Games to play when there is no power.

Having to wait on adults can be boring, but what if you could play while you wait?

Have you and a friend ever had to wait on an adult while running an errand? Maybe you have had to sit and wait in a waiting room while the adult is inside an office for a brief meeting. Once they are done, there may be plans to go to the park, pool, or any number of fun places; but first, there is the wait.

Playing quiet games can make the time go by faster!

What kinds of games can you play in situations like this?

I Spy! Someone says, “I spy something … (of a certain color).”

The other person has to guess the item’s identity.

Name That Tune! One person hums or whistles a tune while the other person guesses the tune’s name.

You can also discuss ideas or make plans for things that you want to do later.

You can share secrets, sing songs, or tell stories.

Many on Castle Land enjoy the TV show, Wheel of Fortune.

Chance and Tally, brother-and-sister bear cubs, often have to wait on their papa bear when he has to tend to things in the village bank. This usually happens on Saturday mornings before they leave for one of their adventures in the woods. The two cubs wait, sitting at the picnic tables in the village square. Chance takes out his tablet, and Tally takes out her favorite heart pencil; and they play Chance’s version of Wheel of Fortune.

They had to get creative and make up their own way of playing the game since they had no wheel; but they find it to be just as fun. It also challenges their spelling skills in much the same way.

They take turns thinking of words. One of them draws a line on the piece of paper for each letter in the word or phrase. The other guesses letters that might go in the spaces. The cub who thought of the word records the correct letters on the lines in the spaces where they belong.

The cub who is writing lists the wrong letters on the side of the page. With each wrong guess, the writer draws a circle that would, if the other cub had enough wrong guesses, form the shape of a bear.

As soon as the guesser thinks she knows the word or phrase, she says it out loud. A wrong guess for the word or phrase results in another circle! If the bear is finished before the word or phrase is recognized, the guesser loses.

What is the reward for winning? The cub who has more correctly guessed words when Papa Bear arrives gets to decide which path they take into the woods that day.

To draw the bear, draw the blue circles shown here for each wrong letter guessed for a total of eight circles. For each wrong word guessed, draw the black circles shown here for a total of 12 black circles.

(You can use any color you like!)

How many guesses do you get in total? 20!

Twenty chances in all!

Cassie the mouse's favorite waiting game is Tic-Tac-Toe,

but some of her friends do not want to play that game

with her, because she always seems to win.

So, Cassie suggests another game instead: Boxes!

Cassie's is good at this game too,

but she does not always win.

Another favorite thing that those who live on Castle Land like to do is take turns reading a story, or they tell their own!

One person starts the story, and then the others add to it taking turns.

Often, they end up in fits of laughter.

These are not video games, but they are great things to play when the power goes out or there are no batteries.

What about you? Do you have a favorite game, or have you ever created a favorite story with others? Maybe your family has a favorite game they like to play when everyone gets together. Please share them with us by e-mail, and you may find yours published here.

Stay tuned for more fun suggestions of interesting things to do.

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What if you have a pencil and piece of paper; what games can you play?

BOXES

To play Boxes, you must draw ten dots (about a half of an inch apart) across a piece of paper; and then you put another dot below the first dot going down until you have ten dots. Then fill in each row across and down, creating ten rows of dots.

When all the dots are completed (100 dots total), the players take turns connecting their choice of dots one line at a time. The objective is to create boxes, which are formed with four lines. When this happens, the player who draws the fourth line gets to write his or her initial in the box and take another turn. When all the boxes are connected, the game is over.

When all the boxes are connected the game is over. The player with the most boxes wins.