Three for Thursday from The Parent’s Play Book
A hundred-year-old drawing game, cheating at cards, and create your own mini-Pixar movie
Quick win
Exquisite corpse
~10 mins
Born in 1920s Paris, this playful drawing game still sparks creativity and laughter over a century later.
The rules:
- Everyone draws a head, fold, pass.
- Draw the body, fold, pass.
- Draw legs, fold, pass.
- Add the feet, fold, pass.
- Unfold to meet your family-friendly Frankenstein.
After school activity
Teach them how to cheat at cards
~20-30 mins
The card game Cheat is basically an organised way of teaching your children to lie straight to your face. The upside? They’re secretly working on memory, observation and strategy, while enjoying the drama of bluffing.
What you’ll need:
- A standard deck of 52 cards.
- 3-6 players.
How to play:
- Deal the whole deck of cards evenly among payers.
- Starting left of the dealer, place up to four cards face down and declare them (e.g. “two jacks”).
- The next player must lay down cards of the same rank, one rank higher, or one rank lower (e.g. tens, jacks or queens).
- The twist: you don’t have to be honest. Bluff as much as you like.
Calling “cheat!”:
- At any time, anyone can call “cheat!”
- The last cards are revealed.
- If the player was lying, they take the pile.
- If they were truthful, the challenger takes it.
- Whoever ends up with the pile starts the next round.
Winning:
The first player to ditch all their cards wins — unless someone calls “cheat!” on that final move, in which case you’ve got one last dramatic showdown.
Weekend project
Create your own mini-Pixar movie
~1-2 hrs
Scratch is a brilliant (and completely free) website where children can turn their ideas into animations, games, and mini movies. They can start with ready-made templates or upload their own drawings and photos to bring to life.
How to try it:
- Go to mit.edu
- Click “Start Creating” – no account needed to explore and start experimenting.
- Watch the short tutorial (about 1 min) to get a quick introduction.
Note: There’s also a junior version for ages 5-7 at scratchjr.org. We’ve used the main version with our 6-year-old — with a little parental help, it works brilliantly. Try both and see which works best for you.
Three for Thursday
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