Amusing-musings.blog

Children are often found on electronic devices now and don’t really get much opportunity to play outside. When I was growing up, many of the children in my neighborhood would play together and they learned social skills this way. Many different games were played in the neighborhood that did not require much time or money to put them together. I often wish kids today knew how to play these games or took the time to learn. I think great friendships developed this way and children learned the rules of a game as well as how to get along with others.

Simmon Says was a popular game that was played when I was growing up. In this game one person is the leader or Simmon and he gives instructions to what everyone else is supposed to do. Everyone in the group must follow Simmon the leader. You must do what Simmon Says and follow the directions given exactly or you will be out.

Hide and Seek is another great game played by children when I was growing up. I think it teaches children social skills and observation. One person is designated as the seeker. The person who is designated as the seek must go and find the other people who are hiding somewhere in a general area like a backyard close to the seeker. The seeker closes their eyes or is blindfolded and counts to ten while the other people in the group run and hide. The seeker then states ready or not here I come and is now able to see without blindfold. The seeker looks around the yard or area that the other people playing the game are in. Often the hiders are behind trees or if in a house behind furniture. The seeker once they have found everyone can switch roles and then they become the person to hide.

Tag was another popular game I played growing up that is pretty much self-explanatory. One person has to catch others and tag them. The game goes on until someone is caught and then roles can again be switched.

Duck, Duck, Goose is a popular game as well that was played when I was growing up. The children would sit around in a circle, and one person would go around the outside of the circle tapping the children on the head saying duck, duck, goose. The person who was tagged as the goose had to chase the tagger around the circle until they caught them.

Red Light, green light was a great game that I played as a child as well. One person would have their back facing the other group of kids. The group of kids would try to tag the person with their back facing the kids before they called the letter red. If the kids trying to tag were caught moving on red, they had to go back to the starting line. When green was called by the leader each person could move on green and hope to reach the caller before red was yelled.

Hopscotch was an additional game that was played when I was growing up and did not cost anything to make. You needed a simple piece of chalk and drew boxes with numbers in them. You threw a rock into the boxed and had to hop through the boxes to get it. I know there is more to it than this but, that is the most I can remember about the game.

Maybe children would understand how to get along with others in today’s society better if they could socialize like this again. Children knew how to take turns, be nice to each other and learned skills like cooperation. Why not bring back the old-fashioned games that taught so many skills?

I own the rights to this passage. It is not to be copied or reproduced in any way.