Games to Play With Grandparents

Games one generation teaches the other, at a table, on a walk or by mail: press Pick 3 new games.

Games to Play With Grandparents

  1. Track You Draw Together, Roll to Race1. On a big sheet, draw a winding track of thirty squares between you. 2. Take turns adding four shortcuts and four setbacks of your own invention, such as, the dog ate your map, go back three. 3. Use buttons as pieces and roll one die to move. 4. First to the last square wins. Keep the board for next time. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 20 min. Props: a large sheet of paper, pencils, a die and buttons.
  2. Shoebox Arches Marble Roll1. Cut five arches of different widths along one edge of a shoebox lid and stand it on the table. 2. Write a score over each arch, with the narrowest worth most. 3. From the far end of the table, take turns rolling five marbles. 4. Add up the arches each marble passes through. Highest total over three turns wins. Players: 2 to 5. Time: 15 min. Props: a shoebox lid, scissors, a pen and five marbles.
  3. One Invented Detail1. The grandparent holds up a photo or a keepsake and tells its true story in five sentences. 2. One detail is made up: the weather, a name, what was for dinner. 3. The grandchild has two guesses at which detail it was. 4. Then swap, with a photo from the grandchild's phone. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: photos or keepsakes.

Next step Questions to ask your grandparentsGames for the whole family

How it works

These games to play with grandparents work in both directions. Some are old string, coin and pencil games a grandparent can teach in five minutes; others give a child the edge, or start from a photo in the album.

Read the full guide

Games to play with grandchildren of different ages

For children under seven, start with Old Maid With an Ordinary Deck and I Spy on Two Levels. From about eight, Bulls and Cows on Paper and Avoid the Triangle on Six Dots are a fair fight: a child who has just learned them often wins.

When you live far apart

Choose By phone or mail, for grandparents far away in the All games menu. A game by mail runs at one move a letter, so a single game can last a season.

Tips
  • Keep a loop of string and some coins in a coat pocket: several taught games need nothing else.
  • Write the date on anything you draw together, such as the race track, and keep it.

Questions and answers

What are games to play with grandma from an armchair?

Everything in Sit-down games for a living room. Clap the Tune, Opposites, Then Rhymes and Finish My Rhyme, Then Finish Mine need nothing but two voices, and Three Guesses From the Dictionary needs one book.

What are good party games with grandparents at a family gathering?

Pick games that take teams. Up Jenkins on the Coffee Table seats two teams of mixed ages, Laugh Until the Scarf Lands works with a dozen, and Snail Race on Paper, Two Dice lets six people cheer for a button.

Which games help a grandparent tell family stories?

The ones that start from a thing, not a question. In One Invented Detail the child has to listen for the made-up part, and in Draw My Childhood Kitchen the drawing brings back where everything stood.

What can you play outdoors without anyone running?

Choose Games at walking pace in a garden or a park. Steps to the Bench, Rhyme It in Three Steps and Coin Flip Walk are played while strolling, with nothing to carry but a coin.

More tools

Browse Acting and Drawing

All 48 games

Games a grandparent teaches 8

  • Avoid the Triangle on Six Dots 1. Draw six dots in a ring. Each player takes a pencil of a different color. 2. Take turns drawing a straight line between any two dots that are not yet joined. 3. Try not to finish a triangle whose three sides are all your own color and whose corners are dots. 4. The player who is forced to complete one loses. This game cannot end in a tie. Players: 2. Time: 8 min. Props: paper and two colored pencils.
  • Bulls and Cows on Paper 1. Each player secretly writes a number of four different digits. 2. Take turns guessing the other's number. 3. The answer to each guess is so many bulls, for digits that are right and in the right place, and so many cows, for digits that are right but in the wrong place. 4. First to get four bulls wins. Three digits make a shorter game. Players: 2. Time: 15 min. Props: paper and pencils.
  • Button Tiddlywinks Into a Cup 1. Lay a folded towel on the table and set a cup in the middle. 2. Each player has five small buttons and one large one. 3. Press the edge of the large button down on the edge of a small one to make it jump. 4. Take turns, one flick each. The first player to pot all five buttons wins. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 10 min. Props: a cup, a towel and buttons in two sizes.
Show all 48 games (45 more)

