The trouble with junior players, on occasion, is their determination to play games on the floor as much as possible.
This is fun for a while, but when the grownup’s knees give in, or you just fancy a comfy seat, settle for games on a tray. I can manage to play games for longer if we can both sit on the sofa, with a tray between us.
The other plus point with this approach is that you don’t then need to clear the table before having a meal, which can sometimes be as tiring as prolonged game playing at floor level.
(I know whereof I speak.)
Games on a tray can be as quick, or as drawn out, as you like. Ideal for wet weather, post lunch slump, or indeed any time when you don’t really know what to do next.
Choose your tray
Your choice of tray will affect what you can play. Â We have a couple of options: a circular tray with a small lip, and a large rectangular tray with high sides.
The rectangular tray tends to get taken out the most for games on the sofa (and it works for jigsaws too, up to a certain size). Â High sides make it easier for bashing games (more below).
What the tray is made out of also makes a difference. Â My parents have a large metal tray which suits larger jigsaws – but is also excellent for sliding large quantities of marbles around on.
(Junior player loves this, but occasionally has to be halted when the ensuing swell of sound gets too loud for grownups to talk over.)
Circular tray
If you have small toy cars, this kind of tray is great for zooming cars round. Â Anything that suits rolling round – marbles again, counters, and so on.
Junior players may like to pick up the tray and swirl it themselves, a bit like the motions for panning for gold.
This technique does tend to lead to whatever it is shooting off at right angles, after a while, but as long as you can Maintain Sitting On The Sofa, and get them to pick the item(s) up, this is OK.
Rectangular tray
This is best for games where you need two ends. Â Think football with pingpong balls, coins which you push – anything where you try to get your item up to the opponent’s end and score.
Our tray has a handle at each end, which means you can on occasion pick it up, and tip it to keep your item moving back towards your opponent’s end of the tray.
Beware the point when the tray rises up too much or where you end up having the same kind of contest, but standing up. (This defeats the point of tray games, which is of course to sit on the sofa.)
When you’ve had enough of that, try pretending that you’re playing space invaders. Â One person keeps moving their counter back and forward, making space invader noises – the other tries to get a ball past the ‘invader’ and into the opponent’s goal.
You can also have fun blowing counters with straws, or blowing little cardboard boats with straws.
Items on trays
Most things will work – but beware them being too many, or too tiny, or there’ll be too much to pick up. Â Something fairly light like pingpong balls are ideal – little rubber balls can be fun, but can also hit harder at speed.
You can use items from other games, like counters – or see what is sitting out, like small coins, Lego minifigs, and so on.
My junior player loves inventing games – and equally loves games that involve movement – so games on a tray works well.
As the grownup, if you can manage (and control) the potential for small items to be launched off the tray – and remain sitting down for as long as possible – bonus points to you!