We’ve talked a lot about summer throughout June. We’ve discussed Five Must Have Skills to Teach Our Kids. There’s been another post with 12 Survival Themed Books to Read Your Kids. You’ve joined me in another post where we talked about 5 Things Our Kids Need This Summer to Be Better Prepared, and even more.
But what is summer without fun games? We love to play games as a family. They are always so much fun. We laugh, get half-heartedly frustrated with each other, compete with each other (sometimes without mercy), or work together to save the world from a Pandemic. But games do so much more for our family than to “just” give us an enjoyable time!
Games can actually help our children learn preparedness skills in a way that we might not be able to accomplish without them. Games can teach self-control. They can teach skills like evasion. They can sometimes just open the door for an awesome discussion on preparedness.
So what games do I highly suggest playing as a family?
1.) Hide and Seek
SO gimme just a moment before you close out this tab. Think of it this way. Hide and seek, while fun, can actually teach children some of the criteria of what makes a good hiding place and how to deceive people that they need to hide from.
2.) The Quiet Game 
Do your kids hate to be quiet? What if they have to be? Take turns as a family, each person, one at a time, sitting in a chair and they can’t talk, but you all can make faces at them, try to make them laugh or get a reaction out of them. See who can keep their eyes open, but not react audibly to anyone within the designated time limit. You can start with 30 seconds and then the time can get progressively longer.
So why play “The Quiet Game?” Can you imagine your kids being in a situation – maybe they are hiding and someone is hurting you or another child, and the only way that they would be safe was if they were silent? Probably not going to happen, but good practice just in case – isn’t that what preparedness is all about?
3.) Capture the Flag
Stealth, deception, fast-moving, not getting caught…Capture the Flag has it all. It’s also good training for something stealthy that you or your children may need to do at another time in their lives. And you don’t need to tell your children that you’re helping them prepare.
4.) Airsoft Games
Want to take Capture the Flag to another level? Have an Airsoft war! My kids love having Airsoft wars when they go out to a friend’s house in the country! Don’t know what Airsoft is? Airsoft guns are ‘toy’ guns that come in just about every shape and size, like real guns, except that they shoot plastic pellets. These usually sting just a smidge but don’t usually leave a welt.
5.) “Kim’s” Game
Kim’s Game is a game from Rudyard Kipling’s “Just So Stories.” Kim, a teenager, is being trained to observe things so that he can act as a spy. You can see how the game works in this video clip.
6.) WildCraft
Want to learn what herbs can be used medicinally and what they are good for? Wildcraft wraps that all together in a cooperative game. It’s geared toward kids, but I’ve played it with my children and have learned a ton by playing it!
7.) Five-Second Rule
Need to learn to think under pressure? Five Second Rule is the game for you and your kids! Pick a card with a topic that looks really easy, but you only have five seconds to come up with three things that fit the category. It’s a fun way to learn to think on your feet.
8.) Worst-Case Scenario
I’ve written about this game before, but it’s such an amazing game to get you to think through unusual circumstances! You’ll probably never have to face a shark, but what would you do if you had to? I love this game for getting my family to use their brains to get out of crazy situations!
9.) Pandemic
A game like Pandemic can be useful to get survival conversations started with friends or family. It’s fun to play and does show us how things can spread quickly, but sometimes we just need a conversation starter to get the preparedness discussion going.
10.) Urban Survival Playing Card
While these can be played like a deck of playing cards, each card also has survival information on them. You can use them as flashcards, to quiz other people or for great conversation starters.
11.) The Young Survivor
I have not yet purchased this or used this with my children, but I am so excited about this one! I found this one when I was doing research for this article! This is a survival skills-set learning box to help your kids learn to survive in the wild. It has everything your kids need to learn – how to get water out of plants, how to light a fire without using matches, how to build a solar stove, and so much more!
What About You?
What survival types of games do you play with your kids, grandkids, or others? Share them with us in the comments so that we can all be better prepared?
Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome
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