Games a grandparent teaches, continued

  • Cat's Cradle, Back and Forth 1. Tie a piece of string as long as two arms into a loop. 2. The grandparent makes the opening figure, the cradle, on both hands. 3. The grandchild pinches the crossed strings and lifts the loop off onto their own hands, which turns it into a new figure. 4. Keep passing it back and forth. Count the passes before the string tangles. Players: 2. Time: 10 min. Props: a loop of string.
  • Nearest the Wall Coin Pitch 1. Mark a line on the floor four paces from a bare wall. 2. Each player pitches three coins underhand, one at a time, so that they slide toward the wall. 3. The coin that stops nearest the wall scores a point. A coin leaning against it scores two. 4. Everyone takes their own coins back after each round. First to seven points wins. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: three coins each and a bare wall.
  • Stop the Spinning Coin on Its Edge 1. One player spins a coin on its edge on the table. 2. The other must stop it with one fingertip so that it stays standing on its edge. 3. A coin that falls flat scores for the spinner and a coin left standing scores for the stopper. 4. Five spins each. Younger players may use two fingers. Players: 2. Time: 5 min. Props: a coin and a smooth table.
  • String Figure Copycat 1. Each player has a loop of string of the same length. 2. The grandparent makes any figure they remember from childhood, one move at a time. 3. The grandchild copies each move as it is shown, like a mirror. 4. Then swap: the grandchild invents a figure, gives it a name and teaches it back. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 10 min. Props: a loop of string each.
  • Three-Coin Table Football 1. Sit at opposite ends of a table. One player makes a goal with two fingers on the table edge. 2. The other sets three coins in a triangle and flicks one coin between the other two. 3. Keep flicking, each time sending a coin through the gap between the other two, toward the goal. 4. A miss, or a coin off the table, hands the coins over. Play to three goals. Players: 2. Time: 10 min. Props: three coins and a table.

Table games that are fair across sixty years 8

  • Checkers With a Crowned Back Row 1. Set up a game of checkers in the way your family plays it. 2. Before the first move, the younger player's back row is crowned: stack a second piece on each. 3. Play as usual from there. 4. If the younger player wins twice in a row, crown one piece fewer next game. Players: 2. Time: 20 min. Props: a checkers set.
  • Frame Builder, Island Builder Jigsaw 1. Tip out a jigsaw of about a hundred pieces. 2. One player may touch only edge pieces and builds the frame. The other may touch only middle pieces and builds islands. 3. Any piece in the wrong pile is slid across without a word. 4. When the frame is done, join forces. Time it and try to beat it next visit. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 30 min. Props: a jigsaw of about a hundred pieces.
  • Old Maid With an Ordinary Deck 1. Take one queen out of a deck and deal out all the rest. 2. Everyone lays down any pairs of the same rank. 3. In turn, each player draws one unseen card from the player on their left and lays down any new pair. 4. Whoever is left holding the odd queen at the end loses. It is all luck, which is what makes it fair. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: a deck of cards.
  • Shoebox Arches Marble Roll 1. Cut five arches of different widths along one edge of a shoebox lid and stand it on the table. 2. Write a score over each arch, with the narrowest worth most. 3. From the far end of the table, take turns rolling five marbles. 4. Add up the arches each marble passes through. Highest total over three turns wins. Players: 2 to 5. Time: 15 min. Props: a shoebox lid, scissors, a pen and five marbles.
  • Snail Race on Paper, Two Dice 1. Draw eleven lanes, numbered 2 to 12, each ten squares long, and put a button snail at the start of each. 2. Each player picks three snails to cheer for. 3. Take turns rolling two dice: the snail whose number matches the total moves one square. 4. The first snail home wins for whoever chose it. Unlike a dice horse race with dealt horses, players choose their own snails: play again and see which numbers people pick now. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 15 min. Props: paper, a pencil, two dice and eleven buttons.
  • Straw Blow Football 1. Mark a goal at each end of a table with two cups. 2. Put a ball of scrunched paper in the middle. Each player has a drinking straw. 3. On go, blow through the straw to send the ball between the other player's cups. 4. No hands on the table. First to three goals wins. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 8 min. Props: a straw each, four cups and a scrap of paper.
  • Track You Draw Together, Roll to Race 1. On a big sheet, draw a winding track of thirty squares between you. 2. Take turns adding four shortcuts and four setbacks of your own invention, such as, the dog ate your map, go back three. 3. Use buttons as pieces and roll one die to move. 4. First to the last square wins. Keep the board for next time. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 20 min. Props: a large sheet of paper, pencils, a die and buttons.
  • Two Piles Against Four 1. Split a shuffled deck into two halves. 2. The younger player sorts their half into two piles, red and black. 3. The older player must sort theirs into four piles, one for each suit. 4. Start together. First finished with no card out of place wins, then trade tasks. Players: 2. Time: 5 min. Props: a deck of cards.

