Three for Thursday from The Parent’s Play Book
Blackjack, Laundry BASEketball, and the key to better treasure hunts
Quick win
Blackjack (21)
~5 mins
A quick bit of maths, disguised as a fun card game.
Card values:
Number cards = face value.
J, Q, K = 10.
Ace = 1 or 11 (whichever helps you the most).
How to play:
Use a standard 52-card deck. Deal two cards face up to each player.
The dealer gets one card face up and one face down.
Players take turns choosing:
Hit: take another card.
Stick: keep what you’ve got.
If you go over 21, you’re bust and out for that round.
The dealer goes last and must keep taking cards until reaching 17 or more, then stick.
Who wins:
Bust players automatically lose.
If the dealer busts, all remaining players win.
Otherwise, anyone closer to 21 than the dealer wins.
After school activity
Laundry BASEketball
~15 mins
My siblings and I used to love playing a game called BASEketball, where you take turns shooting a basketball into a hoop from different distances (inspired by the film of the same name).
Our children aren’t quite ready for a full-size hoop yet, so we’ve adapted it to Laundry BASEketball instead.
How to try it:
Place a laundry basket at roughly child head height.
On the floor in front of it, lay out four evenly spaced pieces of paper labelled 1, 2, 3, and H (H = home run, worth 4 points).
1 should be closest to the basket, followed by 2, then 3, with H the furthest away.
Get a ball (rolled up socks work too).
OPTION 1: Free play
Take turns shooting from any base and see who can score.
OPTION 2: Team game
Everyone plays on the same team.
Take turns trying to throw the ball into the basket.
Before each throw, choose which base you’re shooting from.
If you score, add the points for that base to the team total.
The aim is to reach 11 points in as few throws as possible.
The total number of throws you take becomes the score to beat next time you play.
OPTION 3: Competition
Play against each other.
Take turns choosing a base and taking your shot.
If you get it in, you score the points assigned to that base.
First player to 7 points wins.
Children score double points against adults.
Weekend project
Codebreaker treasure hunt
~20-30 mins
A simple way to make treasure hunts more interesting and last longer.
How to try it:
Create a simple cipher key and write it on a sheet of paper.
Start easy: A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. You can make it trickier once they’ve cracked it a few times.
Write your clues using the cipher, each one pointing to the next hiding place.
Hide the clues around the house or garden, with some kind of ‘treasure’ at the end.
Hand over the cipher key and the first clue and let your children start decoding.
(Credit: thanks to Granny Catherine for this one.)
Until next time,
Harvey
Three for Thursday
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