Capture your child's life in a homemade board game.

Playing games with your children is a wonderful way to spend a rainy day indoors, or a quiet evening at home with family.

Board games provide conversation and bonding between parent and child, exerce your child’s mind and let him use his imagination and problem-solving skills.

Kick it up a notch by letting your child help design his own board game – the game of his own life, starring your child and including all the people and places he knows and loves.

If you’re tentative about starting a game from scratch, find a board game that your child enjoys and use the rules and object of the game as a starting base, and make adaptations from there.

Instructions:

1. Plan your game, its rules and object.

Build your game around your child and what his interests are. Take a look at a standard board game like Monopoly or Life. Using those instructions as a model, write your own instructions for your game. The object of your game might be to be the first player to get from the house to the park.

Decide what obstacles will set you back and what rewards will push you ahead. For example, one square might be a crabby neighbor’s house. If you land on it, you may have to go back to the start. Another square might be Chuck E Cheese – you get to move ahead three squares.

Design multiple squares to direct players to “Choose an Event Card.” When a player lands on one of these squares, he has to draw an Event Card. Make up Event Cards for good and bad events that will help or hinder players’ progress in the game. For example, “Messy Room – You forgot to clean your room! Skip one turn while you clean it!” “Good Report Card – You got an A! Move ahead two spaces.” “It’s Your Birthday! Take another turn.”

If you choose to create a more complicated game, you can include a type of token or money to earn along the way. Players can earn tokens or money with positive events and lose them with negative events.

2. Take pictures for the board

Take pictures of places in your child’s life for the game board squares. A photo of your house should be used for the “Start” square and where the game begins. Include photos of your child’s school, favorite restaurant, best friend’s house, the ice cream shop, the playground, the zoo, and wherever else your child likes to go.

Take pictures of people in your child’s life for the game pieces. If possible, take full-length photos from head to feet.

3. Now start building your game

To make the game board, use a large poster board or cover a large piece of cardboard with white Contac paper and draw your game board with permanent marker. Lightly glue on photographs and then cover the whole game board with clear Contac paper.

Make your Event Cards by cutting 3x5 index cards in half and writing the events on one side. Your child can decorate the backs of the cards if he likes.

To make the game pieces, mount the people photographs onto lightweight cardboard and then cut them out into people shapes. To get them to stand up, clip the bottoms onto a binder clip with a flat top.

4. Get busy playing!

Invite friends over or gather the family together, pick a person game piece (maybe it’s you!) and let the game begin.

5. Be flexible

As you play the game, your child might have suggestions on how to make changes and improvements. You may want to add or subtract Event Card squares to improve the flow of the game, make it easier or more difficult. Change the board, update the rules, and keep it constantly evolving to keep your child involved in the game-making process.

For more homemade game fun, see Homemade Puzzles.