1. For Very Young

MY SHIP SAILS

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 to 7. Four or 5 players make the best game.

CARDS: 7 to each player, dealt one at a time in the usual way.

OBJECT: TO get 7 cards of the same suit.

THE PLAY: Each player looks at his hand and passes one card to the left, receiving at the same time 1 card from the right. The play goes on in the same way as in Fig or Donkey. The only difference is that you are trying to get all of your cards to have the same suit instead of the same picture.

There are many different ways of ending a hand. When you get 7 cards of the same suit, you may put your hand down immediately and sing out, "My ship sails!" Another way is to say nothing but to put your finger to your nose as in Pig.

If it takes too long to finish a hand, try one of the shorter games—My Bee Buzzes or My Star Twinkles.

SKILLFUL PLAY: Begin by trying to collect the suit that you have most of. For example, if you have 4 or 5 hearts, pass the other cards and try to collect more hearts.

The only time you have trouble is when some other player tries to collect the same suit that you are collecting. To guard against this, try to collect a second suit if you don't have any luck with your first suit. If you can get 3 cards in a second suit, you can then start to pass the cards of your first suit and thus switch your plan.

For example, suppose you start with 3 hearts, 2 spades, 1 club, and 1 diamond. Keep passing the clubs and diamonds until you get another heart or another spade. If you get one more—or a 3rd spade before any heart is passed to you, you should suspect that somebody else is saving the hearts. Your best bet is to break up your hearts and to try to get 7 spades instead.

If you have 4 or more cards in the same suit, it doesn't pay to break. Sit tight and hope that one of the other players will break first and thus pass the cards that you need.

MY BEE BUZZES

This is the same as My Ship Sails except that you need only 6 cards of the same suit to end the hand. Each player gets 7 cards, but needs only 6 cards in the same suit (and 1 odd card) to win the hand. It takes less time to finish a hand in this game than in My Ship Sails.

MY STAR TWINKLES

This is the same as My Ship Sails except that you need only 5 cards of the same suit (and 2 odd cards) to win a hand. In this game it takes only two or three minutes to play a hand.

THROUGH THE WINDOW

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 to 13—the more the merrier.

THE DEAL: 4 cards to each player.

OBJECT: TO win the most cards.

THE PLAY : The dealer begins by saying, "I looked through the window, and saw—". Just at this moment, and not before, he turns up one of his 4 cards so that all of the players can see it.

Each player (including the dealer) must try to say an animal or a thing beginning with the same letter of the alphabet as the card that has been turned up. For example, if the card is an Ace, you might call out, "Ant," "Alligator," or "Ammunition," or anything else that begins with the letter A. If the card is a 9, you might call out, "Newt," or "Nut."

The first player to call out a correct word takes the card and starts his pile of captured cards separate from the 4 cards that were dealt to him.

Then the person at left of the dealer says "I looked through the window and saw—," turning up one of his cards. The game continues in the same way, in turn to the left, until all the cards originally dealt have been turned up and captured. Each person keeps his own pile of captured cards, and the one who captures the most wins the game. The captured cards have nothing to do with each player's original 4 cards, since each player had exactly 4 chances to turn up a card.

As soon as a word has been used to win a card, no player can use that same word again. For example, if you have used the word "Stone" to capture a Seven, neither you nor any other player can use the word "Stone" to capture any other card beginning with an S.

THROUGH THE WIDE WINDOW

This is played exactly like Through the Window, except that when a card is turned, you must call out two words: an animal or an object, and a word describing that animal or object. For example, if a King is turned up, you might call out, "Kind Kitten" or "Kissable Kipper." Any single word may be used more than once in the game. However, no pair of words may be repeated. For example, if you call out "Quivering Quail" on seeing a Queen, anybody may use the word "Quivering" and anybody may use the word "Quail" for another Queen, but nobody is allowed to use the two words together.

SKILLFUL PLAY: A trick of playing this game successfully is to have a little stock of words that begin with the right letters. For example, you might be ready with the words Ant, Alligator, Anteater, Abacus, Apple, etc., when an Ace turns up. Similarly, you make a little list of words beginning with T for Two, Three, or Ten, and so on for the 9 letters of the alphabet that begin the names of the playing cards. In the same way, you need a list of descriptive words, such as Active, Adult, Adorable, Affectionate, Agitated, etc., in the case of an Ace.

