Keeping families connected and together, despite distance, has never been easier. With softwares like FaceTime easily accessible to almost everyone, it can be quite simple to connect kids with their grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents, etc. Sometimes, though, it can be difficult to find the best ways to engage with the kids in your family to both be intentional, and stay attentive over the FaceTime medium. Among the best ways to do this is through games, but understanding the best games to play may be a tough conclusion to come to. Here are five FaceTime games that kids of all ages will love to play.Ā 

 

Pictionary

While there are a number of games to play on FaceTime with your kids, nieces and nephews, or grandchildren over the FaceTime medium, one of the easiest games to play is Pictionary. Pictionary not only has a very simple, and easily understood set of rules, but also has a number of different ways to play utilizing FaceTime. Weā€™re going to outline a few of these ways, and you can pick whichever one is best for you and your young family members!

 

First, you can play Pictionary in the traditional way! Have each party set up an easel, mount an iPad or a MacBook with FaceTime on, and simply play the game as though you were both in the same room. This is easy, fun, and allows everyone in the family to get easily involved if you want. The only problem is that it does require each party to have an easel, and an accommodating camera.

 

The other option is to actually draw ON FaceTime. FaceTime allows users to draw on the app and see each otherā€™s drawings. This is a fun way to even modify Pictionary such that you are drawing on people and things and making the game just a little bit more unique!

 

Charades

Charades is a classic party game, and can be an absolute blast played over FaceTime. Simply get a device setup to utilize the FaceTime camera and play charades by traditional rules! If you want to make the game even more exciting, consider adding a musical element, or even using the Memoji feature on FaceTime which allows you to project different animal and emoji faces upon the users.

 

This is an easy game to understand, and an easy game to modify. Because it is so easy to add fun and zany rules to, kids are able to quickly find opportunities to make it their own, and to use some of FaceTimeā€™s more unique features to create a memorable experience they will want to return to over and over again.

 

Scattergories

Scattergories is a classic word game, quite similar to Scrabble, but much more simple and familiar for a ā€œparty game setting.ā€ The most important part about playing a game like Scattergories is that each party involved needs to have the same physical copy at home. This ensures scoring and usage is correct. So long as this is done, families will be able to engage in a fun and simple game across different locations with no issues!

 

It is important to note that Scattergories does require a well-formed understanding of the English language, and thus is more fit for young kids in elementary school and middle school, rather than toddlers.

 

Role Playing Games

This one may come as a bit of a surprise, but role playing games can be beyond fun to many young kids, and are very easy to play. While you may see something like Dungeons and Dragons as a traditional role playing game, there are other options to play with young kids.Ā 

 

Come up with your own narrative or story, develop an easy to follow quest that you take your younger family members on. Even form something within one of their favorite universes. Do the young kids in your family love Star Wars? Let them pretend to be a Jedi and lead them on a story. Are your grandkids especially creative? Let them come up with their own narrative that they can take you on!

 

There are plenty of ways to use role playing games to create amazing memories for your family.

 

Create Your Own Game

Playing long distance games over FaceTime is its own journey, and sometimes the best game is the one you come up with! Find the game that works best for you and your family, that gets you all the most excited to return time after time. Modify a game that you love such that it can be played over FaceTime, or come up with your own game that is unique to your family.

 

Whatever you do, connectivity is the most important piece, so as long as you are together and enjoying yourselves, you have achieved what you set out to do.