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Books and Letters
Reading matter (and a few word games) to get everyone in the house turning the pages.
Oscar and the Lady
Maudie: I’ve just read
‘Oscar and The Lady in Pink’ by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. Oscar is a ten-year-old
boy who is living in a hospital because he has leukaemia and the doctors can’t
cure him. He makes friends with an old lady in pink he calls Granny Rose, who
comes to the hospital to play with the sick children. She used to be a lady
wrestler, and he likes listening to her stories about all the strange opponents
she used to fight. Granny Rose encourages him
to get to know the other children like Peggy Blue in the hospital
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Alphabet Soup
Jane: I've always loved playing word games but have a hard job to get anyone else in the family interested. They'd rather play Apples to Apples (great with lots of people) or current hot favourite 221B Baker Street (a retro Sherlock Holmes mystery-solving board game where the detecting is surprisingly hard). So this weekend I concocted a word game which pretends at first that it isn't a word game because it involves lots of colouring in. I've called it Alphabet Soup and it's really simple for all ages over about five to play.
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Christmas Teakettle
A guessing game – give it a Christmas or theme of your choice by choosing seasonal activities for your hidden word.
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Speed Scrabble
Jane: This is a brilliant, quick and portable version of Scrabble which doesn't use the board or any clever long words, so you can play it anywhere, any time and with anyone (over about six). In fact, it's so quick and unobstrusive that we recently managed a game while waiting for our main course in Pizza Express.
All you need is to clear the decks and lay out a set of Scrabble or Snatch tiles in the middle of the table. Each person takes 15 letters and, as quickly as they can, forms their own set of interlocking words crossword-style as in Scrabble. (You are allowed two-lettered words, which makes it easier for younger kids.) The first person to organise all 15 letters into interlocking words shouts 'Time'. Then everyone stops and picks up a letter. Then the first person to fit all 16 letters shouts 'Time' and you all pick up another letter - and so on until all the letters in the middle are used up.
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Nonsense Poetry
A bit like Heads, Bodies and Legs, but in this version everyone joins together to write complete poems, a line at a time. A good winter afternoon activity in front of a roaring fire.
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Sausages and Mash
A daft but funny way to get the whole family reading out loud.
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