Card games are a great pastime for grandparents and children. If you are babysitting and see that your grandchildren are becoming bored, introduce them to card games.
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Here are some easy card games that you can play with your grandchildren
Trash
This is a perfect game for children because it requires a bit of thinking but is fairly easy to play.
Number of players: 2
How it’s played:
- Deal 10 cards to each player with 2 rows of 5.
- Have the first player draw a card from the deck. If the player was able to get a 5, he has to place the card in the 5th spot and pick up the card that was there before. If say the second card is a 4, the player needs to place the card in the 4th spot and pick up the card that was there before. But if the face down card turns out to be a 4 or 5, then the player needs to place the card-in-hand in the discard pile.
- Kings are wild cards, jacks and queen end your turn and aces are used as 1’s.
- The player who can turn over all their cards first is the winner. They can shout trash or garbage to announce their victory.
Spoons
The more people the merrier
How it’s played:
- Count your players.
- If you have 6 players, prepare 5 spoons.
- Shuffle the card and deal 4 cards to each player. Then place the remaining deck of cards in the middle. Then together place one of the 4 cards to the left of each player. The player next to the dealer should put one card on the table to start the discard pile. The dealer would have to pick up a new card from the pile of deck cards.
- Repeat steps until one of the players complete a 4 of a kind card (e.g. 4 kings, 4 jack or 4 5s, etc.) has to pick up a spoon. Repeat the steps until one player is left without a spoon and out of the game.
- The discarded cards are reused after the deck runs out.
I Doubt It!
Kids love this game because this is the one chance they’ve got that they can lie. Some grandparents may be concerned about this game as it may teach children to lie. However, do not be concerned. In fact, this game allows children to observe the behavior between a liar and a truth-teller.
Requires 3 or more players / if there are 6-11 players two decks of cards are used, if it is below 5 players then only 1 deck of cards.
How it’s played:
- Shuffle the cards and deal them evenly among all players. Some may have one more card.
- The first player plays one or more of his card, face down, starting a discard pile in the middle of the table, where everyone can see. He then declares a number, “One Ace.”
- The second player follows the same steps then says, “Two Kings,” or whatever number is appropriate. Every other player follows the same steps. It is required for players to play cards that are not what they say. They can declare a different number than what they hold in their hands.
- The penalty works if another player would challenge the first player and say “I doubt it,” the first player needs to show the other players his cards. If he was bluffing, he has to take all the discarded cards and add them to his owns cards. If the challenger was wrong, then he has to take all the discarded cards.
- The first player who can discard all his cards first is the winner.
Card games are not only good to remove boredom, they are a good mental exercise for both children and adults. There are still a lot of other card games that you can try, just do a little bit of research.
