Stuck inside because of bad weather? This fast-paced, easy card game for all ages is a great cure for the boredom blues. You will need a deck of cards and a pile of spoons (one fewer than the number of players).
1. Place the spoons in the center of the table. You want one fewer spoons than number of players, so if you have five players, use four spoons.
2. The dealer gives each person four cards. The dealer then picks a card from the deck and discards one card from her hand. She discards by placing the card face down and sliding it over to the player on her left. That player picks up the card, then discards one card the same way the dealer did it, by sliding it face down to the person on his left. The last person before the dealer makes a pile of the discards to use when the original deck is used up. The dealer always picks a card from the deck.
3. The object is to collect four cards all of the same number or royalty (four kings, four threes etc…). When a player gets a hand with four of all the same cards, he grabs a spoon from the pile. Then all the other players grab a spoon.
4. One person will not get a spoon. That person gets a letter “S.” Each time a player loses, he gets a letter in order of the word SPOONS. When a player has spelled the whole word, he or she is out. The last player left is the winner.
It sounds pretty straightforward, but there is strategy involved. The player who gets four of a kind can quickly grab a spoon, or be sneaky about it so the others don’t notice so easily. Hint: Put a tablecloth on the table to protect the tabletop from overexcited players and flying spoons.