Contributed by Info Guru Paul Seaburn

I’m of the generation that still brags about walking to school in the snow uphill … both ways.

I also played imaginary games with family and friends to pass the time on trips and on summer vacation. Today’s kids have imagination but don’t get much help using it from TV and video games. These imagination games for children will help them have fun and maybe give them some ideas for creating their own.

10. The Never-Ending Story

One child starts to tell a story, giving the first sentence. The next child continues the story by giving the next sentence. Each child adds to the story with new actions and new characters. To finish the story, start a countdown for the last 10 sentences to wrap it up and end with “The End.”

9. An Animal By Committee

In the spirit of the saying, “An elephant is a horse created by a committee,” give each child a pen and pieces of paper and have them invent an animal. Have each write an animal body type and put those in a pile. Do the same for a characteristic, a thing it would eat, a place it would live and an odd thing it does. Mix up the papers, pick one from each and draw the new animal. When done, give them funny names.

8. The Pet News Channel

Have the kids set up their own news channel with all of the stories being fun news items about pets. Pick one to be the host and the rest reporters covering news, weather, sports and food. Let the stories be as silly as possible – scores for a ball-fetching game, weather reports for fish and other silly stuff.

7. History Without Words

In a variation on Charades, one child tells a famous story from history using only gestures while the others try to guess. For ideas, write famous stories on strips of paper or let them pick from a history book or reference.

6. What Would You Rather …

Kids come up with interesting or silly questions beginning with “What would you rather …?” What would you rather eat, a giraffe or an ant? What would you rather be, a book or a bookworm? The next child in line answers the question, then gets to create a new one.

5. Say Something!

Say Something! Is a fun indoor game. One child is a reporter and another is the voice of an inanimate object in the house, like a chair, a rug or a refrigerator. The reporter asks questions and the other child gives fun answers as the object. A variation would be a conversation between two objects – what would a chair and table talk about?

4. Zoodonald’s

Animals like fast food too, so have the kids run a fast food restaurant for zoo animals. Make a menu with appetizers, main dishes and desserts that would appeal to zoo animals, along with some fun off-the-menu specials. Have the kids pretend to be waiters and customers and create a zoo restaurant experience from soup to nuts.

3. Every Day Is A Holiday

Create new holidays by choosing something or someone to honor (Carrot Day, Bus Driver Day). Then have the children make custom cards to send, come up with songs to sing by changing the words to Christmas carols, and think up fun and appropriate gifts to give.

2. Air Symphony

Each child pretends to be a musical instrument. Pick a well-known song (like a campfire song or a Christmas carol) and have the children pretend to play the instrument while singing the song using only the sound their instrument would make – thump-thump-thump, bang-bang-bang or ding-ding-ding. After everyone plays a solo, have them all play and make the sounds together.

1. What Do You Get When You Cross …

Cut pictures of common objects from a magazine or used catalogs and place them in a box. Have each child pick two items and say them out loud in the riddle sentence, “What do you get when you cross a (x) with a (y)? Let the child try to come up with a new object and describe it. If they can’t, let a volunteer try. For a variation, use two boxes – one with pictures of objects and one with pictures of food.