Staying home doesn’t have to be boring!
Like most people, my family is spending a lot more time at home right now out of concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus. With schools closed and activities cancelled, everybody is looking for fun things to do inside.
Now is the perfect time to get lost in a good book or sit down with your family for a fun Game Night.
Goodwill has long been my go-to place for discount books and games. No trip to Goodwill is complete for me until I peruse the bookshelves.
On my latest trip, I found a leadership book I thought my husband would like (he did!) and a Rachael Ray cookbook. I spent less than $5 for both books—and found some great new recipes to try.
Last summer, my son found this Plants vs. Zombies activity book. How can I say no when the book was only $2? Somebody had already done a few of the activities, like this awesome zombie drawing. But there were plenty of activities remaining for my son to do.
I also like to check out the game section. We have a growing collection of games at our house, all purchased from Goodwill at a fraction of the cost of buying new.
The savings are a big reason I like buying games at Goodwill, of course. But I also like the randomness of it. You just never know what you are going to find.
I have picked up old-school versions of Scattergories and Boggle, two of my favorite games when I was a kid. It’s really fun for me to play them again and I love that my son now enjoys them too!
I have also found games that I had never heard of before, like this game called Whoonu. For $3, it was worth a try.
Whoonu was new in the box so I knew all the parts were there. Don’t worry if the games you buy at Goodwill don’t come with instructions. A quick online search will turn up directions for most games.
Who knew? Whoonu is a lot of fun. Everybody gets a handful of cards with random items printed on them like: squirrels, crafts, kites, Shark Week. You have to guess which items the other players would rank as their favorites, getting points for each item you match.
We played several rounds the other night … and we all ended up with the same amount of points. Every. Single. Time. I guess we know each other pretty well!
Whoonu may have been a draw, but I’m still the Boggle champ!
(OK—so I was playing against an 8-year-old, but still … I will revel in my Family Game Night Victory! That’s all part of the fun.)
Courtney Mickalonis
Artist/Teacher/Blogger at All Things New Again
