Every Saturday evening, we have a Family Fun Night.
Well, it used to be called “Family Game Night”, but I decided that this was a bit limiting, since it sounded like we would only play things with rules and aims and accessories, like Twister and the Game of Life and Uno. Which is:
1) potentially very expensive, not to mention time-consuming to obtain, and
2) rather alienating to the non-gameplaying crowd (e.g. Junior Strawberry 2 is still a little young for complex game mechanisms and rules, and when there’s a cute playing piece he can’t help his itchy fingers but to run off with it and leave the rest of us searching high and low for the thing so we can play).
Plus what if one week we just decide to all veg out and watch a movie together?
So “Family Fun Night” it is.
This week, it was Junior Strawberry 2’s turn to pick the activity. Earlier in the day, Papa Strawberry had been to Daiso and picked up some foam weaponry – specifically, 2 swords and a…Rod of FuryTM (that’s what he called it).
Don’t ask me why he randomly picked up foam weaponry – guess it’s a guy thing? They did look pretty nice though.
Anyway. The Junior Strawberries were very excited about the foam weapons and as soon as we got home they started trying to fight each other with them – but no, they had to get through the rest of the day first. That meant boring stuff like lunch and homework and swim lessons and washing up and dinner and then all hell could break loose.
Because this time, of course, Junior Strawberry 2 picked swordfighting as his activity of choice. I don’t know the first thing about swordfighting, honestly. I had no idea how the evening was supposed to unfold. Was the game plan (hur) to just…hand everyone a weapon each and let them have at it?
Well – yes, more or less. I must admit that I tend to forget how good kids can be at unstructured play1, and also, how fun unstructured play can be.
- We did set some basic ground rules: no whacking anyone in the neck or head, and…that was it, really.
- Junior Strawberry 1 had the idea of dividing us into 2 opposing teams, so she made little strips of paper with our names on them and got the Papa Strawberry to pick his team member. Papa Strawberry picked her. It was so unfair. I had no idea how to swing a sword and Junior Strawberry 2…is Junior Strawberry 2.
- Team Papa: had rigorous sword technique training session with Papa intently trying to teach Junior Strawberry 1 the basics of blocking, parrying and dramatically stabbing people with a foam sword. Since he was using his Rod of Fury™ it looked a bit like those Star Wars Jedi duels, and Junior Strawberry 1 was lapping it up.
- Team Mama: OK I didn’t even have a weapon at first, since we decided that whoever finished eating their dinner last wouldn’t have a weapon (Papa Strawberry had only bought 3). I actually finished third, but Junior Strawberry 2 was all *points at picture above* so I gave him my sword. Sigh. I tried using a toy bow, but couldn’t manage to make the arrows fly half the time plus when they flew I lost them, so…I concealed a small dart gun and 4 darts in my pocket instead.
- We fashioned makeshift shields out of a box cover, a foam frisbee and a swimming board…and then it was ALL SYSTEMS GO.
And how they went.
Our house has a couple of extra doors, so we could literally run round and round and round. Junior Strawberry 1 got so excited she indiscriminately started whacking everyone including her team member (and erstwhile swordmaster). The Junior Strawberries got into a nailbiting duel, but Junior Strawberry 1 backed up as Junior Strawberry 2 went on the offensive, tripped over my backside (I was on my hands and knees looking for a missing dart…), fell into a beanbag, and Junior Strawberry 2 declared his victory by posing like a WWE wrestler (and he looks nothing like a WWE wrestler). Papa Strawberry got so outraged that I had brought a gun to a swordfight that he hauled out his NERF gun and started blasting away – but his aim is terrible, and I just scooped up all his fallen NERF bullets and kept them in my pocket so he had nothing to shoot me with after a few minutes. XD
The dart gun was crap, the spring inside it kept triggering so much I couldn’t load it, but Junior Strawberry 2 took the defence of his mama very seriously. *much hearts* Also, he displayed his capacity for sneaky moves when he sprang out from a corridor Junior Strawberry 1 had backed the Papa Strawberry into and stabbed him in the back. Hmmm.
We took lots and lots of videos, and they are hysterically funny.
The high octane giggly chaos lasted for about 30 minutes (not including water breaks) before we pretty much all collapsed on the bean bags in the living room, out of breath and exhausted. We let the kids cool off and calm down after that by watching one episode of some Netflix show, and then it was off to bed for them.
They slept like logs that night.
For your own Swordfight Night (or Day), you will need:
- Weapons (Tip: Have one fewer weapon than the number of participants for added chaos.)
- Shields (Optional)
- Water (Lots!)
- The Will to Fight(!)
Footnotes:
- Apparently, unstructured play is play that has no set rules or goals, leaving children free to make their own, and has plenty of benefits for children.
From PlaygroundCentre.com: “Unstructured play builds important qualities such as imagination, creativity, and empathy. Free play lets children enjoy a sense of freedom and control, allowing them to make mistakes in a pressure-free environment. This category of play can help a shy child learn how to express themselves more clearly, help them learn how to think on their feet, and approach problem-solving from an ‘outside-the-box’ perspective.”
Guess I need more unstructured play! ↩︎
