Games are played in four quarters of 10 (FIBA) or 12 minutes (NBA). College men's games use two 20-minute halves, college women's games use 10-minute quarters, and most United States high school varsity games use 8-minute quarters; however, this varies from state to state.
Thursday, 16 December 2021
Duration of Basketball Game

Wednesday, 8 December 2021
Outdoor Games to Teach Your Kids This Fall and Winter

1. HORSE
How to Play It: The first person does anything they want, from spinning around to closing their eyes, before shooting a basketball into the hoop. If they miss, it’s the next person’s turn to make up a crazy shot. If he or she is successful, everyone else has to replicate the shot. Fail and you earn a letter, beginning with H and progressing to HORSE.
What Makes it Great: It’s horse! It takes a classic activity like shooting hoops or playing catch and leaves tons of room for creativity, which might be why you’ll see pros playing it whenever human-interest stories are produced. It can be played with virtually any number of players and can be adjusted for myriad age groups based on the height of the hoop.
2. Marco Polo
How to Play It: Everyone in the pool! One person closes his or her eyes and counts to 10. That person then says, “Marco.” Everyone then yells “Polo!” The Marco child pursues the fleeing Polos with his or her eyes closed periodically calling out, with the other participants responding. Whomever he or she catches becomes the next Marco, and the game starts anew. No getting out of the pool, you dirty cheaters.
What Makes It Great: Exceedingly simple to organize — and, as it’s all about stealth, kids tend to stay pretty quiet.
3. Johnny on the Pony
How to Play It: One team crouches in a line, with their arms locked around each other’s waists. Essentially forming a wall. The other team jumps on top of the line with the intent of staying on. If everyone makes it to the top, they win if they can shout “Johnny on a pony!” three times before the bottom team can shake them off.
What Makes It Great: This game is pure madness in the best way possible. Also, good practice for future rugby players.
4. Freeze Tag
How to Play It: For children already familiar with tag, this variant involves freezing if the “it” person tags you. The only way to thaw? A non-“it” player must tag you, to his or her peril. If everyone becomes frozen, the “it” person wins.
What Makes It Great: It’s tag, but with teamwork and social skills baked in.
5. Steal the Bacon
How to Play It: Teams are divided evenly and each person is designated a number. Each team stands on opposite sides with a shoe sitting in the middle (doesn’t have to be a shoe, just something easy to hold). When a number is called, the designated players from each team run for the coveted item and try to get it back to their side. If you succeed, you get a point.
What Makes It Great: Direct competition; plus, the designated caller can set up quality rivalries.
How to Play It: Two participants put their elbows on a steady surface and grip each other’s hands. Whoever can get the other person’s hand to touch the surface wins. No use of second hand and no lifting elbow off the surface.
What Makes It Great: The ultimate one-on-one battle of strength and endurance. There’s no way to gracefully lose an arm wrestling match. You can also tie in that Sylvester Stallone movie.
7. Kick the Can
How to Play It: One person is charged with protecting a can (or whatever) while other participants attempt to run up and knock it over. The catch? The kickers hide and join the protectors’ team if tagged. The rules can lead to an impasse, but when they don’t it’s a blast.
What Makes It Great: You get to briefly live the life of a hobo during the great depression.
Highly Enjoyable Indoor Games for Children

1. Balancing Beam
This is an easy activity and can be great for younger kids and toddlers and helps them improve motor skills and their balance.
What You Will Need
- Colored tape
- Flat floor space to play
How to Play
- Stick different colored tapes on the floor
- Each colored tape can have a different rule to walk on. For example, you can ask the kid to walk on one leg on the red colored tape
- The child has to walk only on the tape. If he falls off the tape, he’ll be out of the game.
- The child that walks the entire length of the tape without falling off the tape wins the game
Suggestion
Make the game interesting by changing the rules
2. Pitching Pennies
This game will help in building your child’s hand-eye coordination.
What You Will Need
- Pennies or currency coins
- Large sized paper or plastic drinking cups
How to Play
- Place the cup on a chair on the table in front of the children
- Give each child 5 coins each
- You can ask the child to take a few steps away from the cup in accordance with his age
- Explain to your child that he has to toss the coins, one at a time, into the cup
- The person with the most coins in the cup wins
Suggestion
You can use marbles or ping pong balls in place of pennies to play this game
3. Indoor Bowling
Create a simple bowling alley in your house and have fun. This game is also ideal for hand-eye coordination in children.
What You Will Need
- Flat floor space to play
- Ten empty bottles or soda cans
- Plastic ball or a tennis ball
- Tape
- Marker
- Spray paint (non-toxic)
How to Play
- Using the tape, create a bowling lane
- Peel off the wrappers of the cans and the bottles and spray paint them. Allow them to dry
- Arrange the bottles at the end of the lane. You may arrange it like bowling pins or stack them on top of each other to form a pyramid
- Ask the child to strike this arrangement using the ball
4. In and Out Hangman
This game can be engaging for young kids and may even be a fun way to learn.
What You Will Need
- White or blackboard
- Marker or chalk
- Set of questions and answers or words and hints
How to Play
- Ask your child a question and on the board draw tiny blanks to correlate with the number of letters in the answer. Allow enough space between two words to make it easier for the child to guess the answer
- Instruct your child to guess one letter in the answer and one letter that isn’t in it alternatively.
- Your child is allowed seven wrong guesses, which is the number of steps it takes to complete a hangman figure
Suggestion
You can make the game exciting for your child by asking about his favourite toys, movies, etc.
5. Pictionary
Pictionary is a fun game that requires one player to draw an image indicating the word, where the other player has to guess it correctly.
What You Will Need
- Paper or board
- Pencil or marker
How to Play
- Write down different words on pieces of paper and drop them in the bowl
- Ask your child to pick up the pieces and draw it on the board without telling you what it is. Alternately, you can draw, and he can guess
Suggestion
You can make this game more fun by having groups and competing against each other
Monday, 6 December 2021
6 surprising benefits of video games for kids


