FFA – Fun Family Activities or Flying Farmers of America?






My family loves board games and the title of this blog is a play on the classic bluffing game called ‘Balderdash’. The beauty of this game is that people of all ages and interests can play. You only need to be a good bluffer to excel. One person picks a card and reads what’s on it – an odd word or 3 initials or a movie title, etc. Everyone else writes down a phrase that could match the card. In my example, if the initials were FFA, you could write down Flying Farmers of America, Fuzzy Felines Association, etc. The best part is that the real answer is always some odd thing that no one knows, so this is not a game that requires knowing the “right” answer. The way to win is to bluff well so that people choose your answer. You get a point every time someone does. If you wrote down Fuzzy Felines, and three people guess that’s the real answer, you win 3 points, even though the correct answer is actually Flying Farmers. It’s a lot of fun because you’ll get many hilarious answers and it’s also a good game for a large group. And even the strangest answer will find at least one taker.

Another game we enjoy is Scattergories, which can be played individually or with partners and is also good for a large group. You get a list of categories such as: things found at the beach, book titles, items in a suitcase, etc. Then you roll the dice to get a letter. Let’s say the letter is ‘F’. Then, within a time limit, you write down answers to each category. For example: Fins, Frankenstein, Flip-flops. It’s great fun when people have creative answers, such as ‘fannies’ for things found at the beach.

There are many, many enjoyable board games, and sometimes I think we have them all!
Some of our best family memories include winter evenings (usually after skiing – another great family activity) sitting around the fireplace with a large group of friends or family and tackling these games. The main thing to remember (and some don’t) is that you’re playing for fun, not to win. My rule is to give everyone, and especially children, the benefit of the doubt. Is Fiction a novel beginning with F? Not really, but I voted yes! As the (admittedly inebriated) guy argued, it is something you see when you enter the bookstore. So what if he was technically wrong – we had a lot of laughs.

To keep somewhat on the writing topic, I’m actually writing a novel called The Candy Land Con, which references – guess – which game?

We enjoy cards (Sequence is great) and lots of old favorites like Scrabble and Clue. But I’m always on the lookout for something new. Do you have any favorites?

5 comments:

Cameo Brown said...

A favorite of ours was Clue. Loved that game! I've included a couple of LOLcat links at the bottom of this for other Clue fans who might get a chuckle out of these captioned photos.

We also loved Scrabble, but somehow we immediately lost the "k" and so we've never been able to spell words like "snake" or "cake" or "suck" or...oops, can't write that one! :)

Great post, Carly!

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/05/27/funny-pictures-colonel-mustard-lead-pipe-study/

http://ihasahotdog.com/upcoming/?pid=22505

Natasha Moore said...

We played a lot of Uno. And I used to play a lot of solitaire (the card kind, not on the computer) on those long camping trips growing up.

Another game we enjoy is Mexican Train Dominoes. Lots of fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_train

Carly Carson said...

Cameo,

Well if you live at my house, you have at least 4 versions of Scrabble (gifts the kids have gotten) so no worries if you lose one or two. lol. Those poor cats.

Natasha,

I've never heard of the Mexican game. We don't play dominos too often, I think because it's not a large group game. But I enjoyed it as a kid. Hmmm, I might go play it right now because I'm home with only one kid.

Carly

Nicole North said...

I love board games, cards, etc. Some favorites from childhood are Old Maid, Sorry, Monopoly. From later times gin, Win Lose or Draw. I'd probably play Scrabble more if my husband would play with me.

Carol Ericson said...

Carly, when I was growing up, our game of choice was Parcheesi. We had tournaments and everything. We all used the same color pieces every time, and the game would get wild. We would also play card games like casino and poker. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't like board or card games - I guess his family never played when he was growing up. My boys and I do play Parcheesi, Clue, Monopoly, checkers and chess.