Sometimes you just have to break the rules

We are a game-playing family. Card games, board games, video games, role-playing, billiards, ping pong, corn hole….. I think you get the idea. This love of games spilled over into my math classroom. Whenever I could, I’d find or create a game to support the current standard we were learning. One thing all these games have in common is rules. Rules are a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct within a particular activity or sphere.

Before playing a game for the first time, and maybe for the first few times, it is a good idea to **read and follow the rules**. In our family, my daughter is the rule reader. In most cases, the creator of the game has put a lot of thought into the rules. They have been tried and tested and support the objective of the games.

Many times after playing a new game there is something about the game that you don’t like or doesn’t fit with your family’s play style. Occasionally, you may come across a situation that the rules don’t cover. In these cases, it might be a good idea to create and agree to house rules.

**House rules** are unofficial modifications to official game rules adopted by individual groups of players. House rules may include the removal or alteration of existing rules or the addition of new rules.

Some examples of house rules my family has adopted:

In the game Karma by Set, the rules state that play continues until there is only one person left with cards. If you are one of the first players to run out of cards, you just sit there, and maybe a punishment card will come up where someone will give you another hand to keep playing. In this original version, there’s not a winner so much as there is a loser (the last player with cards). For my family, this takes some time and isn’t very engaging, so our new rule is that once somebody is out of cards, the game is over.
In Parks by Keymaster, we replace park and canteen cards if they have been available for an entire round and no player objects.
We have found that many games like Mexican Train and Scat have rule variations depending on the region you live in or previously created house rules.

Here's a list of more family favorite games.

You now have permission to break (or at least change) some rules when playing games.

I highly recommend **asking your kids** after playing a game, “What rules would you like to change or add? Why?” The why is important and opens up many avenues for discussion. These discussions improve communication skills and logical reasoning.

Another fun spin on breaking the rules is starting from scratch and creating your own game. Encourage your children or students to take an existing deck of cards, board games, or dice and create an entirely new game with its own set of rules. You could even give them starting parameters, especially if it is part of a specific lesson.