Sit-down games for a living room 8

  • Button Tin Hunt 1. Tip a tin of mixed buttons onto a tray between the players. 2. A caller describes one kind: four holes, bigger than a coin, exactly the color of the sky. 3. The first player to find one that fits holds it up and keeps it. 4. After ten calls, whoever holds most buttons becomes the caller. Players: 2 to 5. Time: 10 min. Props: a tin of mixed buttons and a tray.
  • Clap the Tune 1. One player thinks of a tune that both generations know. 2. They clap its rhythm, with no humming and no words. 3. The others guess. After a wrong guess, the clapper claps it again and may tap a foot on the strong beats. 4. Whoever names it claps next. Players: 2 to 8. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Finish My Rhyme, Then Finish Mine 1. The grandparent says the first half of a rhyme or saying from their childhood. 2. The grandchild finishes it, or makes up an ending. 3. Then the grandchild starts a playground rhyme of today and the grandparent finishes or invents. 4. Score a point for each real ending, and write down the best invented ones. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • I Spy on Two Levels 1. The spy chooses something everyone can see from their seat. 2. A young spy gives the color: I spy something red. An older spy gives the first letter. 3. The others take turns guessing. 4. Whoever gets it spies next. Anything out of the window counts only if it stays still. Players: 2 to 8. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Laugh Until the Scarf Lands 1. One player throws a light scarf into the air. 2. Everyone must laugh aloud for as long as it is falling. 3. The moment it touches the floor, all laughing stops. 4. Anyone still laughing, or anyone who was silent while it fell, throws the scarf next. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 5 min. Props: a light scarf.
  • Opposites, Then Rhymes 1. One player says a word and the other answers with its opposite at once: up, down. 2. Keep a steady beat going by patting your knees. 3. When the caller says switch, answers must rhyme instead: up, cup. 4. A pause of more than two beats swaps the roles. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
  • Three Guesses From the Dictionary 1. One player opens a dictionary anywhere and picks a word the other will not know. 2. They read the word aloud, but not its meaning. 3. The guesser says whether it is an animal, a tool, a food or something else, and has three guesses. 4. Read the meaning out. Swap after every word. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: a dictionary.
  • Up Jenkins on the Coffee Table 1. Two teams sit on opposite sides of a table. One team passes a coin from hand to hand under it. 2. The other captain calls, up Jenkins, and the hiding team raises closed fists. 3. On, down Jenkins, they bring their palms down flat on the table together. 4. The guessers confer and point to the hand they think hides the coin. A right guess wins them the coin. Players: 4 to 10 in two teams. Time: 10 min. Props: a coin and a table.

Story games that start from an old photo or object 8

  • Draw My Childhood Kitchen 1. The grandparent describes one room from the house they grew up in: where the door was, the table, the window, the stove. 2. The grandchild draws it as a floor plan while listening. 3. The grandparent looks at the drawing and moves three things to where they really were. 4. Add one object that tells a story, and hear the story. Players: 2 to 3. Time: 15 min. Props: paper and pencils.
  • Imitate a Sound From Your Childhood 1. The grandparent makes a sound from their childhood with voice and hands: a kettle on a stove, a dial turning, a key winding a clock. 2. The grandchild has three guesses at what made it. 3. Then the grandchild makes a sound of today for the grandparent to guess. 4. Keep a tally of who knew more of the other's world. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • One Invented Detail 1. The grandparent holds up a photo or a keepsake and tells its true story in five sentences. 2. One detail is made up: the weather, a name, what was for dinner. 3. The grandchild has two guesses at which detail it was. 4. Then swap, with a photo from the grandchild's phone. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: photos or keepsakes.
  • Pose Like the Old Photograph 1. Choose an old photo with one or two people in it. 2. Study it for a minute: where the hands are, which way the feet point, who is looking where. 3. Put the photo away and take the same pose from memory while someone takes a picture. 4. Hold the two side by side and count what you got right. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: an old photo and a phone camera.
  • Real History or Invented History 1. The grandchild chooses an object from a shelf or a drawer. 2. The grandparent whispers where it really came from. The grandchild invents a second history for it. 3. Each tells one version to a third person, who does not know which is which. 4. The listener votes for the true one. Fooling the listener scores for the inventor. Players: 3 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: objects from around the house.
  • Three Questions, Then Tell It Back 1. The grandchild picks one old photo from an album or a box. 2. They may ask exactly three questions about it and listen to the answers. 3. Then they tell the story of the photo back, as if they had been there. 4. The grandparent gives a point for every detail that is right, and one more question as a prize. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 10 min. Props: old photos.
  • When You Were My Age, Five Differences 1. Find a photo of the grandparent at about the grandchild's age. 2. Put it next to a recent photo of the grandchild. 3. Together, find five things that differ in the clothes, the room or the things being held, and three that are the same. 4. The grandparent explains one of the differences. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 10 min. Props: two photos.
  • Which Relative Am I Thinking Of? 1. Lay out twelve family photos face up, old and new. 2. One player secretly chooses a person who appears in them. 3. The other asks questions that can be answered yes or no, about what can be seen: a hat, a beach, black and white. 4. Turn photos face down as they are ruled out. Count the questions and swap. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 10 min. Props: twelve family photos.

Games at walking pace in a garden or a park 8

  • A Sentence at Every Bench 1. Start a story at the park gate with one sentence. 2. Nobody may add to it until you reach the next bench, post or lamp. 3. There, the other walker adds exactly one sentence. 4. The story must end at the gate you leave by. Whoever speaks last gives it a title. Players: 2 to 5. Time: 20 min. Props: none.
  • Coin Flip Walk 1. At the first fork in the path, flip a coin: heads is left, tails is right. 2. Before each flip, both walkers guess where the walk will end up. 3. Follow the coin for ten flips, staying inside the park. 4. Whoever guessed the ending place most closely chooses the way home. Players: 2 to 5. Time: 20 min. Props: a coin.
  • Rhyme It in Three Steps 1. As you walk, one player names something they can see: gate. 2. The other must say a word that rhymes before taking three more steps: late. 3. Then they name something for the first player. 4. A walker who runs out of steps stands still for a count of five, which nobody minds. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Steps to the Bench 1. Stop and choose a landmark ahead: a bench, a gate, the big tree. 2. Each walker says how many of their own steps it will take to reach it. 3. Walk there, each counting their own steps under their breath. 4. Closest to their own guess wins and picks the next landmark. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Ten Things We Passed, Backward 1. On the way out, point out ten things as you pass them and say each aloud once. 2. At the turning point, stop. 3. On the way back, take turns naming the next one before you reach it, in reverse order. 4. A point for each thing named in time. Players: 2 to 5. Time: 20 min. Props: none.
  • Twig Race Under the Footbridge 1. Each player finds a twig they can tell apart from the others. 2. Stand side by side at the rail on the upstream side of a footbridge, both feet on the deck. 3. On three, drop the twigs into the moving water. 4. Walk to the other side and watch. The first twig out from under the bridge wins. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 10 min. Props: a twig each and a footbridge over a stream.
  • Twin Leaf Before the Next Bench 1. One player picks up a fallen leaf and shows it. 2. The other has until the next bench to find a fallen leaf of the same kind. 3. Hold the two together and compare edge, veins and stalk. 4. A true twin scores. The finder chooses the next leaf, a seed case or a feather. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
  • Which Tree Is This Rubbing From? 1. Take paper and a crayon to a group of trees. 2. While the other looks away, one player makes a rubbing of the bark of one tree. 3. The other gets the rubbing and has three tries to find the tree it came from by matching the pattern. 4. Swap roles at the next group of trees. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 15 min. Props: paper and a crayon.

