Self-isolation. Quarantine. Do these words sound familiar to you? Well, they sure ring a bell with me too.
I had a lot of time these days to think about how to keep ourselves entertained during a pandemic. What can we do?
It turns out there are more risk-free games than you actually think. So, I am sharing a list of fun games below you can play alone or together with your family:
1. Chess
You can play chess at a one – meter distance from the other person. You have your own figures that only you play with and touch, so during these hard times, chess seems to be one of the best ways to keep yourself entertained.
For all those who still don’t know how to play this game, well, now it’s time to learn how to do that. You get to spend some time off social media and you get to learn something new in a safe way.
2. Checkers
Similar to chess, checkers is a board game which doesn’t require you to sit right next to the person you’re playing against. The pieces can only be moved diagonally to an unoccupied space. If you have to position your figure to a square already occupied by your opponent, you only jump over that square.
Again, the distance plays an important role here as well as the fact that each player has their own figures to play with. After the game ends, you can disinfect both the board and the figures. Just to stay on the safe side.
3. The 300 List
Now what’s so good about this game is that each person has their own piece of paper and pen. All you have to do is to name a category, say, capitals in Europe, and you have to name as many capitals as you can think of. Whoever has a longer list – wins the game.
Other examples of categories include names that start with a certain letter, Oscar-winning actors or directors, cocktail names, dessert names, and whatnot.
4. Speed geography
Speed geography is another game you can make use of during these times. Every player has their own piece of paper and pen, so from the very start, the game is free of any corona-induced risks. The players can all sit in different corners of the room and that’s the closest contact you’ll have with your opponents while playing this game.
The best part is that this game is educational and perfect for all those with a competitive spirit – it requires knowledge, speed, and resourcefulness.
5. Pictionary
Pictionary is a word-guessing game. Usually, it’s played on a small board or an easel. Each player can draw on a separate piece of paper and show it to the rest of the players.
You’ll have a lot of fun guessing what the drawings mean, but most importantly, you won’t share the paper and the marker with anyone else.
6. Puzzles
Domino puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, word or picture puzzles are all fun to do and you can do them by yourself. In case you have two identical puzzles, you can play with a family member to see who will put together the puzzle faster.
Besides, solving puzzles is a great mental exercise because it improves our mental speed and accelerates our thought processes.
7. Memory Train
This game is suitable for more than two players. Namely, one player starts a sentence. The other person has to repeat what they’ve heard and then they have to continue the sentence adding one more word. If you miss a word, you get eliminated from the game. Thus, the person that will repeat the sentence correctly every time wins.
You don’t need to touch anything and you don’t need to be near anyone to play this game. The good thing about it is that it sharpens your memory.
At these particularly hard times, we all need a little bit of joy and entertainment to distract ourselves.
