Game nights and sleepovers go together like Scooby-Doo and Shaggy⎯plenty of laughs, mountains of snacks, and a treasury of life lessons buried somewhere in the Mystery Van!

If your kids are anything like ours, they’re busy. And I mean, B~U~S~Y. Softball, soccer, dance, school concerts, church events, and dinners in the drive-thru. Phew! Believe it or not, today’s families spend more time together than ever before, but research shows that they also feel more disconnected, overwhelmed, and isolated than ever before (Beaner, 2025). 

Ever watched a family dining at a restaurant? Every phone out, every head down. Even the littles are watching something on a screen. It’s the modern phenomenon of continual partial attention⎯Everyone’s together, but nobody’s fully present.   

And our family is no exception. In fact, even Grandpa and I find ourselves looking at our phones while waiting for food. Oy. So, what’s a grandma to do? Game nights and sleepovers! The greatest gift we can give to our grandkids is the gift of time⎯device-free, wholly-engaged, eye-to-eye time. Games are a perfect platform for spending that kind of time together. And even if there is an ocean between you, there are ways to get eye-to-eye with a game. (stay tuned!) 

Not only are games fun, but they also teach our grandkids valuable life lessons. Here are just a few treasures that can be instilled as we play.

Emotional Treasure

  • Connection: Playing games brings laughter and creates memories, and that kind of authentic connection is good for our souls. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine.” (CSB)
  • Confidence: Learning new games, and the skills needed to win them, grows resilience at any age. Psalm 27:3 is a giggly way to share this truth:  “Though an army deploys against me, my heart will not be afraid; though a war breaks out against me, I will still be confident.” (CSB)
  • A break from the busyness: Stepping off life’s treadmill to spend time laughing and playing reduces stress. Even Jesus withdrew from the demands of ministry to fellowship with his disciples. In Mark 6:31 Jesus says, “Come with me. We will go to a quiet place to be alone. There we will get some rest.” (CSB) Our game nights are never “a quiet place” but we do experience rest from the rat race. 

Intellectual Treasure

  • Problem-solving: Games require grandkids to think logically, make plans, and follow directions. These are vital skills for a productive life. Luke 14:28 says, “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” (CSB)
  • Academic practice: Playing games provides authentic practice with things like counting, reading, adding, speaking, and listening⎯causing our grandkids to gain knowledge organically. Proverbs 18:15 says, “The mind of a smart person is ready to get knowledge. The wise person listens to learn more.” (ICB)
  • Focused attention: Being eye-to-eye at a table, anticipating, strategizing, and taking turns gives our grandkids a chance to practice focused attention. And if you catch one of them on their phone during the game? Break out your biggest smile and remind them of Proverbs 4:25, “Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.” (CSB)

Social Treasure

  • Practicing patience: Waiting for opponents to make game decisions as they take their turn can be hard (even for Grandpa and Grandma!) but it’s a great exercise in practicing patience and learning to be still for a minute or two. James 5:7-8 says, “…A farmer is patient. He waits for his valuable crop to grow from the earth…You, too, must be patient.” (ICB)
  • Following the rules: Playing games teaches the importance of orderly and fair play, and how to respond when others choose not to follow the rules. 2 Timothy 2:5 says, “If an athlete is running a race, he must obey all the rules in order to win.” (CSB)
  • Being a good loser AND a good winner: The very essence of game-playing is winning and losing. This competitive tension is a natural opportunity for our grandkids to practice good sportsmanship⎯to win graciously and lose without throwing a fit. 1 Corinthians 13:4 says, “…Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud.” (CSB) That pretty much sums it up!

So, there you have it! Game nights are about so much more than fun and they’re even better followed by a sleepover, complete with whip cream waffles⎯of course! 

But what if…?

Before sharing our go-to game, there are a couple of obstacles to address. First, not every grandchild lives a stone’s throw away. Don’t despair! While too much screen time is harmful, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Many apps exist that instantly eliminate miles and allow us to connect. Here are a few of the safest apps for video chatting with even our youngest grandkids:

A second obstacle to whole-family game nights is large gaps in age. Let’s face it, our teens aren’t enticed by a hot game of Go Fish and toddlers never mix well with Monopoly. It is a real scavenger hunt, trying to find games that are fun for all ages, which brings me to our go-to game: TENZI!

TENZI is fun for toddlers, teens, and the nearly prehistoric. It can be played by two people or twenty, and can last five minutes or five hours. Fabulously flexible!

Our Tenzi Adventure

Our TENZI adventure began several Christmases ago, when we gifted each adult child and grandchild a uniquely-colored set of dice, stored in plastic spice jars and labeled with each one’s name. Of course, the dice were delivered with the caveat that they stay at Grandma’s, stored in the (very cute) spice rack on the game room wall. And yes, Grandpa and I have flashy sets of our own.

The object of the game is simple: Be the first player to roll ten of the same, pre-determined number and yell “tenzi!” That’s it. Easy peasy, even for the youngest players. TIP: For younger grandkids, we let them play with the number of dice that matches their age. Five years old, five dice. This helps with little hands and levels the playing field a bit. Our toddlers love rolling-away, just like the big kids!

At our house a game is composed of eleven rounds: ones, twos, and so on⎯up to sixes, then back down to ones. Each round, the person who gets “tenzi” first earns a token. We use poker chips, but tokens can be anything laying around the house⎯coins, cotton balls, or Qtips. At the end of the game, the person with the most tokens gets to trade their dice with any opponent. Warning: This gets pretty dicey, so to speak. Who knew people could grow so attached to camo-colored dice!

Full game directions, with suggested variations are provided below. 

Game night is one of my favorite ways to squash continual partial attention⎯at least for an evening⎯and get the grandkids fully engaged with each other and with us. It is also a favorite way to sneak in some important biblical truths. Give it a try and let us know how it goes! And if you have recommendations for other games that are great for a wide range of ages, we would love to learn about it!

Playing the Game

Game Pieces

  • Uniquely-colored set of 10 dice for each player (see Amazon or almost anywhere that sells toys)
  • Tokens for the winners of each round (poker chips, coins, cotton balls, etc.)

Directions

  • Announce the target number. We start by rolling all ones, then all twos, and so on, until we roll all sixes and then we go backward down to ones again.
  • Each player holds their set of dice.  
  • Someone says “Ready-Set-Go!” and everyone begins rolling (feverishly) at the same time. 
  • Set aside any dice that show the target number. 
  • Quickly pick up the remaining dice and roll again. 
  • Keep rolling until all of your dice show the same, target number. The first person to get all ten yells,  “Tenzi!” and earns a token. (If younger kids use fewer dice, they still yell “Tenzi” when all dice match.)
  • Repeat with the next target number. 

Winning

  • Once all rounds are complete, whoever has collected the most tokens is the WINNER!
  • Their prize? They get to swap dice with any other player!

Variations

  • STACKZI: Instead of setting dice with the target number aside, stack one on top of the other. The first player to get all ten dice stacked and shout, “Stackzi!” is the winner. 
  • SPLITZI: Instead of rolling for a target number, try to get five dice of one number and five dice of another number. The first one to finish and shout, “Splitzi!” is the winner. 
  • STRAIGHTZI: Place your dice in a straight line, in order from 1-5, 5-1. Like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The first one to finish and shout, “Straightzi!” is the winner. 

“Joyful heart is good for the soul”

PROVERBS 17:22

Beaner, L. (2025, September 26). Here’s how phones, busy schedules undercut family connections, new survey reveals. New York Post. Retrieved September 30, 2025, from https://nypost.com/2025/09/26/tech/heres-how-phones-busy-schedules-undercut-family-connections-new-survey-reveals

Tags: ,