Backseat Drawing, Jr is at least as fun as its Major FUN Award-winning parent, Backseat Drawing. The rules, drawing boards, markers, card holders are all the same. The most visible difference is in the clue cards. Where Senior's clue cards have words on both sides (in three languages, even), Junior's have both drawings and words.

As the "artist" you most definitely have to follow the instructions as carefully and responsively as you do in the Senior game. On the other hand, when you're the "Director," though you still have to describe the object in terms of shapes (it's rectangularish, with rounded corners, only it looks like someone stepped on the middle of it), you have an actual drawing to guide you.

So the challenge, and hence, the fun of it, is similar in the excruciating delight of the grown-up version of Backseat Drawing. Having drawings to work from makes the game easy enough for barely-literate seven-year-olds to play (or, in the case of my granddaughter Lily, extremely literate 5-year-olds), which is all the difference you need in order to transform Backseat Drawing into a significantly laugh-producing family game.

There are two versions of the game suggested. The first, especially designed for younger children, is called "Everybody In." Here, the Artist is part of a team, with everyone on the team guessing at the same time. If the Artist succeeds, she and the Director both get a point (though you can have as much fun without keeping score at all). If not (both Director and Artist agree that the challenge is too hard), no score, no blame. The Director joins the Artist team. A new Director is selected. And the game continues. To further level the conceptual playing field, the yellow side of the challenge cards display more complex, "super challenge" images. The second version, "Team Play," is played the same as the elder version of Backseat Drawing, and is recommended for people 10 and up, giving the family something to continue playing after the giggly young'uns have been calmed into bed.

All in all, Major FUN for the whole family.

Labels: Family Games

Ya-Ya and granddaughter Esther are playing Chutes and Ladders. There are two problems we older folk have with that particular game: 1) it can get very boring, 2) it can only have one winner. The boring part can be endured. The winner part turns out to be the very opposite of why we want to play in the first place, especially when we're playing between generations.

Ya-ya and Esther are playing so that they can be together. Just having fun. Just doing something, anything, really, they both can enjoy. Ya-ya is probably enjoying being with Esther a lot more than she is enjoying playing Chutes and Ladders. Ya-ya is probably very bored with the game. Esther will probably cry if she doesn't win.

They need a variation.

Some of the best game variations come from playing with rules that aren't written down. Like the rule that says: "this is your piece. You can only move that piece. You really can't move any other piece because those pieces belong to other players. Other players can't move your piece, because that piece belongs to you. And, you can only win if your piece is the one that reaches the finish first."

I call my variation the "Anybody's Piece Variation." It works like this: "you can move any piece. Whatever piece you move is yours, for that turn." It's yours, but it's not you. You could call it Myrtle or Smunchnik or Pawn. You could even call it You. But it's not you. It's just a piece. Nobody's piece. And all that's important at the time is who moves it.

So, when it's your turn, you can move any piece you want. If you want to move the piece that's closest to winning, you can do that. If you want to help the other pieces catch up, you can do that, too. It's up to you.

Then the game belongs to all of you. And the winning belongs to anyone who wants to claim it. You can make the game as long as you all want to play it. If you want, you can play forever. And nobody has to be bored. And nobody has to lose. And the one who really cares about winning can win if she wants. And you all can focus on enjoying each other, which is what you're playing for in the first place.

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About the photo: I found it on a weblog called Tundra Topics. It was in a post about Ya-Ya's visit to her Alaskan family. It's a wonderfully personal website, by the way, giving us a clearly illustrated view of Alaskan living, written by someone who, it just so happens, was born in Indiana, my new home.


from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith

Labels: Family Games