome visit to your holiday. To give it a go, all you need is a stopwatch, a pile of old newspapers and a blindfold per player. It can be played with as small or large a group as you have gathered.

How to play

• Get the kids to prepare a pile of scrunched-up balls of newspapers and lay out some clothes or a piece of rope to mark out the two sides of the pitch.
• Next, split the kids into two teams and position them on either side of the rope with half the paper balls on either side. Get the players to put their blindfolds on.
• The object of the game is to get rid of as many of the newspaper balls on your side of the pitch as possible within a minute, with both teams throwing the balls over to their opponents’ side.
• At the end of the minute, the team with the fewest balls on their side scores a point.
• The game plays on until one of the teams reaches five points and they’re declared the winners.

Speaker’s Corner

This is a brilliantly simple cerebral family game. It gives you the chance to hear your kid’s views on anything from world poverty or marine conservation, to the merits of snorkelling over deep sea diving.

How to play

• First of all you need to do a bit of preparation. Take a sheet of paper and tear it
  into smaller slips of paper. On each piece write a subject that you the other players
  have to talk on for a set amount of time. It’s your chance to hear their view on
  anything and everything so it’s worth giving it some thought. Fold these pieces of
  paper up and put them in a hat.
• Get everyone gathered around the table. Players then take it in turn to pull a slip
  of paper out of the hat. They then have 30 seconds to talk on the subject without
  interruption. If they manage to keep to the topic without too much hesitation they
  score a point.
• As players get the hang of how to play, you might want to add another 5 seconds
  as each round progresses.
• The player with the highest score wins. I would suggest some heavy handicapping
  for the parents to make it fair game.

You can read more games and ideas for holiday fun courtesy of Western & Oriental