How to Play Spoons with Fun Variations and Quick Tips for a Stronger, Happier Family [Friday’s Fast Five: 4th Edition]

Building a stronger, happier family is at the top of most parents’ list. However, we are busy! These weekly Fast Five ideas and tips are a quick way to brainstorm, check-in, and create the family relationships you really want. Included in today’s ideas are directions for how to play spoons with fun variations, which is an easy and funny card game. Happy Friday!

* These ideas are NOT meant to be a checklist or guilt trip of things we “should do.” Rather, they are intended to inspire you to find what works for YOUR family to learn, laugh, and love together. Remember to stick to the Simple Side of Parenting.

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What is Friday’s Fast Five?

Each Friday, we share five quick and simple ideas for families under the following categories:

1. Something Fun

This is an activity, game, entertainment recommendation, or simple outing for family fun.

2. A Little Lesson

Here you will find a simple lesson to help teach kids important ideas. Examples include life skills or personal qualities like kindness and patience.

3. A Service Idea

Volunteering is good for our mental and physical health. Serving together strengthens relationships with those we serve and those we serve with. Service can be fun and eye-opening. Service is an important way to learn, laugh, and love together.

4. Something Random

This is a random thought, idea, quote, or meme, typically to help you smile. 🙂

5. A Quick Tip

Here you will find a quick parenting or family tip for peaceful parenting or building a stronger, happier family. These come from research, personal experience, or those common sense reminders we all need to hear once in a while.

With that, here is the fourth edition of Friday’s Fast Five. (You can find other editions HERE.)

1. Something Fun: How to Play Spoons with Variations

Spoons is a classic card game that is easy to understand and fun to play. Add a few variations, and you’ve got hours of entertainment.

Set-Up and How to Win Spoons

Sit in a circle, and deal four cards to each player. Place spoons (the number of players minus one) in the middle of the circle. So if you have four people playing, put three spoons in the circle.

The goal is to not be left without a spoon. You can grab a spoon if you get four cards of a kind (four kings, four two’s, etc.) or if someone else has already grabbed a spoon.

How to Play Spoons

To play, the dealer draws a card from the top of the deck, then passes one card to the player on the right. That player looks at the card and chooses one to pass on. In this way, cards are passed around the whole circle. Meanwhile, the dealer continually draws and passes cards. The faster you pass cards the more fun it is.

When a player is able to collect four cards of one kind, she sneaks a spoon from the center. Anyone who notices can then sneak a spoon as well. The player left without a spoon loses the round.

Technically, up to 13 people can play with one deck of cards. However, if you want the game to move faster or you have more players, use two decks.

A themed card deck like these Harry Potter Playing Cards or Despicable ME Playing Cards or a set like this Kid’s Card Games Fun Pack is also a fun, simple gift idea that can be used to play Spoons.

Click image for purchasing information.

Fun Variations for How to Play Spoons

One funny variation for how to play Spoons is to say players cannot touch the spoons with their hands. They can use elbows, chins, whatever, but no hands. This variation is not very sneaky, but it’s definitely funny.

A second way to play Spoons is like the basketball game Horse. Each time a player loses a round, he gets a letter until he spells S-P-O-O-N and loses. This makes the game a little longer and more competitive, which my older kids love.

A third twist on how to play Spoons is to use other kitchen utensils rather than spoons. Don’t use anything sharp of course! But using wooden spoons, spatulas, or whisks can add to the hilarity when everyone starts grabbing.

The fourth variation for how to play Spoons is Tackle Spoons. In this version, the spoons are kept across the room from the players. When someone collects four matching cards, it becomes a sprint and tackle competition to get the spoon. This version is great when you need a little more movement.

2. A Little Lesson: Learning about Patience with the Marshmallow Experiment

This quick lesson is a clear way to teach the benefits of patience.

In 1960, researchers did an experiment testing if children could delay gratification. They gave the kids each a marshmallow and told them that they could eat the marshmallow or wait and have two later. Then the researcher left the child alone. If the children chose to wait 15 minutes, they got a second marshmallow.

Delayed gratification was linked to future success. More recent studies have opened further explanation about why some kids are able to delay gratification and the effect those combined factors have on life in the long run.

This is a fun, simple, and clear way to begin a discussion about the virtues of waiting patiently. Get large Marshmallows or use whatever treats you have around the house. Do the experiment with your kids, and then talk about real life examples of how it’s better to wait such as saving money for something or practicing patiently before success.

Afterward, it’s fun to watch this funny video together of kids doing the marshmallow experiment.

Related: 7 Steps to a More Patient Child

Wondering how to fit Little Lessons into your busy family schedule?

The two main ways to fit important lessons into your busy family schedule are to find spontaneous teaching moments throughout the day and to schedule family learning time each week. These two posts go into detail about these two ways and tips for making it happen with your family.

How Busy Parents Can Teach Important Life Lessons

6 Tips for Family Time that Teaches Life’s Most Important Lessons

3. A Service Idea: Bake and Take

Bake a treat or snack and share it with a neighbor or someone who might be lonely. This homemade soft pretzel recipe from Fifteen Spatulas is one of our favorites to bake and share. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Service is a great way to build a stronger, happier family. If you want more service ideas, request Raising Compassionate Children in a Conceited World, which includes 101 Service Ideas for Families.

4. Something Random: The Charmin Bears

After a giggling fit watching this Charmin commercial, one of my kids asked, “Why do the Charmin bears have underwear on the floor if they’re always naked?”

Hm. Good question. Anyone know?

Haha! 🙂 (I seriously can’t count how many times my kids rewound and watched this the first time they saw it on TV. The simple joys.)

Grab some Charmin Ultra Soft Cushiony Touch Toilet Paper, and be stocked and ready before the next shortage. Gotta keep those hineys clean!

5. A Quick Tip: Helping our Kids Develop Confidence and Self-worth

We want our kids to feel confident and competent, ready to take on the world because we know they can. We hope our kids bounce back after failures, learn from their experiences, and develop into the best form of themselves. But sometimes our child has low confidence or a fear of failure which holds them back.

Helping our children develop confidence and self-worth is much less about helping them be good at something and much more about helping them shift the way they view the world and themselves.

The more I learn about understanding our self-worth and the role of failure and progress in our lives, the more I understand how vital it is for our growth and happiness. Know that if your child (or you) are struggling with low confidence or a fear of failure, that can change.

Our Child Had Low Confidence…Here’s What Helped [12 Simple Ways to Boost Confidence and Develop Lasting Self-worth]

And that is Friday’s Fast Five!

You can also see Friday’s Fast Five on Instagram or other editions HERE.

Building a Stronger, Happier Family

It takes time and intention to build a stronger, happier family. I hope Friday’s Fast Five helps you find the ways that work for YOUR family to learn, laugh, and love together.

We will never regret the time we devote to our families and relationships with our kids.

Have a great weekend with your family, know that you’re loved, and keep on lovin’!

Do you have a great idea for a future Friday’s Fast Five? Have a question or parenting struggle you want help with? Share in the comments, shoot me an Email, or schedule a call.

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