Sometimes it's difficult for the kids to play together - what am I talking about, a lot of the time it's difficult. The holidays are upon us and this means less school mates and resorting to playing with siblings. Two of our boys are autistic. David is pre-verbal and thinks like a child half his age and Anthony also has ADHD. Jane on the other hand is highly social and imaginative and desperate to play with her brothers. This means we need to help them play and recently this means adapting games. So we've created Crouching Tigers to help them play together.
Crouching Tigers may exist as a game itself, but I didn't play it when I was younger. It's a mix of Hide & Seek and a game of chase. And it works because the kids can all engage in different parts of it without being excluded.
David doesn't really understand or see the point of Hide & Seek, but Jane and Anthony play this really well together. David does however understand the fun of being chased. But the game of chase without 'tagging' seems a bit pointless to the other kids, plus Anthony is several years older than his siblings and is basically never caught. This nearly always brings a games to a tearful end for little Jane. So how does Crouching Tiger work?
- One child is the 'tiger' and they go off and hide, like a tiger does when stalking it's prey
- The rest of the children are deer, buffalos or whatever other animals they want to be and go to try and 'spot' the tiger
- When they get close to the tiger, the tiger runs out and tries to catch one of them
- Repeat
Jane isn't so great at hiding, but she is good at looking and she enjoys choosing to be beautiful animals. Anthony finds the game quite exciting and chooses his animals based on their relevant speed! And David just gets the idea that he's being chased. There is no rule to say who is what and it's ok if David is never a tiger and is just chased. Sometimes, it's just a case of helping out and then the kids can play. And they've started to look out for each other - Anthony and Jane even help by telling David to run now. And that really makes me smile.
What ideas or games help your kids play together?
This post support the #wetalkmakaton sign of the week 'Tiger'
I love the idea of this game. It's great you can get all the children playing together. Getting children of different ages can be a problem but the differing abilities must be an even bigger headache
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Oh how adorable are they???!!!! I've never heard of this game before but it sounds a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this with us at #TriumphantTales. I hope to see you back next week.
I love this! So simple but something which can help your littles play and have fun together. It'll be something they look back on when they're older as well in a "do you remember that game we invented..?" kind of way! Thanks so much for linking up to #DreamTeam!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea for a game! I have four children and getting them to play together is interesting to say the least! #triumphanttales
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea for engaging all of the children. And, empowering them with the gift of play. Love it! #TriumphantTales xo
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely to read that they all can join in to some extent. #WotW
ReplyDeleteMy kids would love this game, thanks for the idea! Thanks for sharing with #WotW x
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea for a game. I only have one little boy currently but this is a game I will store for the future as I can imagine it gets difficult to get children of different ages/abilities to play together. #dreamteam
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a great game for your children to be able to play together. I don't think I've ever heard of Crouching Tiger before but I think my girls would love it too. #WotW
ReplyDeleteSuch a creative game idea. I might have to try this one out at school. I think it would work well with my class. #PostsFromTheHeart
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