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Old-Fashioned Children's Button Games

With so many electronic games on the market, it can be difficult to pull children away from the television screen or computer monitor. If you are looking for a way to entertain children that gets them away from the monitor and gives their eyes a break, try an old-fashioned button game. These games are definitely different from what they are used to. Games like these kept their great-grandparents busy for hours.

Who's Got the Button?
- For the simple game Who's Got the Button?, all you need is one button. Children sit in a circle with their hands clasped tightly together, except for one child who is holding the button. The button-holder starts inside the circle and walks around to each of the other players, clasping each one's hand for a few seconds. As he walks around, he should discreetly leave the button in one player's hands, then continue around the rest of the circle as usual. When he has completed his route, he chants, "Button, button, who's got the button?" and calls on one of the other players to guess. If she guesses correctly, she gets the button and gets to be the new player in the middle. If she guesses incorrectly, the player she named gets a turn to guess. This continues either until someone guesses correctly or only one person is left. If no one guesses correctly by the time only one person is left, the one who successfully passed the button gets to be in the middle again. This game works best for children ages 4 to 10.
Hide the Button
- A version of the well-known game Hot and Cold, Hide the Button is difficult to play because of the small size of a button. You can play Hide the Button in two ways. The first way is to choose one person to hide the button, while the other players leave the room. After the button is hidden, the hider calls to the rest to come back in and everyone races to find it. All of the "seekers" get three chances to ask the hider whether they are hot or cold. Hot means they are close and cold means that they are far away. Whoever finds the button first gets to hide it next.
  
  In the second version, only one person goes out of the room and the rest hide the button together. When this person comes back in, all of the others together answer "hot" or "cold" as the seeker looks. When he finds it, he gets to choose the next person to go out.
  
  This game is good for children of all ages because it can be easily adapted to be harder or easier. For younger children, the button should be somewhere relatively easy to find.
Button Necklaces
- Button necklaces are more appropriate for girls than for boys, although very young boys might enjoy the activity of stringing buttons. For button necklaces, you will need a wide variety of buttons in different colors, shapes and sizes, as well as string. Cut a length of string for each child that is approximately twice as long as the circumference of her neck. Tie a big knot about two inches from the end so the buttons will stay on. Put out the assortment of buttons and allow each child to create her own unique necklace. When the string is full of buttons so that only about an inch of space remains, tie another knot to close it and then join the ends together in a knot.
  
  Note: If the necklace is too heavy, you can take off some of the buttons so that only about half the string is full.

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