Do we really need to present "Happy Families"? For those who would never have played it, neither during their childhood (where were you?), nor with their children … here is a short summary:
Usually composed of 42 cards, the game of families, in its classic version, is made up of 7 families of 6 cards:
The goal of the game is simple: at the end of the game, be the player who has gathered the most complete families.
Easy to learn and understand, it can be played with 2 to 6 players for games lasting around 15 minutes. It is therefore ideal for occupying the children between them, and quickly connecting the parties.
To begin with, carefully shuffle the deck, then deal 7 cards to each player. The rest of the cards are placed in the center of the playing area and constitute the draw pile.
The youngest player starts. He can ask the opponent of his choice for a character from a family for which he already has a card in his hand. He will thus specify:
"In the PIRATE family, I would like the sister!".
If the opponent questioned has this card, he must give it right away. The player can now replay. If he does not have it, the player draws a card. Two possible cases:
When one succeeds in constituting in his hand a complete family, one announces "family", and puts the 6 cards in front of him in the sight of all.
The game ends when the draw pile is exhausted. The player who has the most families wins!
Please note: it is quite possible to ask to recover a card that has just been taken from you, provided that you still have cards in your hands from the same family.
We have prepared a free printable happy families game for you on the theme of our Chrono Squad heroes. It will be perfect as a first family game since there are fewer cards (32) than the original game, and it does not require knowing how to read.
To build his families, and if he does not yet know LiLy and her ChronoSquad, your child can simply ask for the robot in the color of his choice (yellow, purple or blue) or the "little girl with orange hair" in the corresponding place (sea, mountain, city, space …). It's an excellent way to discover colors and landscapes.
Print sheets 1 to 4. You can choose:
Cut out the cards following the lines provided for this purpose. If you don't have a paper cutter, your best bet is to use a box cutter and a ruler on a cutting board to make sure you create a uniform deck of cards.
In order to protect your cards, and that they are sufficiently slippery, we use plastic sleeves specially designed for this purpose. Here is the format perfectly suited to our cards:
