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July 26, 2013

Family Card Games: How to Play Spoons

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Do you know how to play Spoons?  It’s so much fun! 

I remember playing with my family during the summer when I was younger so it was one of the games I was excited about introducing our children to this summer as part of our “Old School” Bucket List!  

It’s a fun family card game that is probably best for ages 5 and up, but our 3 1/2 year old was able to play with us as long as we slowed the pace down.

How to play Spoons!  A fun card game for families!

How to Play Spoons:

1.  Gather a deck of cards and a bunch of spoons.  You’ll need one less spoon than the number of players.

2.  Take a complete set (all 4) of the same rank of cards for each of the players.  For example, for the 5 of us we use all of the 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s.

3.  Have all the players sit in a circle with the spoons in the middle.

4.  Shuffle and deal 4 cards to each player.  The players can look at their cards, but not show anyone else.

5.  During the game each player passes one card to the player to their left, so cards are constantly being passed in a circle at the same time.  You can only ever see 4 cards at once so you have to make sure you pass your card before picking up the next one.

6.  The goal of the game is to collect 4 of a kind.

7.  Once you have 4 of a kind you can grab a spoon from the pile.  Once one spoon is taken everyone else takes one too.

8.  Whoever doesn’t get a spoon is out and the play continues with one less spoon until there is one winner.

How to play Spoons!  A fun family card game!

Playing groups games like card games has so many benefits for kids.  It’s a time to have fun and bond as family and a great way to learn life lessons such as sharing and being a good winner and loser.  Card games also help kids practice math skills and are a fun way to sneak in a little learning!

Catch up on the rest of our “Old School” Summer Bucket List activities!  I’ve been adding the links to all the ones we’ve done to the bucket list, but some of the most popular have been How to Make Ice Cream in a Bag, Tin Can Lanterns, and Pool Party Games: Marco Polo.

About Megan Sheakoski

Megan is the creator of Coffee Cups and Crayons, a blog full of simple fun and learning. She believes that kids’ activities don’t have to be complicated to be fun and that learning is better with play.

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Comments

  1. Erica @What Do We Do All Day? says

    July 27, 2013 at 8:41 am

    Megan, Your daughter looks exactly like you!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      July 28, 2013 at 3:15 pm

      Everyone always says that! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Jacquie@KCEdventures says

    July 27, 2013 at 12:13 pm

    We use to play spoons in college and taught our kids (and parents) a few years ago – so much fun to see people flying at the spoons!!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      July 28, 2013 at 3:16 pm

      I know! It really is such a fun game! We hadn’t played it in years until this summer!

      Reply
  3. Kristie says

    July 31, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    I played his as a kid and it was so much fun! Thanks for he reminder. I can’t wait to teach my boys!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      August 1, 2013 at 11:09 am

      I hope they love it too!

      Reply
  4. Rebecca says

    April 24, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    Love, love, love spoons. We played a variation using the entire deck of cards and awarding a point if you didnt get a spoon. Low score for the night won, and no one had to sit out watching the rest play.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      April 24, 2014 at 9:17 pm

      SO SMART!!! Love that idea Rebecca!

      Reply
      • alexia says

        April 30, 2018 at 11:28 am

        hi my name is alexia i love the walking water experiment

        Reply
  5. Pam T says

    July 16, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    I just taught the kids at church this game, my son isn’t old enough yet. I love this game and played it all the time in youth group and have the scars to prove it 😉 We also played mafia, that will come much later.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      July 17, 2014 at 1:33 pm

      LOL! It really can get competitive!

      Reply
      • Lori Duane says

        September 3, 2014 at 4:24 pm

        We played where everyone played – instead of taking a spoon out that person got an “S” and play continued until someone got all the letters in the word S-P-O-O-N-S- First one to spell out Spoons loses.

        Reply
        • Megan Sheakoski says

          September 4, 2014 at 1:44 pm

          I love that idea Lori!!!! Thanks for sharing!

          Reply
  6. alexia says

    April 30, 2018 at 11:31 am

    hi
    what
    is
    spoons
    ?

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      May 1, 2018 at 9:49 am

      A fun game to play with family or friends! Try it!

      Reply
  7. Lizzie says

    March 23, 2020 at 2:28 pm

    Looks like fun! Can’t wait to play!!

    Reply
  8. Maria_123 says

    April 3, 2020 at 9:55 am

    what type of cards do you need

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      April 6, 2020 at 8:19 am

      A deck of regular playing cards is all you need!

      Reply

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