The blog in which it's homemade game time and a freebie!

I was so excited to get the newest Learning Express catalogue yesterday.  It always has such great ideas for gifts, and we all love to look at toys.  I found two really great games that I knew we could make ourselves, with things we already had at home.  I was right, and we had a blast playing each game.

The first one is actually called "Five Second Rule,"  is the box says it is for children ten years and up. We cheated and played it with an almost six year old and a seven year old.  Word recall is incredibly hard for Charlie, and it challenged his abilities, but I think it is a great tool.  The basics to the game- players must name three items from a category within five seconds.  We literally went off the cuff coming up with categories, and used our iPod to time the five seconds.  I have compiled an extensive list of over 100 categories that I would be happy to share with you if you leave a comment in the comment section. (Freebie)

The next game was the one I had to run around and gather items for, but I had this game made in about 20 minutes.  The game is by I Spy, and is called "Mystery Grab Game." Players pick a card that has a picture of an object that is actually in this hat shaped bag and the player has to stick their hand in and try to find in with just one hand, within a certain time limit.  We allotted one minute on the iPod timer, and added a blindfold for added fun.  I gathered 30 small kids toys/items, and then laid them on the copier, and made one color copy.  Then, I assigned a number to each item by writing with pen on the item on the copy I made.  I then wrote the items and their numbers on index cards for easy reference.  Then, I wrote each number on a small piece of paper that was folded and put into a sandwich sized plastic bag to be drawn from.  I put all the items in a small bag, then added some flat marbles I happen to have, just to make it slightly more challenging.  Each player would pick a number, look at the picture of it, then once they had the blindfold on, the timer would start, and they would have up to a minute and one had to pull out their item.  We allowed for two attempts within the minute.  If the first item was incorrect, a second item could be pulled.  If the player retrieved the correct item, they got to keep the paper with the number, but they put the item back into the bag.  The person with the most pieces of paper wins!  I hate to brag, but....  I WON!!! 

All the items out of the bag.  

Small flat marbles for added difficulty.  

She was good.  

The game that sparked the home made version.  On sale for $20.
I made it for the cost of one color copy of the items, two index cards, and one colored piece of paper I cut to put numbers on.