How do you keep the kids amused for the long summer
holidays? What do you do when the inevitable rainy day blues
strike and everyone gets fractious and argumentative? And
how do you cope when you are forced to play the waiting game
… in doctors' surgeries, airports, or even long car
journeys?

Get the dice out! Dice games are the ultimate in quick and
easy entertainment, with the added advantages of being
cheap, portable and educational too! You can start playing
dice with children as young as 2 ½, as long as you are sure
that they are past the stage of putting things into their
mouths. And you will find that all ages up to grandparents
are happy to join in.

I offer below three particularly quick and easy games, all
of which can be played with children from about the age of 4
up. All you need are pencil and paper and dice - a maximum
of 7, which you can probably find in existing game boxes
around the house.

Beat That!
You will need between two to seven dice, depending on the
age of the players. Roll the dice and put them in order to
make the highest number possible. If you roll a 4 and a 6,
for example, your best answer would be 64. Using three dice,
a roll of 3, 5 and 2 should give you 532, and so on. Write
down your answer, pass the dice, and challenge the next
player to "Beat That!" Play in rounds and assign a winner to
each round. For a change, try making the smallest number
possible! This is a great game for reinforcing the concept
of place value.

Run for it!
You will need six dice for this game. Roll the dice and look
for runs (sequences) starting with 1 (so 1, 1-2, 1-2-3 and
so on). Each die that is part of a run scores five points.
There can be more than one run in each roll. For example,
say you rolled the following combination: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 and
5. You would score 5 points for the first 1. You would then
score 15 points for the sequence of 1, 2 and 3, for a total
of 20 points for that roll. The first player to reach 100
points is the winner.

Going to Boston
Use three dice. Roll all three and keep the highest. Roll
the remaining dice and again set aside the highest. Roll the
last die, and add up your total. Write down your score. Play
a number of rounds and then either total your points to find
the winner, or simply count how many rounds were won by each
player.