When grownups play with children, the best rule is to make the grownups use two words (a descriptive word as well as the object or animal), while the children need only one word.

CONCENTRATION

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Any number at all—the more the merrier.

THE DEAL: Just spread the cards face down on a table. Don't bother to put them down neatly, but just jumble them up, making sure that no 2 cards overlap.

OBJECT: TO capture pairs of cards. The player who captures the most pairs wins the game.

THE PLAY: Before play begins, each player should be told what his turn is. Thus each player knows whether he is first, second, third, etc.

The 1st player turns up any card and then turns up any other card. If the two cards match each other (for example, if they are two Aces, or two Kings, etc.) the 1st player captures them as his pair. He then has another turn and proceeds to turn up two more cards in the hope of finding a pair. As soon as he turns up two cards that are not a pair, he must turn them face down again in the same place, and it now becomes the turn of the next player.

Each player proceeds in the same way, until all the cards have been captured. At that time, the player who has captured the largest number of cards wins the game.

SKILLFUL PLAY: The trick is to remember the cards that have been turned up and exactly whereabouts on the table those cards are. For example, suppose the 1st player turns up a King and a 10. He must turn those cards face down, and you do your very best to remember exactly where that King is and where that 10 is. If it is now your turn, you try to turn up a card in an entirely different part of the table, hoping to find another King or another 10. If you find another King, you can go right to the first King like a homing pigeon and then you will have a pair of Kings. If you find another 10, you can go right to the first 10 and thus have a pair of 10's.

If you try to remember too many cards, you will forget them all. It is much better to begin by trying to remember only two or three cards. When you find that you can do that easily, try remembering four cards. In this way you can gradually increase your skill until you can accurately remember the whereabouts of seven or eight cards at a time. This should be enough to win almost any game.

TOSSING CARDS INTO A HAT

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: Any number, but the game is best for 2 or 3.

THE DEAL: Give each player an equal number of cards from an old deck. If you have more than 3 players, take two old decks and divide them equally among the players.

OBJECT: TO toss the largest number of cards into a hat.

THE PLAY: Take an old felt hat (be sure to get father's permission before using his hat) and place it on a clean piece of newspaper on the floor at the other end of the room, with the crown down and the brim up. Standing the whole length of the room away from the hat, each player in turn flips one card towards the hat with the object of landing the card inside the hat.

Each player keeps track of the cards he has landed inside the hat. If a card lands on the brim, it counts as only one-half. If a card on the brim of the hat is knocked in by any player, it counts a full point for the player who originally threw it.

SKILLFUL PLAY: The trick is to hold the card between thumb and forefinger with the wrist bent inwards towards the body. If you then straighten out the wrist suddenly with a flick and release the card at the same time, you can make it sail all the way across a very long room and you can control it pretty well.

Although strength isn't important in this game, small children may have trouble in getting the knack. As a handicap, they should be allowed to stand several paces closer to the hat.

SPECIAL ADVICE: Be sure to place the hat near a blank wall, and far away from a piano, or a sofa, or any other heavy piece of furniture. Cards that land under a piano are very hard to recover.

TREASURE HUNT

For this game you need two decks of cards, some preparation, two or three rooms with nothing breakable in them, and almost any number of young children.

You begin by hiding some of the cards from one deck in the rooms that you devote to the game. This must be done before the children arrive for the game.

Be sure to hide as many red cards as black, and be sure also to take out from the second deck cards that match the ones you have hidden. A hidden card should be discoverable without damage. For example, if you hide a card in a bookcase, it should be sticking out in some way and not hidden inside of a book. Every hidden card should be well within the reach of even the youngest child. It is perfectly fair to put a card under the pedals of a piano, but not on top of the piano, where a small child would be unable to see it.

When the children arrive, appoint two captains and let them choose up sides. One team will find red cards (hearts and diamonds), and the other team will find black cards (spades and clubs).

Give each child a card from the second deck and explain that he is to find a duplicate of it, hidden somewhere in a particular room or in two or three rooms, depending on how much space you have for the game. As soon as a child finds the card he is looking for, he is to bring it back to you and get another card to look for. The team that finds all of its hidden cards first wins the game.

Be sure to explain that it isn't necessary to move anything in order to find the cards. Mention also, that anybody who finds a card that he isn't looking for should replace that card in exactly the same spot and tell no one about it. Somebody else will be looking for it, or he himself may be looking for it later on.
This is a good game to play in somebody else's house.

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