10 Superior Games Devised By Children

Let's face it, us adults aren't as happening as we used to be. We've replaced juice boxes with wine. Finger painting with tax receipts. But worst of all, we've sacrificed our humour for the mundane banality of grown up world. So put on your nostalgia wide-brimmed hat (after all, no hat no play no fun today), and let's go back to the playground where all the fun began.

1. 1. Big Red Burns

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Big Red is a cinnamon flavoured chewing gum. Discard the gum and keep the wrapper. Lick the wrapper, stick it on your forehead and wait for the excruciating burns. Simple game, whoever can endure the pain for the longest without ripping it off is the winner. Kids wore their red forehead as a badge of honour.

2. 2. The Ground is Lava

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The name literally says it all. The ground is lava, lava will kill you, do whatever you can do avoid the lava whilst being chased. Not even Dante himself could conceive of a more hellish scenario.

3. Kiss Chasey

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If you were deemed 'it', your job was to chase your poor defenceless crush all over the playground, until they, breathless, lifeless and desperate, succumb to your kiss. You eventually noticed that only the good looking kids became 'it', and you were wondering when it'd be your turn.

4. 4. Lunch Swap

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The kids who now have made their fortunes in the global stock exchange were once dominating the lunch swap ritual. Will little Hannah trade her two packets of teddy bears for one Le Snack? What if I were to throw in half a rollup, would that close the deal?

5. 5. 7 Minutes in Heaven

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Always suggested by a more 'experienced' and liberated friend, seven minutes in heaven involves being sent to the closet with a randomly selected person (usually from the opposite sex) and having 7 minutes to explore your sexuality in a claustrophobia-inducing trap of awkwardness. Usually you just laughed about the situation and made a pact to tell people that you were getting your rocks off (before you even knew what that was).

6. 6. Sardines

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One person hides, everybody else tries to find them, as soon as you've spotted them you need to be quiet and hide with them, in their spot. If you play with over ten people you're guaranteed to be called a moron if you fail to spot ten people huddled on the floor together in the playground.

7. 7. Four Square

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A game that grew more and more complicated as you got older. There were rules, there was structure and it was a game based on hierarchy and rank, your goal was to preserve the highest rank. Should have been called 'society', but instead everybody just called it Four Square.

8. 8. Synchronised Hand Clapping

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Rude ones, funny ones and ones you didn't quite understand. You clapped, you chanted and for some reason you got a real kick out of it. Mostly because it took you so long to remember Miss Mary Mac.

9. 9. Dolls: like sands through an hourglass

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Barbie won the Barbie Dream House and Barbie Convertible in the divorce settlement. Barbie, now on the singles market is dating Action Man. Whats this, Ken and G.I Joe seem to be getting a little bit friendly! You could create more drama, twists and turns in one play date, than Bold and the Beautiful could in 10 years.

10. 10. The curse of the Jinx

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You're kids so your vocabulary is fairly limited. It's no surprise that you say a word at exactly the same time, the first person to call jinx has forced you into silence until such time as a kind and benevolent friend says your name seven times in a row to release the curse. If only you had such a friend.