Self-Control Games

Hello Folks!
Today I thought I would post some simple self-control games that teach little ones, well self-control. Since everyone is stuck at home, this is the perfect time to teach these games to your little ones! Let the games begin!

1. The Skittle/Marshmallow Game
You may have seen this one before. Researchers have conducted this experiment with several different children, seeing which children have the most self-control. Basically for this game all you need is a bag of marshmallows. Now, since marshmallows are a choking hazard for children 3 and under if you have littles, you may want to use Skittles instead. The game works like this: You give your child one marshmallow or Skittle, then you set it in front of them. You see if they take the Skittle/marshmallow or not. If they don't take it, wait a few minutes and then give them another one. Give them as many as you want depending on your threshold for hyper children after eating all that sugar! I ended up only giving mine five. The idea is the more self-control they have, the more Skittles/marshmallows they will get. If they have the best self-control they will get all five marshmallows/Skittles. If you have more than one child you can make it a game to see who gets the most and who has all of them when you are done playing the game.

2. Don't Wake the Dragon!
The next game is a lot of fun. It's called Don't Wake the Dragon and it goes like this: One child or person is chosen to be the "dragon." Another child or person is chosen to put a "key" or object close to the dragon without waking them up. Each person or child takes a turn trying to get the "key" without waking the "dragon." If someone accidentally touches the "dragon" the "dragon" has woken up and a new person becomes the "dragon" and play starts over again. Cycle through all of the players until each one has gotten a turn to be the "dragon." If no one wakes the "dragon" after cycling through all of the players, then you can keep going until the "dragon" wakes up or the current "dragon" can trade places with someone and make that person the new "dragon." It's great to see who has the most self-control!

3. Walk the Line
No, you do not have to sing the Johnny Cash song that shares it's name with this game! This game is very simple. All you have to do is put a long line of painter's tape on the floor and pick a leader. All of the players have to follow what the leader does while walking on the line. Another way to play this game is to have each player walk the line individually while performing a certain action. For example, let's say the action is to "walk like a whisper." The person or people on the line have to walk as quietly as possible the whole time they are on the line. This would be especially challenging self-control if your child or children are "Chatty Cathy's!" You could use any kinds of actions you want. Some actions may include: walk like a lion, walk like a cloud, walk like an airplane, hop like a bunny or walk like a princess. There are many others you could use, just use your imagination, because the sky is the limit! This helps with self-control because the person has to stay on the line while performing the action. Also, particular actions may be harder for some children.

4. Red light, Green light!
This one is pretty self-explanatory as most people know how to play this, but just in case you don't here are the rules: One person is chosen to stand on one side of the room. Everybody else stands on the other side of the room. The person at the end yells "Green Light!" Once "Green Light" is announced the people on the other side of the room begin to walk towards the person on the other end of the room. At any time, the person can yell "Red Light!" At which point the players must stop walking towards the other player. If a player falls or doesn't stop, they must return to the beginning. Play continues until the person at the other end of the room is tagged. Once that person is tagged the person that tagged them first switches places with them and they become the caller. This is a great thing to teach bodily self-control because you really have to control your body when the person calls "Red Light!" as to not fall over or to stop, so you don't have to start over.

5. Walk through tape
This game does not have a fancy name and it is pretty simple to play as well. Basically, you put painter's tape on the floor and you want to criss-cross it look like a spider's web or something similar. The idea is to leave gaps in between the tape for your child to walk through. You pick a starting point and an ending point and your child starts walking through the tape. The object of the game is to only step in the gaps, but not on the tape. They must walk this way until reaching the ending point. Again, this one is about body control, because they have to control their body to not step on the tape. Your kids will enjoy this game!

6. Ready! Set! Go!
This game is similar to red light, green light, in that one person is the caller that stands on one side and all of the other players stand on the other side. The caller will call "Ready! Set! Go!" and when the players hear that they start walking towards the caller. The catch to this game is that the caller must say "Go!" for players to go. The players have to listen and pay attention, because the caller may say something like, "Grow!" for instance and the players can't go. This game encourages listening skills as well, because you have to make sure you are listening for the right word.

7. Self-Control Bubbles
I saw this idea on the website listed below and I thought it was a great idea. First you get some bubbles and blow them for your kids. Then you tell them they can pop as many as they want to. The next go round you blow them, but tell them they cannot pop the bubbles, no matter how much they want to. It'll be interesting to see if your kids can resist popping bubbles!

Some of these ideas can be found here and here.

Happy Playing!
Destiny