Here are six surprising benefits of playing video games.
1. Reading
Studies show that kids who play video games may get a small boost to their reading skills. This is true even for kids who struggle with reading, and even when playing action games.
Researchers think that this may happen because kids need to figure out text instructions to play. There’s also a fun factor. Kids who are reluctant to open a traditional book may rush to read a website or internet forum to get the latest on their favorite game.
That doesn’t mean video games should replace books, though.
2. Visual-spatial skills
Many games — like Minecraft — are set in 3D virtual worlds that kids have to navigate. And there’s no GPS or smartphone map app to lead the way.
The result is that kids who play these games have the chance to practice their visual-spatial skills . This can lead to a better understanding of distance and space.
3. Problem-solving
At the heart of every video game is a challenge. Some games can be mindless, like Space Invaders. But many others — from puzzles and mysteries, to managing virtual cities or empires — offer kids the chance to take on a problem and work to find a solution.
Some researchers say kids who play these video games improve in three areas: planning, organization, and flexible thinking. But don’t get too excited about this. It’s not clear that these gaming problem-solving skills carry over into daily life. And there’s no evidence that so-called “train the brain” games can improve real-world skills.
4. Social connections
Some kids have trouble fitting in and making friends in real life. Video games can be a refuge for them to find people to connect with positively. In our busy lives, games offer virtual playdates with real-life friends.
Video games also give kids something to talk about at school. These days, games are a mainstream topic of conversation for kids, just like sports and music. An interest in gaming can help kids who have trouble coming up with topics to discuss.
On the flip side, kids who struggle socially in real life may also have trouble online. Learn how this can play out in multiplayer online video games .
5. Imaginative play and creativity
When kids are young, there’s a lot of space for imaginative play, from LEGOs to dolls to make-believe. But for tweens and teens, society sometimes frowns on that play. Video games give kids a chance to continue imaginative play.
There’s also some evidence that games encourage creative thinking. In one study, 12-year-old gamers were asked to draw, tell stories, ask questions, and make predictions. All the kids showed high levels of creativity and curiosity.
6. Video gaming careers
The 16-year-old winner of the first Fortnite World Cup won $3 million. The other 99 solo finalists won anywhere from $50,000 to $1.8 million each.
Just as with professional sports, the chances of becoming a professional video gamer are very small. However, the video gaming industry is growing by leaps and bounds, much faster than traditional sports and entertainment.
There are lots of careers in this growing industry — careers like coding, marketing, or running events.
Sunday, 5 December 2021
10 Indoor games to play with your kids

Kids are notorious for doing all they can to avoid staying indoors. But going out to play is not always possible, especially when it’s raining, or dark outside. In situations like these, it’s time to bring out those indoor games.
Forget Ludo or Snakes and Ladders; here are ten exciting indoor games that will keep your (and your neighbors’) kids occupied:
1. I spy:
This is an excellent game for younger kids as it helps them learn letters of the alphabet, form words, and understand things around them. Pick objects that are in clear view of the kid. This game is both fun and educational.
2. Hide-and-seek:
For those with large homes, hide-and-seek can be plenty of fun. Kids love ‘peek-a-boo’ and the game can prove quite exciting for them. And the next time you want to feed your kid vegetables, you’ll know exactly where they’re hiding.
3. Simon says:
Simon Says is a great game that tests alertness and quick responses. Whoever decides to be Simon must give the others commands starting with ‘Simon says…’. Anybody who fails to follow instructions or gets misled into following commands that don’t start with ‘Simon says’ is out.
4. Musical chairs:
The quintessential party game also doubles as a lively indoor game and is best enjoyed when in the company of other people.
5. Scavenger hunt:
While scavenger hunts are typically conducted with hidden clues scattered over a large area that’s also replete with good hiding places, they are equally delightful indoors. Devise simple and fun clues with a creative ‘treasure’ at the end.
6. Charades:
Charades is a long-standing indoor game that’s enjoyed by children and adults alike. Use only actions to convey the name of a book or a movie to your team within a time limit while the other teams struggle to control their laughter.
7. Scrabble/Boggle:
Scrabble and Boggle are fun word-building games, where you score points based on your word or number of words you can find. They help improve your child’s vocabulary, and the competition is enough to keep them interested while learning new words alongside.
8. Pictionary:
Try and get your teammates to guess a word by drawing it on the board. The faster they get it, the more points you score. The team with the most points at the end wins. More often than not, it’s terrible drawing skills that make the game more enjoyable.
9. 20 questions:
Think of a famous person/book/movie (as decided); your opponent has to guess the name by asking you 20 questions. The questions have to be answered with either a yes or a no; you cannot ask for direct information about the answer.
10. Uno:
A family favorite, Uno is fun and requires you to be alert. It’s great for those rainy evenings.
Saturday, 4 December 2021
Benefits of Indoor Games for Kids

Kids running around the local streets playing hide-and-seek, hop-scotch, and cricket, etc. is something we don’t see quite often in today’s environment, because of busy lifestyles as well as lack of open play areas. For kids, it is crucial to play freely to relax and have some fun; instead, a majority of kids today tend to spend most of their time at home just watching television or playing video games. Indoor play areas and indoor games have proven to be a great outlet for kids. This is because they can be active, have fun, and most importantly perhaps play in a clean, safe, and colorful environment. Most well-designed and modern indoor play areas feature slides, tunnels, ball pools, bridges, adventure zones, trampolines, and other equipment which can keep your kids engaged for several hours. Here are some great benefits of indoor games for your kids.