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Web Wipeout
For ages 4-15
It starts with a ball of string or twine. Any color will do.
Then pick a room. Let’s say you pick a den or family room. Make sure the kids don’t see you preparing this game.
Next make a big colorful sign or card that says You Won! Size doesn’t matter but the sign must be colorful and festive looking. You can use an 8.5” x 11” paper, fold it several times until it’s about a quarter of its size or simply roll it up like a scroll.
Tie or attach the “You Won!” sign to the string that’s poking out at the beginning of the roll. Place the sign and attached string in a place in the den that is hidden. Let’s just choose underneath the couch near the back left leg. Wrap the string a few times around that leg of the couch and tuck the sign underneath so that it’s hidden from view.
Now, using the rest of the ball of string, it’s time to build a spider web wrapping around the contents in the entire room. Start building a web! (Those of you who have past experience wrapping or teepeeing houses will have an advantage. For me, I spent nearly every month during my teenage years outside having to unwrap the trees in our yard. Being popular was not all it’s cut out to be.)
As you unroll the string, climb around the room and wrap everything that won’t be harmed from a tug of a string. Around the hearth, under the corner of the rug, over the recliner chair, under the footstool, around the entire coffee table, up to the handle on the windows, over to the corner of that light switch on the wall, back over to the couch, behind the pillows, up to the corner of the picture on the wall. Express yourself with string design! To get inspired, picture in your mind a spider web and the intricacies of the designs.
Go as high as you can but remember that kids will be coming along behind you undoing your web design. Don’t lead them over or under something that might get harmed - like the Limoges box in your safekeeping from Grandma.
When you reach the end of the ball, attach the last piece of string to an empty toilet paper roll. You can use glue or simply tape the string and cardboard roll together.
Build enough “webs” to accommodate each kid you want to entertain but start and end each web design in different places.
Get the video camera ready and stand by for some fun!
Invite the kids into the web room (formerly called the den) and tell them to Wipeout their Web string until they find the prize at the end. As they follow their web string, they should wrap it around the cardboard toilet paper roll.
We’ve played this with kids anywhere from ages 4 through the teen years. They love this!
Variations:
1. Use different colored string/twine for each kid.
2. Include a special prize (toy, book, picture, bubbles, love notes) at the end instead of a You Won! sign.
3. Attach small prizes along the way (takes a lot more planning) so they can collect goodies as they undo their web.
4. After the kids have de-webbed the room, they may wish to create their own webs for each other.
5. If you only have one kid and she/he loves to play, you might set a timer to see if they can find the prize faster each time you re-web. Or provide a different experience at the end.
6. We usually ask the kids to take off their shoes before they begin. Just because.
7. Sometimes our kids have asked us to make the game more challenging. We stepped up to the challenge by doubling the amount of string we used and included more rooms.
8. Take the kids on a field trip to study different spider webs to get inspiration about some of the web designs you can create with this game.
9. Yes, you can play this outdoors but we played this when the kids were bored or stuck indoors for some reason.
10. Older kids need more challenge. We make sure the different string lines cross over each other often making things a big confusing mess for them to get to untangle. Pandemonium can be good.
GAMES for Grandmas, Kids and CEOs