W is for a childhood word game we played as kids – a game called ‘Name Place Animal Thing’.  This game kept us occupied for many a hot summer afternoon, or those rainy days when we could not step outside to play.

So, here is how we played the game.
What we need: 
Two or more players (the more the merrier!)
Each player needs one empty sheet of paper to write on, one pen/pencil.
On the paper, have five columns marked out as ‘Name’, ‘Place’, ‘Animal’, ‘Thing’, and most important, the ‘points’!

How to Play:

1. Players take turns being the caller and the reciter.
2. The caller calls out ‘Start’ and the reciter ‘recites’ the alphabet, albeit silently in his/her mind, until the caller says ‘Stop’ after a few seconds. The letter that the reciter stopped at is the letter for the first round of the game.
3. Now, the actual game starts. Players can choose to use a timer or can choose to have the first player who finishes the round time everyone else for a countdown of say, ten!! The second option is definitely more challenging and fun…
4. Each player now writes down a name (proper nouns only – name of a person – say, Peter), place (proper nouns only – any geographical location with a name – eg: cities , countries, states, continents, lakes, etc, or make it more or less restrictive, say – Paris), animal (name of an animal, bird, insect…, say – parrot..), and a thing (any item -say – pen) starting with the letter the reciter called out – silently, on their sheet.
5. Once the time for the round is over (either the timer or the first player who has written down all four counts down from ten), the players put down their sheets so they can all see their responses.
6. For correct and unique responses, players are awarded 10 points each; for responses common with others’ responses, each player with the common response gets 5 points for that response; for incorrect (eg: the place or the animal does not exist) or no responses, it is 0 points. Players total up their scores for the round
7. It is now time for the next caller to call out ‘Start’ for the next reciter…  and the game continues, until.. well, it can go on as long as you choose.. and even repeat the letters once you have gone through all (but remember, repeated responses the second time around means only 5 points each!!).

Here is something to help you get a better ‘picture’ of the game 🙂

How does it fit into my theme?  – which is – Favorite Childhood Memories, be it games or books or food or movies or
just random somethings – with one additional twist – these are memories I would like to build for the future as well – with my kids!

As a child, I played with friend and family as it is originally played, with paper and pen/pencil. This is already a part of making memories with my kids, with a twist – we have normally played it on road trips – which means, we are not writing on paper while in the car. We just call out the name, place, animal, and thing by taking turns; trying not
to repeat what the others have already said; and do not keep score – but it is still fun…

Q to the reader: Have you heard of or played this game? Do you think you will play it?

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