As we near the middle of month three of stay-at-home and social distancing orders, we are all struggling with isolation and boredom. I’m right there with you! At first, I didn’t realize what was missing from my day since I still have work, family and entertainment. However, as an extrovert, I didn’t realize that even holding a door for a person in a coffee shop or waving at a passing child in a stroller lifts my spirits! I’ve found that, although it’s no substitution for in person interactions, Zoom is a great way to alleviate stress and connect with those you love.
Here are some of the Zoom ideas I’ve tried with children and family members!
Hivemind - Zoom Version
I had never heard of this game before but it’s super easy to explain and play with young children. You start with a prompt - for instance, “Name three things you’d find in the sky.” Each child writes or thinks of their three items. When everyone has theirs, you go around and compare who had the same answers. We used the hand raising method. “Who had airplanes?” Everyone who had airplanes raises their hands. The more hands raised, the more points those with the answer get! At the end of the round, you can tally up the points and the player with the least points gets an H - get the letters H-I-V-E and you’re out! Great easy game for many different ages of players! And no equipment (except pencil and paper) required!
Here is the link for the actual game if you prefer to have pre-made game cards!
B-I-N-G-O!
I had never played a proper game of Bingo. My fiancé is from Ireland and his grandmother attended Bingo at their local community center every Friday. After the stay-at-home orders went out in Ireland, her family realized that this was one of the main highlights of her week and wanted to find a way to get her back in the game! We discovered this website:
On this website, you can send virtual bingo cards out to friends and family and then the caller can use the site to call numbers over a video call. Very easy to use! You can also create your own Bingo cards! A friend of mine used this to create a 30th Birthday themed Bingo for a friend! Great game to play with many ages!
Jackbox Games
So this one is more for the technologically savvy but if you can figure it out, it’s definitely worth it! Jackbox offers virtual games you can use via the “Share Screen” feature of Zoom and other video calling apps. You can purchase games here:
I purchased the game for the Steam app and was able to use it seamlessly with Zoom. Some of my favorites are Fibbage (Everyone is asked to fill in the blank of a true but strange statement. On the next screen each player picks which answer is the truth! The one to fool the most people with their answer wins!), Quiplash! (similar to Cards against Humanity and Apples to Apples except you fill in your own cards) and Drawful 2 (a different take on Pictionary!). There is a setting on these games to make them “Family Friendly” to avoid any inappropriate prompts.
The only drawback to these games is the need for a Zoom connection and individual playing devices for every household. We personally play by putting Zoom on one of our computers and each playing on our phones. Obviously not every household has so many devices, but if you do, check it out!
Have any great Zoom game ideas! Comment below! Hope you are all staying safe and healthy!
