This fun game comes from a 1922 children’s book. The name of the game in the original book is “Pig”. You might want to make up your own name for the game that sounds a little nicer!

“Pig” is a very noisy game. It is played with ordinary, cards, unless you would like to make a “pig” set, which would be very easy.

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From “What Shall We Do Now?”
Copyright 1907, 1922

Distribute a box of letters among the players, dealing them face downward.

In turn, each player takes up a letter at random and puts it face upward in the middle of the table.

The object of the game is to make words out of these letters.

When a player sees a word he calls it out, and taking the letters, places them in front of him, where they remain until the end of the game.

At the end of the game, each player counts his words, and the owner of the greatest number is the winner.

If, however, a word has been chosen which, by the addition of another letter or so from the middle of the table, can be transformed inot a longer word, the player who thinks of this longer word takes the shorter word from the other player and places it before himself.

Thus, Player 1 might see the word “seat” among the letters, and calling it out, places it before him. But if Player 2 notices another “t”, and calls out “state”, he adds it to Player 1’s word and takes that word as his own. Now if Player 1 sees an “e” in the middle of the table, he could call out the word “estate”, and now the word is his again.

These losses and re-conquests are the fun of the game. An “s” at the end of the word, forming a plural, is not allowed.

Here are some homemade learning games to make and play with your children.  They include math, spelling, and 13 colonies social studies game. Read more »

Here are some children’s party games that are a lot of fun. They are from “What Shall We Do Now?” published in 1922. Read more »

Here are five vintage Christmas games for children.  They include Santa Claus Hunt, Christmas Tree Game, Trimming the Tree Game, Christmas Secret, and Stocking Hunt. Read more »

What Shall We Do Now?
1907, 1922

Many games of “Patience” can be played as well with numbered cards as with ordinary playing cards.  It does not matter much what size they are, but for convenience, in playing on a small table, they may as well be about an inch wide and two inches long, with the number at the top. Read more »