By phone or mail, for grandparents far away 8

  • A Week of Five Photographs 1. On Monday, agree on a list of five things to photograph: something round, something older than you, the view from your door. 2. Each player takes their five during the week. 3. On Friday, send them or show them on a call, one item at a time. 4. Each of you picks the other's best photo and says why. Players: 2 to 6. Time: 15 min. Props: a phone camera each.
  • Five Lines and Back in the Envelope 1. One player draws five lines on a sheet, straight or curved, and mails it. 2. The other adds five lines of their own and sends it back. 3. Nobody says what they are drawing. 4. When one of you can see what it has become, write its name underneath and mail it one last time. Players: 2. Time: 5 min. Props: paper, pencils, envelopes and stamps.
  • Five Questions About My Day 1. Start each call the same way: one of you has had something happen today. 2. The other gets five questions that can be answered yes or no. 3. After the fifth, they guess what it was. 4. Then hear the real story. Next call, swap who goes first. Players: 2. Time: 5 min. Props: a phone.
  • Guess the Next Page by Phone 1. On a phone call, the grandparent reads one page of a storybook aloud and stops. 2. The grandchild says what they think happens next. 3. The grandparent reads on to find out. 4. A right guess, or a better idea than the book's, earns one more page before bedtime. Players: 2 to 4. Time: 15 min. Props: a phone and a storybook.
  • Guess Where I Found This 1. Slip one flat thing into a letter: a bus ticket, a pressed leaf, a label, a feather. 2. Add three clues about where it was found, none of them a place name. 3. The other player answers with one guess in the next letter or on the next call. 4. Tell the real story, and it is their turn to send something. Players: 2. Time: 10 min. Props: envelopes, stamps and small flat finds.
  • One Move a Postcard 1. Choose a pencil game you both know that is played on a grid. 2. Draw the grid on a card, make the first move and mail it. 3. Each player adds one move and sends the same card back. 4. The game takes weeks, which is the point. The winner keeps the card and draws the next grid. Players: 2. Time: 5 min. Props: a postcard or a card in an envelope, and stamps.
  • Puzzle in Installments 1. Draw a picture on cardstock or glue a photo to cardstock, and cut it into twelve pieces. 2. Mail three pieces in each letter. 3. After each letter, the other player guesses what the whole picture shows. 4. Fewer letters needed means a better score. The last envelope settles it. Players: 2. Time: 15 min. Props: cardstock, scissors, envelopes and stamps.
  • Story by Mail, a Paragraph Each 1. The grandparent writes the first paragraph of a story and stops in the middle of a sentence. 2. The grandchild finishes the sentence, writes the next paragraph and stops mid-sentence too. 3. Send it back and forth. 4. After six letters, whoever holds the story writes the ending and reads all of it aloud on the next call. Players: 2. Time: 15 min. Props: paper, envelopes and stamps.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions, written for this site for a grandparent and one or more grandchildren, at home or far apart. The wording is ours, and the player counts and times are our estimates. Rules of the traditional games were checked on 2026-10-02 against English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the name): Cat's_cradle, Old_maid_(card_game), Bulls_and_cows, Sim_(game), Tiddlywinks, Penny_football, Up_Jenkins. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA 4.0; the rules are restated in our words. Licence: own work