Times have changed some. Gone are the days of a family gathering around the table, playing some easy card games, and bonding over a shared competition and experience with each other. Instead today we all have our own computers, own televisions, own wireless internet devices, own rooms, own reading lamps, own couches, own DVD players and DVRs, own shows, own interests, and for a lot of families, own dinners.
Many, many people rue the day that is here. The common values we were all brought up with have been replaced by technology and as a result we have grown distant from each other in mind, body and spirit. If any of this sounds like your family, then the time to act is now. You have to save your kids from total immersion into modern technology and get them to experience the joy of common human interaction. And there's no easier way to do this than by getting the family together one night a week for some easy card games.
You might want to start with some "ice breaker" games for your young kids. These are the simplest of easy card games - ones that they can master and win at in the space of minutes, and ones that will make them more interested and eager to sit down with the family to enjoy the experience that you're trying to create and share.
War is the first that comes to mind when you hear easy card games. It's a two player game, and it's very simple. Just take a regular 52 card deck, shuffle it thoroughly, and count out twenty six cards for each player. Keep the cards face down on the table.
Each player then turns a card, and whoever has the higher card wins and collects both. This continues until the players turn a card of the same value. At this point, those two cards are put in the pot in the middle, along with three other cards from each deck. Finally, each player then turns a card and whoever has the highest wins all ten cards.
If those two cards are also even, they go in the center as well and the process repeats itself.
This keeps going until one player has collected all fifty two cards. As you can see, any child who is old enough to have mastered his or her numbers can play this game and succeed at it if given leave to do so.