Halloween Games

Many children love Halloween. We assume it's because Halloween means candy but many children love more than just the abundance of candy at Halloween time. They really get into the spooky side of the holiday and enjoy the displays of goopy brains and squishy body parts.

For that reason. Halloween games can be really fun. The goopier you make it the more the kids will get into it.

Let’s start with a feely game. This fun game can be found on store shelves but you can easily create it yourself. Make some jello and fill it with a variety of items, like gummy worms, small candy and other items. You can even color the jello to make it too dark to see what's inside. Tell the children to root around in the bowl of jello (the ‘brain’) to figure out what's in it. It's messy but kids love it.

Kids also love the spaghetti game. This game is messy too so be sure they are wearing play clothes or at least a smock. Make a big bowl of spaghetti and fill it with all kinds of items, like plastic bugs, gummy worms and other things that feel a bit strange. Make the children feel around in the bowl of spaghetti and identify the items they feel. Once they are done and cleaned up, have them list as many items as they can remember. Whoever gets the most correct items listed gets a prize.

Another popular game is again an item identifying game. Take a cardboard box painted black both inside and outside, carve a hole in the top just large enough for the children to get their hands in, and fill the box with a variety of items. The things you put in can be related to Halloween or not. You can even include some items that might feel like body parts or brain matter to make this goopy and silly. Have the children guess what's inside the box and award the box itself with all the things in it to the child who guesses the most number of items correctly.

Most kids love making up stories and Halloween is a great time to let their imaginations run wild. Have them spend a bit of time writing out the scariest story they can think of. Some children might need some help not to get carried away making it ridiculously grotesque. Once the stories are written each child will read the story with as much dramatization as they can muster. For variety mix the stories up so no one reads their own then once the story is read, everyone has to guess who wrote the story. The writer should play along so no one knows it was their story. The winner is the child who wrote a story so intriguing and unusual that nobody knew it was his or hers.

Kids love the word find games when you give them a word or words relating to a holiday. Give them Halloween-related words and ask them to find as many scary words as they can. For example, you might give them the word "Halloween" and see how many scary words they can make from the letters. Or you could give them a series of words and let them rearrange the letters in all of the words to create scary words, or even create a story from the scary words. Put a time limit on this game and award a prize for the child who creates the most words in the least amount of time.

These are just a few ideas for Halloween games. Your possibilities are almost endless if you let your imagination go. And remember adults like to play too.

Travel Games

One of my favorite travel games is chess. Okay, it's just one of my favorite games, and I have three-ounce set with a cloth board, so I can take it anywhere. The last time I used it was in the town center of a small pueblo in the Andes Mountains. The games below are primarily car travel games, but can be adapted to other forms of travel too. Have fun!

Educational Travel Games

Some games get you thinking, learning something, or at least showing off what you know. Here's one for the family. Have the driver, or another designated host, asks questions like "What temperature does water boil at?" or "What's the Capital of Columbia?" or "With sales tax of 7.6%, what's the total cost of a $23 sweater?" For the kids to love this one, you may have to pay twenty-five cents for each right answer.

Another car travel game starts with someone looking out the window and randomly selecting an object. Players then try to imagine a creative way to make money with it. Old barns become places to advertise, cows are rented out for kids parties, and an house that is being moved becomes a traveling discotheque.

"Red Car" Travel Games

Guess how many red cars will pass in the next ten miles or ten minutes. It can also be blue cars, trucks, or whatever everyone agrees to. It's considered bad form for the driver to slow down, letting more cars pass, so his guess will be the closest.

One classic travel game involves the alphabet. Try to spot something starting with an "a", and be the first to call it out ("apple tree!"). Since the Qs and Xes are difficult, they can be skipped. The player with the most "firsts," is the winner.

Using the radio, you can have a game in which everyone tries to be the first to call out the name of the artist when a song starts. Then change the station, so you don't have to wait through a whole song to continue the contest. In one car radio game, each player chooses a word. The player whose word is spoken (or sung) first on the radio is the winner.

Here is one you can play anywhere. Someone starts a story with a sentence or two, then each person in turn adds a line to the story. It can get personal, but this usually creates a story that has everyone laughing.

Try one of these on your next trip, especially if you have a car full of kids. They are easy, and unlike my chess game, you don't need anything but a few people to play these travel games.

Steve Gillman hit the road at sixteen, and traveled the U.S. and Mexico alone at 17. Now 40, he travels with his wife Ana, whom he met in Ecuador. For travel stories, tips and a free e-book, visit: http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com

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About the Author: One of my favorite travel games is chess. Okay, it's just one of my favorite games, and I have three-ounce set with a cloth board, so I can take it anywhere. The last time I used it was in the town center of a small pueblo in the Andes Mountains. The games below are primarily car travel games, but can be adapted to other forms of travel too. Have fun!