Bring a fun twist to your next family game night by playing the game in reverse! For example:
• In Apples to Apples, have everyone submit a green adjective card for a single red noun card.
• In Battleship, try to cover as many non-ship spaces as possible before taking out the fleet.
• In Candy Land, work from the end of the board to the beginning—getting sent to the Peppermint Forest is now a desirable card!
• In chess, try to be the last player with a pawn. (See our YouTube video on “Save the Pawns.”)
• In Chutes and Ladders, start at 100 and move to 1–chutes are now better than ladders!
• In Guess Who, try to NOT guess any characteristics of the selected player.
• In Scrabble, spell words backward on the board.
What other games would you play backward? Leave a comment below!
Conversation Starter
What other activities would your family want to play backward? Jot down a list and keep it on hand for the next time you hear someone say, “I’m bored."
Why This Matters
Doing things outside our normal routine can be a great brain booster. Even something as simple as going in reverse in a board game makes the brain process it in a new way!
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Find the perfect word game whether you’re enjoying it with other word nerds or are simply looking for a party game that people of all interests will enjoy! We have top-five lists of word games for several situations.
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The Ultimate Letter Card Game Deck
If you want to play a game with letter cards, The Ultimate Letter Card Game Deck (download it here) brings you endless possibilities (including these game ideas with the letter deck)! The card decks include:
- Seven different colors for multiple players
- Color options for games with color requirements
- Three cards per color with each vowel and two cards per color with other frequently used letters and scoring
- Six double-letter combos to create more interesting game rules
- A scoring system on the cards for games allowing extra points when players use more difficult letters in a word; any letter without a number on it is worth only one point
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