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22
03
2010
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The Wave Game: Your Kids Will Love It |
The Wave Game is simple for your kids to understand: One child is chosen to be “it”. The “it” player covers their eyes and counts to a pre-determined number, while the other kids run and find a hiding place. The number “it” counts to should be determined by the size of the house or yard that the kids are playing in. Once the “it” player has finished counting, they will now search out the kids who are hiding. If they find one, they declare “one-two-three” followed by the kid’s name, for example “one-two-three on Kevin!” Kevin must now go to “jail”, which could be any landmark within the yard or house. This should be something openly visible, like a swing set, or a bush; something everybody can see.
Once Kevin is in “jail” he can escape by another “free” player waving at them. Once Kevin sees the wave, he is free to find another hiding spot. The “it” player must once again find the players. The game ends when the “it” player finds all of the hiding kids. The game can begin again with a new designated “it” player.
After several games, your kids will most likely create their own variants of the game and will even create new rules that make the game uniquely their own. One common rule addition is “no guarding”. This means that the “it” player cannot stand around the “jail” preventing the prisoners from escaping. Other rules include only a certain number of jail-time per game.
Although similar to Hide-and-Seek, the Wave Game is a much more interactive and cooperative game. Your kids help each other escape “jail”; they rely on each other to succeed, which is the key difference between the games. Hid-and-Seek may be a classic, but the children who are found usually must sit out for long periods of time, and they may become bored and disinterested in the process.