Make Hide and Seek Even More Fun! (by Bethany)

Since this is my first FUN post, I thought I should let you know my idea of fun. I’m not into roller coasters, horror movies, thrill seeking, or anything with a long line. But, hey, I'm still fun!

My kind of fun is more down home and low-key. I like games, dates, visiting with friends and family, camping, and watching movies. I like cheap entertainment; free is even better. I enjoy activities that will include the whole family, two-player games that can serve as an in-house date after the kids are in bed, fun movies clean enough to recommend to your grandma, and easy tent camping that a girl who never camped growing up (me!) can handle.

I want to start with a game that involves the whole family. My family consists of me, my husband, a 6-year-old, an almost 3-year-old, and a 10-month-old baby. We recently moved from a 2-story, 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom place into a 3-story, 3-bedroom, 3.5 bathroom place. 

Obviously, the best thing about living here is the increased options of hiding places, so we've been playing a lot of hide and seek. (For general rules and a little bit of the history of hide and seek, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_seek.)

Our kids LOVE this game and will play it FOREVER, but to an adult, the limited number of hiding places is  pretty obvious. Plus, being partnered with a jabbering baby or a preschooler who is over-excited to be found makes for a short game. So, we decided to try some variations to make things more interesting.

The general set-up: Each parent pairs with one of the younger children. Our first grader is on her own. We take turns with who’s “it”, and our default is counting to 20. “It” picks which floor will be used (upstairs, main floor, or basement), then counts while closing their eyes on the stairs. “It” also picks which rule variation we will use.

10 Variations:

1. Hide standing up.

I had to move a lot of stuff to be able to hide in this closet!

2. Hide sitting down.

3. Hide laying down.

 In the tub, with a mini partner:)

Under the bed.

4. You can hide on any of the 3 floors, but every 10 seconds, you must make a loud sound (beep, animal noise, whatever). This is my personal favoriteJ

5. If you can make it to the stairs without being found, you win.

6. Hide again after you've been found, while “it” is looking for the others.

7. Once you’re found, you help “it” find the others. (This makes it tricky to hide in the first place, because you don’t even want the other hiders to see where you go.)

8. Play in the dark.

9.  Let the 2-year-old be “it” and hide in really obvious places.

"The 2-year-old" LOVES being "it"!

10.   Count to 40 instead, so the parents can hide their little teammate first, then hide themselves.

 Where's Daddy?

 Sneaky!

My husband is the best hider in the family, when he has the freedom to hide without his mini partner.

That’s just a start, and of course you can do variation combinations! Each round is fairly short, but you can do as many or as few as you want. We've found this to be a fun and flexible game that we all love. Just vary the rules, and it can be fun for everyone!

Please comment with more ideas. My family and I would love to try them!