With our history of traditional wooden games it’s not much wonder we love them so much.
Chinese checkers is one of the popular traditional wooden games, but my own favourite was Mikado. If you don’t remember what this is, Mikado is one of the traditional wooden games where you put plastic or wooden discs shaped like coins into a wooden frame and then they’re squeezed tight with a spring-loaded pusher. Try to pick out the discs without the spring pushing into action and shooting more of them out and you’ll find this one of the most exciting of the traditional wooden games.
Ludo, snakes and ladders and four in a row are all available as traditional wooden games. One variation on a theme for chess and checkers is to get them as a table with the pieces in the drawer and the board on the surface, making these traditional wooden games that double up as furniture for children. All of these traditional wooden games are good ways to keep children busy and entertained at parties
Traditional wooden games you might not have heard of are nine men’s morris, kalaha and shut the box, and if you get them with instructions you’ll be able to discover them for yourselves. A classic dolls’ house is a favourite among all the traditional wooden games and many toys that are made of plastic now can also be found in this material. Stacking rings make wonderful traditional wooden games for very young children, as do easels to encourage them to draw and paint.
Some of my earliest memories are of playing bagatelle, which I consider one of the best of the traditional wooden games, and sometimes it’s now called pinball. A diabolo is a fantastic choice among traditional wooden games, and if you don’t know what it is it’s the activity with two sticks to hold, joined by string, which you use to spin and throw a wooden skittle into the air to be caught again on the string. This is one of the traditional wooden games which children can practise and use to entertain at school performances.
Sometimes the simplest of the traditional wooden games are best. Pick up sticks are always favourites among the traditional wooden games, and a set of skittles for ten pin bowling will keep children active for hours. As if these aren’t enough you can also find table football and skipping ropes with wooden handles, so there are traditional wooden games for everybody.
