With Winter Break upon us I see more frantic pleas from parents asking for ideas of what to do with their children while they are home for 2 whole weeks. And I understand, there are only so many trampoline parks and rock climbing walls you want to see (or pay for) and lots of kids just want to do what they don’t have much time to do when school is actually in, play games. And for my non-gaming friends, this becomes even more difficult because they are completely at a loss for how to interact with kids on this level, short of staring slack jawed at their progeny while they explain the science of redstone in a language that sounds vaguely like ancient Aramaic. This year I thought that I might share the advice that I’ve being doling out in response to frantic text and Facebook messages.
Minecraft: Almost every child that I know has been dragged down this rabbit hole at this point and they
don’t seem to be emerging from it any time soon. So what can you do to play with your local Minecraft fanatic instead of staring blankly while they place block after block for hours on end? Well, if you’re adventurous enough Minecraft has some awesome themed, pre-rendered worlds (aka mash-up packs) to explore together like Greek Mythology, Mass Effect, and Halloween. You can choose peaceful mode and walk around exploring buildings and riding rollercoasters or get really adventurous and stick to normal where monsters will spawn into the world and make survival a bit more challenging.
If you don’t think that you are quite ready for playing in the Minecraft universe yet you can turn to some project planning. Grab one of the books on building and living in Minecraft to read together and start figuring out what the possibilities are. I’ve learned that this can be just as much fun as doing the actual building itself.
Super Mario Maker: Do you have a Wii U in the house? Go back to your childhood with some good old
-fashioned Mario. Nothing like a bit of competition to liven things up. Take turns building levels for one another to see who can stump who and then when you are done you can even upload them to the Nintendo database so that they can share them with their friends. In my house we had to adopt that same rules for our in-house challenges as for uploading to the Nintendo database, you have to be able to complete your own level before you pass it on to the challenger. You will quickly learn how cut-throat your little gamer is.
Super Mario 3D Land/World: While you can play Super Mario 3D World in co-op mode on the Wii U
the 3DS version is single player, but we’ve found a way to make it a bit more competitive (we are competitive in our house) and we do level challenges. We pass the controller/3DS back and forth to see who can complete the level the quickest/with most lives/with least lives with whatever variable we choose. It’s fun a great excuse for cuddling up next to each other on the sofa under a blanket. Note that this also works with other super fun (and brutally difficult) platformers on the Playstation Vita like Spelunky and Rogue Legacy.
Favorite Board Games: If you want to take it analog for a bit, board games are a great way to go. We 
have a pretty healthy obsession with board games in our house, but it’s not always easy to find a good 2 player game to play with younger kids. Some of our favorites have a more role-playing bent or are easily role-playable. Catan: Junior falls high on our list of board games. We sell trade and rob from one another just like the adult version of the game, except there are pirates (!) and the mechanics are easier for younger player, but still a whole lot of fun for the older ones. Mice and Mystics is a role-playing game that’s scalable. You decide how many chapters you will play and how big the board will be so you can play for 30 minutes or 3 hours. And who doesn’t want to be a knight who was turned into a mouse who now has to fight evil rates and cockroaches? A new favorite around here is Splendor. Splendor is game where you strategize about which cards to buy using the jewels in your hand in a race to get to 15 prestige points.
Legos: Also for the more analog moments (with great digital cross-over games) are Lego sets. Most kids 
that I know are waiting for Santa to put some giant Lego kit under their tree this year and there’s no better way to spend several hours with a kiddo than world making. It doesn’t matter if you are putting together a pre-planned kit or just building from your imagination, Legos are a real blast. You can each build different parts of the world or you can take turns building specific steps in the instructions. Either way you’ll have a masterpiece to admire once you’re done!
Hopefully this list will get you started or give you some ideas for games that you might want to play with your kids while you have some significant quality time to spend together. This list is in no way comprehensive and with Christmas coming your local game, toy, and big box stores are going to have some great deals going on both board and video games. I hope that you have a great couple of weeks playing with your kid!
